Matthew Fisher dead at 66

Long-time free-lance war correspondent Matthew Fisher has died at age 66. He died of liver failure after a short illness in Ottawa on April 10. He was the son of the late Douglas Fisher, a long-time parliamentary journalist and previously an NDP Member of Parliament. Matthew covered conflicts around the world and was published in the National Post, the Sun and other poublications.

Former CFTO-TV broadcaster Tom Gibney dead at 84

Tom Gibney, a longtime news anchor with CFTO-TV, has died. Gibney anchored CFTO New from 1973 until his retirement in 2007. He was 84. The cause of death was not immediately known.

BuzzFeed has shut down HuffPost’s Canadian operations.

BuzzFeed has shut down HuffPost’s Canadian operations, the Star’s Jacob Lorinc reports..

On Tuesday, the company announced it was laying off 47 workers in the U.S. and shuttering HuffPost Canada and HuffPost Quebec.

The closures of its Canadian offices are believed to affect 23 staff and four managers.

“As of March 9, HuffPost Canada will no longer be publishing content,” a message reads on HuffPo Canada’s website.

“Existing content will be maintained as an online archive.”

  The closures were a surprise for HuffPost’s Canadian employees, who had filed to form a union with CWA Canada just two weeks ago.

BuzzFeed bought HuffPost from its former parent company, Verizon Media, in November. The acquisition was believed to be a sign of confidence in HuffPost’s future, as it paired with a like-minded digital media outlet of mid-aughts vintage.

 

CBC facing uprising against "fake news" ads

 The CBC is facing an uprising within its ranks for accepting advertising that critics say amounts to corporate-sponsored “fake news.”

Hundreds of current and former staff, including Peter Mansbridge, Linden MacIntyre, Gillian Findlay, Bob McKeown and Adrienne Clarkson, are expressing “grave concerns” over CBC/Radio-Canada Tandem, a new venture that works with marketers to create and publish what is known as branded content, or paid content: advertising that looks or sounds like regular editorial coverage.

Tandem was unveiled to the advertising community last month, with CBC/Radio-Canada’s new chief revenue officer, Donald Lizotte, promising in a news release it would “leverage the credibility of our network." The pitch proposed that Tandem content could appear on most of the broadcaster’s English- and French-language platforms, including the CBC website, podcast pages and audio apps, and TV networks – among them, CBC News Network.(Globe and Mail)

Full Globe and Mail story

AP changes cameras

 No more of these

The Associated Press says it has reached a deal with Sony Electronics to exclusively equip its visual journalists with new video and still cameras over the next two years.
The AP sends some 3,000 photos and 200 videos a day to customers worldwide. Visual journalism is a point of pride for the news cooperative, which won its 54th Pulitzer Prize this year, the 32nd it has won for photography.
The new Alpha cameras will be smaller and lighter, and employ mirrorless technology, enabling photographers to work silently.
“This is a game-changer for the AP and will give us way more flexibility into the future,” said Derl McCrudden, deputy managing editor for visual and digital journalism. (AP)