The Toronto Sun, home of Sue-Ann Levy, sexy bikini shots and amusing slip-ups, is the latest Toronto daily to try to mitigate waning print advertising revenue by charging for online content. The paper will erect a digital paywall next week, according to the Globe and Mail, which itself already has digital subscriptions in place. Meanwhile, the Toronto Star and National Post have both announced plans to institute walls in the New Year. Below, we break down all four papers’ plans to help you pick which to shell out for.
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Digital Fortresses: A cheat sheet to Toronto papers’ online paywalls
Should Rob Ford tell the public about any medical issues?
(Image: Christopher Drost)
With city council on hiatus for the summer, last week’s big news was a mini mayoral health scare (Rob Ford spent two nights in the hospital after an allergic-reaction-turned-throat-infection set off his asthma). Ford’s office issued several updates, which prompted the Canadian Press to examine whether politicians ought to disclose their medical problems. At the cynical end of the spectrum is Bryan Evans, an associate professor of politics at Ryerson, who said the mayor’s bulletins were just a canny way to maximize media coverage and to humanize Ford by showing he shares the same kind of everyman problems as voters. On the other end is Globe and Mail columnist André Picard, who say leaders should divulge anything that could affect their ability to do their job—an idea firmly entrenched south of the border, where Barack Obama’s yearly checkups are released to the public.
Olympics coverage showdown: CTV is trumping NBC in viewer satisfaction
An Ottawa-based media monitoring company combed through 50,000 tweets to gauge how Canada’s television coverage stacks up against the U.S.’s—and, in terms of viewer satisfaction, things are looking bad for the Americans. Media Miser looked at tweets with Olympic-themed hashtags made during the first three days of the London games; of those referencing Canada’s broadcaster, CTV, about half were positive, while a whopping 83% of tweets related to NBC, America’s lone holder of Olympic coverage rights, were disparaging. Use of the hashtag #nbcfail surged as disgruntled NBC watchers lambasted the lack of live event coverage, oddly timed cuts to commercials and irritating commentary, as well as some accidental spoilers and a host of other problems. This makes the uncertainty over Canada’s domestic media rights to the next few Olympics all the more alarming. Sure, CTV’s not perfect, but we really don’t relish the thought of Ryan Seacrest as our guide to the games. [Globe and Mail]
Sun News Network doesn’t have an audience and is losing a lot of money (but, hey, it’s happy!)
With news of Quebecor’s windfall first-quarter profits also comes news that Sun News Network, Quebecor’s year-old news channel, isn’t doing so hot. In the first quarter, the network’s owners were forced to dump $3 million more into the floundering operation after sinking $6 million into the same outfit last year. Despite the clear signs that Sun News is failing—it isn’t attracting viewers and its financial losses are accelerating—Quebecor’s chief financial officer noted to the Globe and Mail that “the programming guys are happy” and that the company is pleased with the content it has created. Well, at least somebody likes it. [Globe and Mail]
Rob Ford and journalists get passive-aggressive during World Press Freedom Week
(Image: Christopher Drost)
Here’s a scenario that feels more like satire than real life: Rob Ford marked World Press Freedom Week with a speech about the importance of free press at the city hall rotunda, and then booted it out of there when actual reporters tried to ask him a few questions. The Toronto Star refrained from bringing up the Daniel Dale debacle in its coverage of the event—but, in a move that’s either cheeky or passive-aggressive, it threw a pair of links to the Dale controversy into the story. Other news agencies also wielded the objective tone like a weapon, using the artful juxtaposition of facts to sneakily skewer the mayor. Thomas Saras, president of the National Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada, which organized the reception, pointed out that relationships between politicians and media will always be strained—to which we say: “strained” would be a vast improvement on the current state of affairs. [Toronto Star]
Gawker gotchas: a roundup of Toronto’s most embarrassing moments according to the gossip giant
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Earlier this week, the Globe and Mail’s “Caption Writing Person” set off an online frenzy with a series of epic one-liners mocking Hollywood excess in the age of the Occupy Everywhere movement. But it wasn’t long before people began wondering—for no good reason, really—whether the Globe had been hacked. For its part, Gawker published a post saying the caption writer had gone “rogue” (an adjective we think remains best reserved for failed vice-presidential candidates). Of course, we’re just grateful that this Can Con moment was far less embarrassing than the usual appearances. Nonetheless, some Toronto Gawker headline highlights, after the jump.
EARTHQUAKE! Once again, Toronto hit by a lunchtime summer tremor
Office workers mill around after evacuating a building in Arlington, Virginia (Image: Mrs. Gemstone)
If the hundreds of reports on Twitter are to be believed (and the reports of about half of the Toronto Life office), Toronto just experienced this summer’s lunchtime earthquake (last June, we had a similar tremor). According to the U.S. Geological Survey, Virginia was at the epicentre of a 5.9 magnitude quake about 10 minutes ago. We wonder how long it’ll be before the inevitable ironic commemorations begin.
UPDATE: MSNBC reports that parts of the Pentagon and the White House were evacuated following the quake.
UPDATE 2: Well, that was fast. The “committed capitalists” over at Spacing have already mocked up some commemorative buttons »
Did you feel the earthquake where you were? Let us know in the comments.
Is six storeys too tall for a condo? Opponents of a Glen Davis Ravine development say yes
An interesting anti-development fight has quietly been simmering in the city’s east end, where a handful of local community activists are fighting a condo development along Kingston Road. What’s so new about that? Not much, except that their argument is that the condo developer will be ruining the ravine that serves as their backyard, and they want the city to protect it by forcing a smaller development. Oh, and the proposed development in question? It’s only six storeys.
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Stuck in the ’90s?: Sun papers leave the Ontario Press Council, citing “political correctness”
Sun papers: never fond of political correctness (Image: torontocitylife)
This is all a bit insider-y, but we can’t help but detect Kory Teneycke’s hand at work here: the Sun chain of papers has pulled out of the Ontario Press Council, following the lead of parent company Quebecor, whose papers in other provinces had done the same with their respective councils. The OPC is basically a self-regulating body set up in the 1970s to deal with complaints to the press. Apparently, even the coziest self-regulation is as intolerable to the Sun papers as a human rights tribunal is to Ezra Levant.
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Because nothing in this city happens without Twitter anymore, that’s where the news of Christie Blatchford’s Globe departure breaks
The man behind the Mondoville Twitter account, Marc Weisblott, caused something of a media tizzy this afternoon with a single-sentence tweet: “Christie Blatchford gone from ‘The Globe and Mail’…” Reporters and other media types had two basic reactions: confused glottal noises and wondering aloud how Mondoville got the story first (these are reporters, after all).
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Bell TV and Sun News Network caught in a cat fight. Now, if only there was a way they could both lose
In this conflict, we’re not sure which side to root for. Apparently Bell has pulled the Sun News Network, Canada’s newest 24-hour news channel, from its satellite TV service after neither side could agree on what Bell should pay for the privilege of showing the Quebecor-owned channel. The dispute came to a head last month when Quebecor sent a strongly worded letter to Bell Canada Enterprises, demanding the channel be removed if an agreement failed to materialize by May 3. So yesterday at 10 a.m., Bell yanked Sun News.
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Repealed laws, unreleased reports and plea bargains? Thursday is apparently G8/G20 news dump day
The infamous fence (Image: Yeshwant from the Torontolife.com Flickr pool)
We’re only a few months away from the one-year anniversary of the G8/G20 summits that were ever so much fun for this city. In case anyone needs a hand remembering what kind of festivities we put up with last year, the provincial government and the news media have conspired to remind us all with a trio of stories that involve that magical weekend last summer.
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Check out BIXI Toronto’s 80 downtown bike locations on one interactive map
Click map for interactive version
BIXI is slated to launch in Toronto on May 3 with 1,000 bikes spread out over 80 stations. While we’re all for bringing the Montreal bike-sharing company to the city’s congested streets, the initial offering is a little limited. All 1,500 docking stations are confined to the area between Bloor, Spadina, Queens Quay and Jarvis Street, with a pair of outliers at Jarvis on Queen Quay and in Kensington Market.
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Ford and friends want a municipal by-election in Downsview. Get ready for a “referendum” on the mayor’s term so far
Maria Augimeri and Gus Cusimano
Last week, the Ontario Superior Court ruled that Maria Augimeri’s narrow Ward 9 victory (89 votes!) in last October’s municipal election was invalid because of irregularities in the voter list. City staff are saying they’ll appeal the case, but if the court’s decision stands Toronto could be heading for a by-election in North York that would be a showdown between a Rob Ford critic and a Rob Ford supporter—in this case, we’re assuming Gus Cusimano will be running again. To make the situation even more juicy, the man credited for getting Ford elected—erstwhile electoral mastermind Nick Kouvalis—has offered to run Cusiamo’s campaign, should the by-election go ahead.
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Shenanigans in Eglinton-Lawrence: Liberal caught taking and trashing Green Party literature
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Here’s something the Grits didn’t want: one of the few GTA ridings that’s a possible pickup for the Conservatives sees the Liberal incumbent in hot water for elections tomfoolery. Basically, the story, as documented by Green Party canvasser Orla Hegarty on her Picasa page, is that while out canvassing for the Liberals, a volunteer working for (and only metres away from) Joe Volpe was taking Green literature in people’s mailboxes and throwing it out. This is both tacky and entirely unnecessary. Are the Libs really worried about Green vote splitting?
