Robert Fulford has died at age 92

 Robert Fulford, who died Tuesday aged 92, was one of Canada’s leading cultural journalists.

As a critic and essayist, his expertise spanned art, literature, architecture and music. As a columnist on current affairs, he grappled with some of the most urgent questions in Canadian justice and politics.

His famously clear prose was the product of fastidious rewriting, always at least twice, a rule he shared with the generations of younger writers he edited and mentored. Publishing, as he used to say, was a “necessary evil” that sadly stopped the rewriting process. (National Post)

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/robert-fulford-obituary

Trudeau to be on "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" tonight!

 The Prime Minister is to appear as a guest tonight (Monday) on the CBS's "The Late Show with Stephen Colbert." The interview will be shot during his trip to New York where he is meeting with the United Nations General Assembly.

A schedule says that RuPaul Charles will also be a guest on "The Late Show" tonight.

"The Late Show with Stephen Colbert" airs in Canada on Global TV.

Ottawa mulling over bonus for CEO of CBC, but won’t make decision public

OTTAWA - The Liberal government said it has not yet made a decision about whether it will grant a bonus for the head of CBC after the public broadcaster eliminated hundreds of jobs.

But because of the Privacy Act, it will likely be up to CEO Catherine Tait to publicly disclose if she does receive one. She previously confirmed she did accept performance pay for the 2021-22 fiscal year at a House of Commons committee meeting.

Heritage Canada confirmed the government is still deciding on a bonus for 2023-24, while CBC said Friday a decision hasn’t been made regarding a potential bonus for 2022-23.

The Opposition Conservatives have been seeking support from other parties to back their call to bring Tait back to committee to answer questions. (CP)

Long-time Hamilton station ending!

 A mainstay of Hamilton’s airwaves for almost a century has gone off the air.

A mainstay of Hamilton’s airwaves for almost a century has gone off the air, the Toronto Star reports.

900 CHML announced on social media on Wednesday that the radio station would be closing after many years of providing the city and surrounding area with local talk-radio programming.

“This decision, though incredibly difficult, has been made after careful consideration and is necessary following years of financial loss,” read the post.

“The shift of advertising revenues to unregulated foreign platforms, combined with the difficult regulatory and competitive landscape, has forced us to make the difficult decision to close,” added the post.

The radio station thanked its listeners, advertisers and community partners for their years of support in the post, noting that their loyalty has been the “foundation of our station’s legacy.”

As of 1 p.m. Wednesday, the station was no longer broadcasting. (Toronto Star)

https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/900-chml-closes-ending-nearly-a-century-of-local-radio-in-hamilton/article_af94bb92-8255-5265-8eea-46f45fb6250b.html

Postmedia offers to purchase Atlantic Canada's largest newspaper chain for $1 million

 A monitor’s report says Postmedia Network Inc. has offered $1 million to purchase Atlantic Canada’s largest newspaper chain.

The offer is being recommended by Toronto-based KSV Restructuring Inc., the court-appointed monitor overseeing the insolvency proceedings involving SaltWire Network Inc. and the Halifax Herald Ltd.

In March, the two insolvent media companies were granted court-ordered protection from creditors who were owed more than $90 million.

Under the plan, Postmedia, who will be the sole limited partner, will also make future payments for accrued liabilities.

The senior secured lender, Fiera Capital, has said SaltWire and The Herald together owe it $32.7 million.

The report says Postmedia is looking to close the deal by Aug. 24, and the offer is scheduled to be presented to a Nova Scotia Supreme Court judge for approval on Thursday.

Toronto-based Postmedia owns the National Post, Vancouver Sun, Calgary Herald and dozens of other publications. (Canadian Press)

OMNI wants money for ethnic media!

 A group of producers who make content for OMNI Television has launched a campaign urging the federal government to offer millions of dollars in funding to protect struggling multilingual and multicultural programming.

The producers, who represent 62 programs across 50 ethnic communities, say they risk having to cancel a chunk of their programing because of dwindling ad revenue and lack of government funding.

“The systematic marginalization and lack of support for this ethnic media sector contradict the official policy of multiculturalism,” said Madeline Ziniak, chair of the Canadian Ethnic Media Association (CEMA), which is involved in the campaign. She added that one in four Canadians speak a language at home other than English or French.

Programs on OMNI are ineligible to access the Canada Media Fund (CMF), which is the main source of funding for Canadian television production and is financed jointly by the federal government and private broadcasters.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-omni-television-producers-want-access-to-canadian-media-fund-for/

(Globe and Mail)

Corus Entertainment announces layoffs at Global News

 Corus Entertainment Inc. is cutting jobs at its Global News division as it seeks efficiencies across the company and battles adverse trends in the media industry.

The cuts came a few days after Corus said it stands to lose programming next year due to an arrangement struck between Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. and Rogers Communications Inc. 

“As part of our ongoing evaluation of our business and continued enterprise efficiency review across Corus, we have made some changes at Global News today, and as a result, certain roles have been impacted,” Corus spokesperson Anna Arnone said in a statement.

“These changes correlate with the current economic and regulatory reality we, and other media organizations, find ourselves in. We are continuously working to improve the way we gather, produce and deliver award winning content.”

Corus shares have been in a tailspin in recent years, slumping to just 24 cents Wednesday on the Toronto Stock Exchange, down from levels above $6 in 2021.

Former PC cabinet minister Kevin Klein buying Winnipeg Sun from Postmedia!

 A former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister and MLA is buying a Winnipeg newspaper. 

Kevin Klein has agreed to purchase the Winnipeg Sun, where he once was the publisher, Postmedia confirmed on Monday.

The Klein Group, of which Klein is president and CEO, is also buying the Graphic Leader in Portage la Prairie, Man., and the Kenora Miner and News in western Ontario.Postmedia's commercial print division in Winnipeg, including all associated digital properties, contracts and other related parts of the businesses, is also part of the sale to the investment group.

Postmedia said all employees are expected to keep their jobs. 

Klein has been writing a regular column for the Winnipeg Sun since he was defeated in last fall's provincial election.

He served as publisher of the newspaper from 2007 to 2013, according to his LinkedIn account.

Klein served as a Winnipeg city councillor for one term, representing Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood from 2018 to 2022. He ran for mayor in 2022, but came in third place. (CBC)

Hot Docs to temporarily close Ted Rogers Cinema for three months to ‘recalibrate’ organization

The Globe and Mail's Barry Hertz reports:

 Less than a month after wrapping the 31st edition of its annual film festival under a cloud of financial and organizational uncertainty, Hot Docs on Wednesday announced that it would temporarily close its flagship Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema in Toronto for approximately three months, starting June 12.

During this period – which will result in temporary layoffs for an unknown portion of staff – the Hot Docs leadership team aims to conduct a review of the single-screen theatre’s programming and operations in order to ensure what organizers hope will be a viable path forward for the non-profit organization.

“This has been an incredibly difficult decision to make, but it’s crucial for us to take this step now. This temporary closure will enable us to pause, recalibrate and strategically plan a sustainable future for this beloved organization,” Robin Mirsky, co-chair of Hot Docs’ board, said in a statement.

The move comes after Hot Docs endured a rash of challenges both external and internal.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/film/article-hot-docs-to-temporarily-close-ted-rogers-cinema-for-three-months-to/

Seven media experts selected to help modernize CBC/Radio-Canada before next election

 Seven multimedia experts have been selected to advise Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge as she renews the role of Canada’s public broadcaster.

The group will provide policy advice mainly on CBC/Radio-Canada’s governance and funding, Canadian Heritage said.

The department notes that consultations on the CBC’s mandate have already been done with the general public.

The newly appointed advisory panel will now help St-Onge chart a path forward, with members contributing knowledge from a variety of fields.

St-Onge said committee members have diverse perspectives and experiences that will help her modernize CBC and its French-language arm, Radio-Canada.

“Canadians need a strong, innovative and independent public broadcaster that is ready to meet the challenges of this period of transformation and upheaval in news and content creation,” St-Onge said in a statement Monday.

The panel will help her promote Canadian culture, stories, languages, artists and creators, “while adapting to our rapidly changing broadcast and digital landscape,” she added.

The panel includes:

– Marie-Philippe Bouchard, CEO, TV5 Québec Canada;

– Jesse Wente, chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, founding executive director of the Indigenous Screen Office;

– Jennifer McGuire, managing director, Pink Triangle Press;

– David Skok, CEO and editor-in-chief, The Logic (independent media startup);

– Mike Ananny, associate professor of communication and journalism, University of Southern California Annenberg;

– Loc Dao, executive director of DigiBC;

– Catalina Briceno, professor, Université du Québec à Montréal. (CP)

Rex Murphy has died

 The National Post is reporting that Rex Murphy, the pundit and columnist who hosted a national call-in radio show for decades, has died.

The newspaper, where he worked as a columnist, says in an obituary on its website that Murphy died at age 77 following a battle with cancer.

He was born outside of St. John’s, N.L., and graduated from Memorial University before attending Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar.

Murphy hosted CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup for more than two decades, before retiring from the role in 2015.

Later in life, he became a loud detractor of the federal Liberal party and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government.

He was also an outspoken opponent of “wokeism,” progressive ideology sensitive to systemic inequities, and argued in his column that conservative voices like his were being pushed to the margins. (NatPost)

Terry Anderson, AP reporter held captive for years, has died.

Terry Anderson, the globe-trotting Associated Press correspondent who became one of America’s longest-held hostages after he was snatched from a street in war-torn Lebanon in 1985 and held for nearly seven years, has died at 76.

Anderson, who chronicled his abduction and torturous imprisonment by Islamic militants in his best-selling 1993 memoir “Den of Lions,” died on Sunday in at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, said his daughter, Sulome Anderson.

The cause of death was unknown, though his daughter said Anderson recently had heart surgery.

After returning to the United States in 1991, Anderson led a peripatetic life, giving public speeches, teaching journalism at several prominent universities and, at various times, operating a blues bar, Cajun restaurant, horse ranch and gourmet restaurant. (AP)

Ontario spending on new press space!

The Ontario government is spending about $310,000 on a new space for press conferences, which opposition parties say duplicates a room that already exists at the legislature and will mean less access for the media. 

The Progressive Conservative government used its new "communications centre" this week for the finance minister's budget press conference and a technical briefing for journalists.

But it now intends on using the room, in the basement of a legislative precinct building connected to the main legislature via a tunnel, for all on-site government press conferences, senior government officials told The Canadian Press.

That's despite there being a room that already exists for that purpose.

The media studio inside the main legislative building has for decades hosted press conferences by government ministers, opposition members and advocacy groups.

But that space is a neutral one operated by the Speaker of the Legislature on behalf of the press gallery, and journalists are not limited in the number of questions they can ask a minister.

Not so in the new government communications centre. Journalists there will be allowed to ask one question and one follow-up, the sources said, similar to the format of off-site press conferences with the premier or government ministers. (CP)

La Presse apologizes about its cartoon

 Quebec newspaper La Presse has apologized for publishing a cartoon Wednesday that depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the vampire from the film Nosferatu after criticism that the caricature used antisemitic imagery.

The image published online portrayed Netanyahu with pointed ears and long sharp fingers, evoking a sequence in the 1922 silent film in which the vampire Count Orlok hides away on a ship in pursuit of his human prey.

A text overlay identified the caricature as “Nosfenyahou” on his way to the city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip, which Netanyahu this week said would be targeted by a ground invasion, despite international appeals against the assault. La Presse removed the cartoon from its website Wednesday morning.

Many commentators and politicians denounced the image as an expression of antisemitic tropes, with some noting the German film’s echoes in Nazi propaganda and ties to historical depictions of Jewish people as vampires. (CP)

Associated Press in trouble!

 Gannett, publisher of USA Today and hundreds of local newspapers, will stop using the Associated Press’ content starting next week, a significant blow to the not-for-profit wire service collective that still relies on memberships for revenue.

Gannett will eliminate AP dispatches, photos and video as of March 25, according to an internal memo from chief content officer Kristin Roberts, obtained by TheWrap.

“We create more journalism every day than the AP,” Roberts said in the Tuesday statement, adding that not paying for AP content “will give us the opportunity to redeploy more dollars toward our teams and build capacity where we might have gaps.” (Reported by "The Wrap")

Vice Media laying off people!

 Vice Media plans to lay off several hundred employees and no longer publish material on its Vice.com website, the company’s CEO said in a memo to staff Thursday.

Vice, which filed for bankruptcy last year before being sold for $350-million to a consortium led by the Fortress Investment Group, is also looking to sell its Refinery 29 publishing business, CEO Bruce Dixon said in his memo to staff.

It’s the latest sign of financial problems buffeting the media industry. Digital sites the Messenger, BuzzFeed News and Jezebel have all shut down in the past year, and legacy media outlets like the Los Angeles Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal have also seen job cuts.

Once a swashbuckling media company geared to a younger audience with an immersive storytelling style that encompassed digital, television and film outlets, New York-based Vice was valued at $5.7-billion in 2017. (AP)