fish wrapper, bird cage liner, or firelighter?

I have been using my two free weekly 'newspapers' as firelighters for more than two years now.

Its great, I always get a good fire started quickly and I hardly ever have to cut much wood down to kindling. A big time saver.

I have not read much more than the odd political cartoon in them simply because they always seem to have 'fluff' content.

Read this

The author and the participants of this site might be interested in this.

Everything old is new again...

I understand that back in the 1950s the Saturday Evening Post fired about a million of its subscribers--those who were too old and too rural to be of interest to advertisers wanting to reach the parents of the baby boomers.

I know...it's not really around any more, is it?

Speaking of the Province, I was writing for it when it switched from broadsheet to tab. And for several years it was a pretty good tab, with some solid reporting and good editorial content (well, I would say that, wouldn't I?).

It was so successful the Sun had to migrate to the morning, and then to headhunt the editors who'd made the Province so good.

At that point the Prov went downhill and the Sun thrashed around for a few years before lapsing into its present coma.

Asper Press ..... like the Titanic

I canceled the Sun, it is just too dreadful, full of Asper crap. Most news was 24 to 48 hours late. Want a good read? Try Seattle's papers, they are certainly superior.

Local news is dead, 'cept for the Tyee; the Republic; the Straight, and the Black Press.

If it is Asper owned, don't buy it!

More than the news is gone

The Canwest chain has so little regard for local news and input that it has begun having Vancouver Sun pages put together in Hamilton, Ontario.

As of today only the editorial pages are affected but soon sports, entertainment and business pages will be produced in eastern Canada and faxed to Vancouver for printing.

The long term goal is unknown even to many senior editors at the Sun - a few have yet to even been told it's happening - but the reporters and deskers affected so far feel the plan is to have a newsroom staff of 4 or 5 reporters to provide some local news content along with a full staff of ad to people to provide as much local advertising content as can be had.

The Edmonton Journal, Calgary Herald, Victoria Times Colonist are also part of this program. All will eventually publish newspapers with indentical content in most editorial sections. The only papers in the chain exempt are The Province, because its tabloid format is unique in the chain, and the National Post, probably because they're going to kill it off as soon as they can.

-30-

Should the print media be rescued?

That was a very interesting discussion re Gov't subsidisation of the press, Glen Murtz, but it seemed to be beyond even passing acknowledgement by the group that commercial interests can create reporting every bit as biased and manipulative as can Gov't influence.

Would I like my gov't to subsidise Canwest? Not for one minute.

However, if re-estsblishing competition in the print media is to be desired, and if the public is really interested in accurate, unbiased reporting, I think that perhaps the idea of Gov't providing a subsidy per subscriber would be worth a try.

Entertaining us or advertising us to death

Neil Postman kind of predicted this. Could it lead to the death of the media itself???

Great article BTW!

Buying

The only thing I miss from no longer reading the Vancouver Sun is that I sometimes miss out on a good sale. Our other local media are little different -- watch Global TV or listen to private "news radio" and one goes from infomercial to commercial and back again in a never ending stream of product promotion. The Tyee is a great site, but there are still far too few places to find that ever elusive "real news"on British Columbia. The CBC makes an effort, but they seem to have to avoid getting too controversial.

Great Analysis

An excellent, thoughtul analysis of the state of Canadian monopoly media. From an experienced veteran of the trenches no less. Although some Canadians are well aware of these issues, it is important that Ms. Rupp and the Tyee keep publishing these accurate summaries of how bad things are. As we live in an age of increasing hypocrisy, the truth will remain elusive unless we tell it like it is. After fighting for 200 years for freedom of speech, it is still a tragedy when CanWest and other media giants walk away from their obligations. Thanks Tyee!!

All about the money

The US appears poised to follow Australia and relax its cross-ownership rules too:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/18/business/media/18broadcast.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Freeing us from the burden

At last we get the lines clear. Those who have completely stopped ever buying homemaking magazines, realizing they were nothing but one long ad, as well as those who have spent years clipping scotch whiskey and car ads out of 'Scientific American' to make the volume and weight manageable, know the game and have known it for a couple of decades at least. It has to do with the the local paper, which was run out of the local office, where advertising simply meant telling people you could provide service, having been turned into the great syndicated money machine, where the warlords don't even make their money on selling newspapers, but on selling shares in Newspapers.

We have the paper, because it provides a handy emergency resource in this God-knows-what-comes-next time. It can help you keep warm, as an extra layer of clothing, you can sleep on it, you can suck up minor flooding with it, you can wrap things in it, you can filter things trough it, you can even use it for personal purposes, where toxicity of the ink is not an issue, inasmuch as a newspaper gets sterilized during processing, so if it has not been opened, you have clean surfaces for an emergency. You can also burn it, if it is dry. And, should you get stuck in a situation, awaiting rescue for days, those famous 72 hours which will of course turn into at least a week, newspapers can keep you from going insane. Not only can you read them, which is not a terribly attractive idea, but you can think up all kinds of simple crafts to do for occupying yourself. Remember paper dolls? hats? boats and airplanes? The possibilities are endless.
I am deeply grateful for my life partner always remembering to point out this list, when I sometimes lose it and suggest we turf the darn thing.

wow

Great article.

Great comments.

My work is done here.

Now all we have to do is convince our neighbors near ... and far.

I have a plan for that too.

ME2 said,

Would I like my gov't to subsidise Canwest? Not for one minute."

I would suggest that the press is supported (subsidized) by the government and the press likewise supports the gov't. Look at all the ads that are run in the media from the gov't such as "BC the best place to live." These are run esp. when the gov't is caught doing something bad such as Senior care facilities. Notice the lack of editorials about such actions. Also notice the lack of reporting about the debate and Question Period in the legislature. The BC Liberals is beholding to big business and big business is not going to attack them. The press and the BC Liberals are fellow bedmates.

sudsidies?

The point of subsidisation, NoHope :-), was that it would allow the start-ups and the small newspapers to compete.

The amount would be large enough to be meaningful to the small paper and small enough to be of far less value to the large paper.

Tying further subsidisation to number of readers willing to pay a subscription would encourage relevance to readership.

This would free content from the advertiser's influence, and since the pay-out is formula-based, from the gov'ts as well.

Those worried about the "taxpayer" paying for all this, haven't asked themselves how much they're paying when they buy a car or a tube of toothpaste.

Old hacks will enjoy the

Old hacks will enjoy the British website gentlemenranters.com -- great stories from yore about the newspapering craft and craftiness, and Dr Syntax is invaluable and entertaining. Would be nice to see a local version of it spring up.

not only fluff

- yes, a lot of fluff, but also a lot of other things, primarily propaganda and the 'narrative' the people running the place want everyone to believe - this much more dangerous purpose of the Canadian media is followed and analysed at On Green Island, Outside the Box - http://www.rudemacedon.ca/lgi/ogi-home.html

There are already some

There are already some government subsidies for newspapers -- the Publications Assistance Program (PAP), sponsored by the Department of Canadian Heritage, gives a discount on distribution via Canada Post for qualifying publications. The problem is that a lot of corporately-owned papers qualify for it as well, so it doesn't represent much of a competitive advantage.

Rather than government subsidies, I think the key to establishing and protecting excellent print journalism is the non-profit, foundation route -- the St. Peterburg Times in Florida, which also operates the Poynter Institute, is probably the best example. A quote from the Poynter Institue site (www.poynter.org):

"The Poynter Institute is a school dedicated to teaching and inspiring journalists and media leaders. It promotes excellence and integrity in the practice of craft and in the practical leadership of successful businesses. It stands for a journalism that informs citizens and enlightens public discourse. It carries forward Nelson Poynter's belief in the value of independent journalism in the public interest. Founded in 1975 by Nelson Poynter, chairman of the St. Petersburg Times and its Washington affiliate, Congressional Quarterly, the Institute was bequeathed his controlling stock in the Times Publishing Co. in 1978. As a financially independent, nonprofit organization, The Poynter Institute is beholden to no interest except its own mission: to help journalists seek and achieve excellence."

The problem, of course, is that you need an independent, altruistic media owner to set it up right and let it run its course. The Atkinson Trust attempt with the Toronto Star was probably Canada's best shot at it, but in going public it's become just about as nasty a conglomerate as the Aspers and Blacks of this world, focusing as much on churning profit through its suburban shoppers and Harlequin book division (!) as on quality independent journalism.

In short, unless the Aspers unexpectedly grow a conscience and give the Sun or the Province to a non-profit foundation (how's your non-profit society application coming along, David Beers?), I don't hold out much hope for this type of journalism in Canada -- not in print, anyway.