Millennials quitting live TV

Jillian D'Onfro  of Business Insider writes:
More bad news for the floundering television industry: Millennials officially spend a majority of their time watching TV either online, on-demand, or via DVR, leaving only 41% of their time allocated for live TV.
Millennials (ages 15 to about 34, depending on how you define the group) spend 34% of their time watching TV online, which is about three times more than non-millennials do.
This slide comes from Kleiner Perkins partner Mary Meeker's massive "state of the internet" presentation.

Here's the breakdown of how millennials and non-millennials are spending their TV time:
Graph and info from Business Insider

Remember Arthur Kent, the "Scud Stud?" He is still making news

A former television news correspondent known as the Scud Stud says he feels vindicated by the suspension of a prominent lawyer who has admitted she leaked damaging information about him while he was running for a seat in the Alberta legislature in 2008.
The Law Society of Alberta confirms Kristine Robidoux of Calgary, who was a member of Arthur Kent's campaign team when he unsuccessfully ran for the provincial Progressive Conservatives, has been suspended for four months for disclosing confidential information about her client.
Kent suffered a narrow defeat after a piece by Canwest columnist Don Martin. The headline, according to the agreed facts, was "Alberta's 'Scud Stud' a 'Dud' on Campaign Trail" and the column was based in part on information provided by Robidoux, who was unnamed in the article.
For those too young to remember -- Kent rose to international prominence and acquired his nickname when he reported for NBC during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He often went live on the air from a hotel rooftop as Iraqi Scud missiles were launched into Saudi Arabia. In 2008, he was a star candidate for the provincial Tories in the constituency of Calgary-Currie.
The full CP story

Anne Marie Owens named editor of National Post

Postmedia today announced the appointment of Anne Marie Owens to the position of Editor of the National Post, the first woman to hold the top editorial spot at a Canadian national newspaper. She will report to Gerry Nott, Senior Vice President, National Post.
 Ms. Owens began her career at the St. Catharines Standard. She was on the inaugural team of National Post reporters beginning before its launch in 1998. She joined the Post as a national reporter and held successive posts as News Features Editor, Assistant Managing Editor and Managing Editor of News.   
Ms. Owens returns to the Post after spending the past three years as Deputy Editor of Maclean's magazine, where she helped oversee every aspect of the operation at the national news weekly, including, most recently, its website redesign and re-engineering the production of its tablet edition.

Knowlton Nash dead at 86

Knowlton Nash, a veteran CBC broadcaster best known as long-time anchor of The National, is dead. He was 86.
The veteran journalist had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease for years. Nash, who had a 37-year career with Canada’s public broadcaster, including spending a decade behind the anchor desk of The National, CBC’s flagship news program.
From 1969 to 1978, when he became anchor of The National, he was director of news and current affairs for the English network of the CBC. It was under his guidance that The National moved to a then-unheard-of 10 p.m. time and was paired with his risky creation, The Journal. The National/Journal hour became a jewel in the network’s crown until anchor Barbara Frum’s death in 1992 brought the Journal to a halt and CBC executives took another gamble with the creation of a 9 p.m. news show, Prime Time News. Born Nov. 18, 1927, Nash was the son of a promotions manager. His mother, 20 years his father’s junior, was the first woman to fly over Hamilton, he once bragged in an interview.
Full CP obit

French photographers take to the walls to display their pictures

Pierre Terdjman shares many of his colleagues’ frustrations. “Each time I finish a story, it’s the same struggle to get my images published, ” he told TIME, “magazines are rarely interested in showing what’s happening in Egypt, in Georgia, in Afghanistan. Sometimes they’ll publish one or two images, but that’s it. So, everything started from a very selfish idea. I wanted to show my photographs. I wanted to inform people, show them what I’d seen.”
In February, fresh from his latest trip to Central African Republic, Terdjman, 34, called a few friends, printed poster versions of his images and, armed with brushes and a pot of glue, started posting his work in the streets of Paris, France. “The street is the ultimate social network,” Terdjman added. “You’re reaching everyone.”
The response was overwhelmingly positive, said the French photographer. “I reached out to some of my colleagues, including Benjamin Girette, and we founded Dysturb.” What is Dysturb? Moving beyond his own photographs, Terdjman has invited photojournalists to send some of their work to paste them on Paris’ walls. “The goal is to raise awareness about what’s actually going on in the world. We’re not looking to make a name or to degrade a city’s public spaces. It’s really about telling the story of what’s happening in CAR, in Egypt, in Ukraine.”
The full story

Jill Abramson forced out as New York Times executive editor--Guardian

The executive editor of the New York Times, Jill Abramson, has been forced out by the newspaper's publisher, in an unexpected reshuffle at the top of the venerable publication, the Guardian reports.
In a move that caught even the most senior staff at the paper unawares, Arthur Sulzberger Jr, the publisher and chairman of the New York Times Company, announced that Abramson would be replaced immediately by Dean Baquet, the paper's managing editor. He is the first African American to hold the job.
Abramson, 60, was appointed to the top job in September 2011 and was the first woman to hold the position.
Full story

Pippa Middleton axed as national newspaper columnist after just six months

Pippa Middleton, sister of the Duchess of Cambridge, was hired by the Daily Telegraph six months ago, however the Daily Express reports that her contract will not be renewed after her Sport and Social column was labelled "silly and boring" by readers.
Middleton used her weekly newspaper space to write about a number of antics, including chuckling, boxing and cooking pasta.
However readers weren't impressed, with a source revealing yesterday that things were up in the air about her contract being renewed.
"It's fair to day reader reaction to Pippa's writing wasn't great," the source said.
"There were also a few issues with deciding what topics Pippa should and shouldn't write about."
Confirming her contract had come to an end after six months, a Telegraph spokeswoman said: "The column was great. Pipp Middleton is a professional freelance writer and has gone on to do other things for other publications."
Earlier this year it was claimed her US book publisher Viking Press decided to let her go after her debut offering, party-planning tome Celebrate, reportedly sold just 18,000 copies.
Pippa currently writes for Waitrose and Vanity Fair.

TTC police shut down Tim Hudak's photo-op on Toronto subway

Tim Hudak unveiled his Toronto transit plan during a campaign stop on Sunday, but not before his team was given a rough ride by TTC police while attempting a subway photo-op.
Around noon on Sunday, TTC police confronted Mr. Hudak and his campaign team on a TTC subway car at Wellesley Station — where the media had gathered for a planned ride with the Ontario Progressive Conservative leader — because they did not have the proper permits to film on TTC property.
Video of the incident posted online shows police officers pulling a camera person off the subway car while Mr. Hudak stands in the background, smiling.
“In order to film on the TTC you need to have authorization. We’re trying to see if you guys have that authorization,” said a transit police officer.
During the 10-minute train delay, TTC passengers became irritated, with one person bellowing, “Come on.” Mr. Hudak, who kept his composure, eventually hopped off with the media.
Will Stewart, Mr. Hudak’s director of media, said the team hadn’t applied for a permit because they weren’t aware they needed one. He apologized to TTC passengers who were inconvenienced by the delay.

CBC's Alison Smith, Nancy Wilson announce retirement as generational change at CBC continues

Alison Smith, host of CBC Radio's  The World at Six, has announced she is leaving at the end of June. She said she had been considering her departure for some time.
Smith began her journalism career covering municipal and provincial politics in Toronto in 1977, before moving onto national affairs and business news for CBC's The National during the 1980s.
Throughout her career, she has served as host of many programs — including This Day, The Lead, Newsworld Reports, Sunday Report and CBC News Morning — and as CBC Television's longtime Washington correspondent. Smith, who is 59, moved to anchoring The World at Six in 2009.
CBC Newsworld anchor Nancy Wilson has also announced her retirement.
Wilson joined CBC Newsworld in 1991 and previously worked on CBC-TV's  "The Journal" and on CTV's Canada-AM.

Linden MacIntyre to leave CBC's the fifth estate

Linden MacIntyre, co-host of CBC’s the fifth estate for the past 24 years, will leave the program at the end of the summer.
MacIntyre, who has won 10 Gemini Awards and an international Emmy, said he’s leaving in an effort to help save other jobs.
“If by stepping aside now I can create a little comfort zone for the survival for another year or two of younger people, then it’s worth whatever inconvenience this will cause to me and the show,” MacIntyre told the Toronto Star.
In April, CBC/Radio Canada announced it will lose at least 657 employees over the next two years as part of $130 million in cuts needed to balance the 2014-15 budget. MacIntyre says many of the cuts will affect behind-the-scenes staff.

Torstar posts $7M profit as reporters at the Toronto Star stage ‘byline strike’

Torstar Corp. reported a drop in quarterly revenue Wednesday as lower print advertising affected its media business and slower sales hit its Harlequin division.
The company reported first-quarter sales of $310.5-million, down 6.6% from the same period last year although cost containment helped bring net income up to $7.1-million from $4.9-million this time in 2013.
Torstar reported adjusted earnings per share of $0.14, in line with what analysts projected.
The company, which publishes the Toronto Star and Metro group of free commuter newspapers, announced a deal last week to sell its Harlequin romance novel division to News Corp. for $455-million.
Harlequin’s revenues were $99.2-million, down 3.2% from the same period last year, but that figure benefited from a $7.6-million increase from the impact of foreign exchange.
Print advertising at the Toronto Star was down 17% in the quarter, publisher John Cruickshank said on Wednesday’s call.
Torstar is holding its annual general meeting in Toronto Wednesday and reporters at the Toronto Star withdrew their bylines from the print and online editions of the publication to coincide with the event.
The Unifor local union organized the a “byline strike” to protest labour practices at the publication including layoffs and plans to create a new job class of digital reporters at lower salaries. (Condensed from the NatPost)

Editors at Le Monde newspaper quit en masse

A majority of chief editors at French daily Le Monde resigned from their posts on Tuesday amid a conflict with management over editorial reforms. The mass resignation comes while staff at another French newspaper are in uproar over plans to turn into a "social network".
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Byline strike at Toronto Star

 The Guild has announced a byline stike at the Toronto Star to protest the lower wages for new hires for digital work and layoffs of age editors.
Link to union annoucement on J-Source

 

Walrus unpaid interns are back — with pay

The Walrus Magazine has hired back — with pay — three of the unpaid interns it was forced to lay off after a surprise inspection by the ministry of labour earlier this year, the Toronto Star reports.
With funding provided by the Chawkers Foundation, the Walrus will be filling the new positions as part of a six-month “editorial fellowship program.”
“The new Chawkers Fellows will be solely funded by The Chawkers Foundation who will provide a stipend to the three of them (in an amount acceptable to the Ministry of Labour) for the six month period, which begins now and ends at the end of September,” wrote co-publisher Shelley Ambrose in an email to the Star.
“We, of course, offered the opportunity to those who were affected by the Ministry of Labour’s shut down,” she wrote. Ambrose would not say how much the former unpaid interns are being paid, nor would she say whether they are performing the same tasks they did before.
In late March, the ministry of labour carried out a series of surprise inspections at magazines, forcing a number of them, including Toronto Life and The Walrus, to end their long-standing unpaid internship programs.
Link

On press freedom day, Egypt extends Canadian journalist’s detention

Egypt marked World Press Freedom Day, May 3, by extending the detention of four journalists — among them a Canadian citizen — who have been imprisoned for the past several months.
Mohamed Fahmy, a Canadian-Egyptian citizen and the acting bureau chief for Al Jazeera English, was arrested by Egyptian authorities on Dec. 29, along with colleagues Peter Greste, an Australian correspondent and Baher Mohamed, an Egyptian producer.
They have been accused of belonging to or aiding a terrorist organization in a case that has sparked worldwide condemnation and accusations of a crackdown on press freedom led by Egypt’s military-backed government.
The Star story

Torstar sells Harlequin to News Corp. for $455M

Torstar Corp. announced Friday it is selling Harlequin, one of the world’s leading publishers of books for women, to News Corp for $455 million in cash.

Harlequin will become a division of HarperCollins, which is a subsidiary of News Corp.

“Harlequin has been an important part of Torstar over the past 39 years and we are very proud of the global success it has achieved,” said David Holland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Torstar Corp. in a news release.

Torstar acquired control of Harlequin in 1975 and full ownership in 1981.
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John Cruikshank becomes chair of Canadian Journalism Foundation

 The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) is pleased to welcome John Cruickshank, publisher of the Toronto Star and president of the Star Media Group, as the new chair of its board of directors, effective May 21, replacing outgoing chair Robert Lewis, the CJF said in a news release.
Link to CNW release

Globe paid drug dealer $10,000 for 3 pictures

The Globe and Mail is said to have paid $10,000 for three still pictures of Mayor Ford allegedly smoking crack cocaine in the basement of his sister's home early Saturday morning. Greg McArthur, a Globe reporter, told CP24 that the video was sourced through connections of the newly-hired Robyn Doolittle. Ms. Doolittle was previously a reporter at the Toronto Star where she worked with on the first Ford crack video revelation. It appears that, as at the Star, Ms. Doolittle is working in a team, as efficiency and security might suggest is sensible. McArthur spoke of how his partner obtained a phone call from a drug dealer to say there were videos for sale. She and McArthur arranged a meeting. Ms. Doolittle, said McArthur, had to sit in his child's car seat as they drove to the meeting. At the meeting there was much discussion, a viewing of sorts and a transactional back and forth about a sale price of "six figures" for the tapes. In the end, it was agreed that the newspaper would pay $10,000 for three still shots and in a subsequent meeting this amount was exchanged. Presumably it was in cash but McArthur did not say that nor was he asked. He seemed to suggest that there are many leads in this field being pursued by he and Ms. Doolittle.