Telling Tales
March 2008
Gossip from around the city
Pipe dreams: former National Post
critic Rob McKenzie inhales his new
surroundings
Image credit: Saultfrance.com
Hire Power
Until recently, Abu Dhabi and Toronto rarely rubbed up against each other in the same sentence. But a new English newspaper is being launched in the world’s richest city, and a whack of Toronto publishing types have hopped on board faster than you can say United Arab Emirates. The connection is Martin Newland, who was the National Post’s deputy editor during the Conrad Black era but is perhaps more famous for relieving Black’s wife, Barbara Amiel, of her columnist gig at London’s Daily Telegraph. Moving to head up the Abu Dhabi paper, Newland has packed his dream team with former employees from the Post, the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and the CBC. In total, there will be about a dozen Torontonians on the masthead (two reporters, three copy editors, an art director and a couple of photographers among them), including former Posties Laura Koot (designer) and Rob McKenzie (TV critic), both of whom seem to be fitting in well with the locals. Pictures on the Abu Dhabi–based blog Salut! show them smoking a shisha pipe in a Lebanese restaurant. Newland and Co. (Co. being the state- run Abu Dhabi Media Co., which owns the publication) have yet to reveal the name of the new daily. The Capital Times was a rumoured contender, although we think The Hogtown Herald might be more apropos.—Larissa Bennett
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