Torstar cuts 52 jobs, drastically reducing tablet edition staff

The Globe and Mail's media reporter James Bradshaw writes:

"Less than a year after the Toronto Star launched an ambitious tablet edition designed to reshape the newspaper’s digital future, parent company Torstar Corp. has slashed 52 jobs, dramatically shrinking the project’s core staff.

The cuts announced Tuesday include 45 people from the Star’s newsroom, 26 of whom were on contract jobs and mostly dedicated to Toronto Star Touch. Another 19 were full-time staff, including 10 reporters and five editors, while three digitally focused positions and four jobs outside the newsroom at the free Metro daily newspapers were eliminated.

"The layoffs represent a major retrenchment in resources devoted to the tablet edition as the company lowers its expectations for the project’s popularity with readers, but also shows the deep financial troubles afflicting Torstar. The publisher of newspapers including the Star and The Hamilton Spectator recently closed its printing plant in Vaughan, Ont., outsourcing printing of the Star and putting 285 people out of work, and posted a $23.9-million loss in the first quarter of 2016."

Full story

Survey: Even on social media, trusted news sources command most influence

Interesting article in Media Shift:
Technology has changed almost every aspect of news, except for possibly the most important one: Traditional news editors and journalists still write the vast majority of the stories we read and consume.
As PR professionals, we underestimate the business of traditional media relations at our peril. We are still in the business of building relationships, being sensitive to reporters’ needs, and serving as a bridge between what journalists want to cover and the agendas of the brands we represent.
 So while we obsess over how changes in technology have changed news consumption, far less attention has been paid to how these changes have affected those who still write the news – the editors and journalists themselves.
The whole story

Ottawa Redblacks quarterback Henry Burris takes shot at TSN after hearing criticism

Henry Burris, the Ottawa Redblacks quarterback, sounded off on national television during halftime of Saturday night’s game against the Edmonton Eskimos, apparently directing his own pointed remarks at commentators for TSN broadcasts of Canadian Football League games.
“There’s these guys at TSN that always want to jump on me every week,” Burris told Matthew Scianitti, the sideline reporter for the telecast of the game at TD Place stadium.
Full Sun story

Interesting PEW resarch on the state of U.S. media

By Amy Mitchell and Jesse Holcomb

Eight years after the Great Recession sent the U.S. newspaper industry into a tailspin, the pressures facing America’s newsrooms have intensified to nothing less than a reorganization of the industry itself, one that impacts the experiences of even those news consumers unaware of the tectonic shifts taking place.

The full report

Dan Rather warns journalists to take Trump seriously

Dan Rather writes:
"It’s very fashionable for people to say we should ignore him, or “stop making him famous” and write him off. That isn’t going to work. He’s now the Republican nominee, and if anyone calls themselves a progressive they have a duty to talk about the offensive things he says and does. Reporters need to ask the hard questions, instead of softball him to ensure continuing press access. Ignoring him is what got him to the nomination."
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