More about Cruikshank's resignation

More about John Cruikshank and the Star's tablet in the Nieman Journalism Lab which describes itself as "an attempt to help journalism figure out its future in an Internet age."
Laura Hazard Owen writes: (Excerpts)
"Cruickshank, 62, had held the position since 2009. He told The Globe and Mail leaving was his decision: 'It kind of felt like an era of work was coming to a close, or at least was being completed, and that it was time for renewal.'
"The Star stands out among North American English-language dailies as the strongest proponent of a tablet-based digital strategy — at a time when nearly every other paper is putting its focus more squarely on smartphones. (Tablet use is actually declining in many markets, while smartphone traffic continues to rise.) . . .
"Star Touch hit 200,000 downloads on Apple and Android in January (it hit 100,000 downloads in November) and says it has 50,000 user sessions per day.
"But those sessions come from only 26,000 daily users. Torstar said last fall that its target was 180,000 daily users by the end of 2016, but on Wednesday, a company spokesman said its current expectation was for daily users to reach 100,000 by that time.
"Torstar also said it expects Star Touch to break even by the end of the year.
Star Touch, La Presse+, and Postmedia’s launch of ambitious evening tablet editions have combined to make Canadian newspapers an odd center of tablet optimism not found elsewhere. Postmedia shut down those tablet editions in Ottawa, Montreal, and Calgary last fall after 'it just didn’t reach a critical mass of audience or advertisers.'”
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