Building crash

Could there be more money woes at CanWest Global Communications? Can the Asper boys really be abandoning Winnipeg? Is their father Izzy rolling over in his grave?

This shocker is from today's Winnipeg Free Press (sub. req'd.). Seems that the company has abandoned plans to erect a $40 million headquarters on the historic intersection of Portage and Main.

The media giant has decided to shelve the 120,000-square-foot, 10-storey project, which was announced last October. The glitzy building was to have housed all of the company's operations, including its national news service and the broadcast centre for its local Global television station, its digital cable stations and its Winnipeg radio station.

In a memo distributed to CanWest employees yesterday, CEO Leonard Asper said the decision to cancel the project, which was to be built at 209 Notre Dame Ave. -- home to an empty five-storey building -- was made after an "exhaustive review" by its executive management group.

"Unfortunately, in light of the rapid technological and other changes taking place in the Canadian media today, we have concluded that the Winnipeg building project is not the best way to allocate our capital investment capacity," Asper wrote.

Instead, CanWest has elected to concentrate its capital spending on high definition television infrastructure, digitizing newsrooms, renovating Global Television's Toronto facilities and updating newspaper circulation and classified advertising systems.

<SNIP>

Despite the decision, David Asper, executive vice-president of CanWest, said his family remains as committed as ever to developing the corner.

"There's nothing that has changed our view that we will ultimately animate and liven Portage and Main," he said in an interview yesterday.

"The easy thing to do is say, 'that's it.' Well, that's not in my genetic code so we'll move on to the next one."

He said discussions are already underway to determine alternative developments for the site, but he declined to give any specifics.

Crickets chirping. Frogs croaking. Lawn mowers in the distance.

TVO: The Mid-term

Here's some of the Star's coverage on yesterday's announcements regarding TVOntario.

This is the lede of our main story by Robert Benzie and Steve Rennie:

The Ontario government is modernizing and revamping TVOntario, but the spectre of advertising now looms over the province's public broadcaster.

And this is from my pulpware column:

Despite all the hoopla yesterday, it's still not clear what the future holds for TVOntario, its employees or its viewers.

One thing did emerge: $25.4 million over two years to digitize a network, get into "multi-platform'' distribution, retrain staff and overhaul programming — all by September 2007 — is not a lot of money.

PBS, for example, is spending some $1.2 billion (U.S.) to go digital. It can cost a single local station $2 million (again, U.S.) to digitize its transmission.

Considering that TVO is already cash-strapped — limping along on a $45 million base operating grant from taxpayers and another $7 or $8 million from members — much is expected from so little.

So little in fact that, in many ways, I think TVO will be worse off than it is now.

Oh, and by the way, I am hearing that although the Liberal government-appointed TVO CEO Lisa de Wilde is the one stickhandling this ''strategic review,'' it really began under the Conservative-appointed (and Ernie Eves lady) Isabel Bassett's aegis. As someone put it to me, "It was Isabel's vision.''

Well, I am glad somebosy had vision because most TVO staffers -- including its uppermost programmers -- were kept completely in the dark.

Which brings me to this from my column:

But why cancel Studio 2, the flagship current affairs show, especially when its ratings have never been better?

It reaches about 1 million viewers a week and attracts a four or five per cent share of the adult (over 35) audience every night at 8 p.m., a very competitive time slot.

Exec producer Doug Grant said he learned the show's fate from reading my blog — then was fired at 10:30 a.m. yesterday.

"There was so little communication,'' he says of the entire "strategic review.''

"It comes as a shock. But on the other hand we had a good run."

Studio 2 will be replaced by The Agenda, to be hosted by Studio 2's Steve Paikin.

"The Agenda will be a more focused current affairs show," said de Wilde. "It will be providing more in-depth analysis. More in-depth interviews. More debates. More panels. It will be out in the community more."

All of which caught Paikin's soon-to-be-former co-host, Paula Todd, who met and married Grant at Studio 2, by surprise.

"There are so many young journalists here; I am trying not to cry in front of them," she told me. "I feel unbelievably grateful to still have (the interview show) Person 2 Person. So I am not complaining. I am much more worried about other people. Everybody's crying.''

It's still puzzling as to why the show was cancelled since there is nothing about it that is inconsistent with the new mandate. In fact, at yesterday's all-staff meeting with de Wilde, the first she ever held, one courageous Studio 2er asked why the show was being axed. (And by the way, I think rumours of government interference because the show wasn't pro-McGuinty enough are a lot of hooey.) Why not just tweak it a bit to make it more about citizenship and less about arts or business?

Here's what I am hearing, and it makes for an interesting theory. After Paikin gained national prominence for his cool and deft moderation of the party leaders debate during last winter's federal election, he was able to write his own ticket. Offers were pouring in. The choice for de Wilde was simple: lose the rising star Paikin or lose Studio 2. Indeed, the timing of the development of The Agenda -- as well de Wilde's absence from the Studio 2 premises -- all kind of coincides with the afterglow of Paikin's star turn during the election debate.

Anyway, this whole strategic review thingie raises more questions than it answers. TVO staffers will be having smaller meetings today where they're supposed to get answers. But, if I were them, I wouldn't be holding my breath. It's going to be a long summer.

If you can't beat 'em ...

I Love Radio's Tod Maffin, whose most excellent blogging during the CBC lockout last year sustained the outlocks, is now running a sanctioned CBC blog, Inside the CBC. It touts itself as ''official (but never officious).'' The official launch is today but the archives go back a month with entries from I Love Radio. It has serious and lighter stuff  --- like what CBCers search for on their computers.

• “inconvenient truth” trailer
• “red green”
• 10 little indians
• barnacle eyespot photo
• prawn with basil sauce recipe
• celine lyrics
• courier bags simon’s bike shop vancouver
• darling german
• federal child support tables 2006
• free vancouver things to do
• hot chip
• ing.ca
• lawyer show vancouver
• nuuchahnalth
• nuuchahnulth
• nuuchanalth
• songs about chocolate
• st. jean baptiste
• tamoda factory vabcouver
• viral videos

Your tax dollars at work.

It's a good site, with entries critical of CBC too. Check it out.

H/t to Joe Clark.

Hardware crash

THIS POST HAS BEEN CORRECTED:

CTV News is pulling out of the Gemini Awards, says honcho Robert Hurst today in an internal memo.

Earlier today I wrote to Maria Topalovich, CEO of the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television, to inform her that CTV News is withdrawing from the Gemini Awards. This decision only involves CTV News and does not affect the ongoing participation in the Gemini Awards by other CTV departments or specialty channels.

Many of you have been arguing for years that CTV News participation in these awards is of little value. Last year, we won Geminis for Best Newscast (11p), Best Reportage (David Akin) and Best News Information Series (W-FIVE). But those awards did not seem to change attitudes across our news division. A few weeks ago, at a CTV News management meeting, I called a vote on the issue. It was nearly unanimous in favour of withdrawing.

While the CTV News division will not be involved in the Gemini Awards, we will still be supportive of any CTV News employee, or news team, that wishes to submit on an individual basis. 

CTV News will continue to be active supporters and participants in various other journalistic award programs, notably the Radio-Television News Directors Awards both in Canada and internationally, The Canadian Association of Journalists awards, The Atlantic Journalism Awards and the Websters in BC. These award programs celebrate excellence at both the local and national levels. It's worthwhile to note that most broadcast journalists in Canada work in local newsrooms.

In case you missed it, CTV News won 9 RTNDA-Canada awards three weeks ago in St. John's Newfoundland. CTV News was the top recipient, receiving more awards than any other broadcaster. And last week, CTV British Columbia and CTV Atlantic each won an Edward R. Murrow award for journalistic excellence - judged against the best in the world.

Robert Hurst
President
CTV News

To be honest, I am wondering what took CTV so long as CBC has usually dominated the awards, in all respects. But last year was a good one for CTV so I am scratching my head.

As for the other TV news awards, I have a simple philosophy about them. I never write about them. TV people are always handing out awards to one another -- and the RTNDAs CAB Gold Ribbon Awards are for private stations anyway -- and bombard us poor ink-stained wretches with self-congratulatory news releases. (CBC does this too.)

But when the National Newspaper Awards are held, where are the TV cameras?

Aha! Exactly.

That despite how almost as many people read the Star as watch CTV News with Lloyd Robertson every night at 11.

TVO 101

THIS POST WILL BE CONTINUOUSLY UPDATED:

And now it can be revealed what is going on at TVOntario, as staffers are just coming out of a movie theatre hearing the good/bad news. The changes were unveiled at a news conference (video to come) jointly held by Ontario education minister Sandra Pupatello, the Minister responsible for Francophone Affairs, Madeleine Meilleur and TVO CEO Lisa de Wilde.

"Ontario will prosper in the future because we are giving today's students the multi-media learning tools and resources they need to prepare for a technology-driven world," said Pupatello.

There are three main prongs to the strategic overhaul.

1. As long rumoured, TFO, the French-language network, will be hived off, with a separate management and board.

2. As predicted, TVO will be refocused to "contribute to kids' success at school." That means more educational programming, more digital content for more platforms as well as websites and downloadable tools for parents to help their children learn.

3. Primetime programming will emphasis citizenship and engagement, whether social, politcal or economic, as befitting a public broadcaster.

That means Saturday Night at the Movies, should it survive, will get a new direction. No more westerns and such unless they have a citizenship teaching moment. The same goes for drama and documentaries.

The weekday flagship Studio 2 is cancelled to make way for a new flagship The Agenda to be hosted by Steve Paikin solo. His former co-host Paula Todd will stay on with her interview show, Person to Person.

The Agenda will be helmed by Diplomatic Immunity producer Dan Dunsky, a man whom I consider to be quite conservative on matters of foreign policy. (I know because I have argued with him -- and he still owes me money from our bet on Halliburton.)

(UPDATE: Dunsky, with Grant's approval, put the controversial Danish anti-Mohammed cartoons on the air, causing great divisions at TVO earlier this year. He has written for the National Review and the Star, criticizing Canadians for their less than enthusiastic support for the U.S.A. He was also instrumental in pushing getting Eric Margolis to quit off Diplomatic Immunity, where he represented a left-of-centre -- and ultimately accurate -- view of events in Iraq and the Middle East.)

There will be no job cuts, they say. Queen's Park is pledging $25 million for training and transition. Goodness knows that TVO's antiquated facilities need a boost.

Here's one union view which is positive:

"TVOntario needs to come into the digital age", says Gord Boyd, President of C.E.P Local 72M, "the government's commitment will give employees the tools and training they need to help the Authority carve out a niche in television and internet environments".

More as I get it.

UPDATE (2:23 p.m.): Studio 2 executive producer from day one (and creative head of current affairs) and Todd's husband, Doug Grant, has been fired as of tomorrow. (I have left a message for him.)

Studio 2 and More to Life journalists are in shock -- and are clueless as to their fates. They've been told to clear out their desks tomorrow. Their offices will be taken over by the Independent Learning Centre, which helps Ontarians earn high school diplomas via long distance.

The only journalist said to be beaming at the packed all-staff meeting I'm told is Dunsky, who, along with Paikin, knew what was coming all along. Their fellow Studio 2 staffers feel betrayed, I am told.

UPDATE (3:19 p.m.): Looks like Rudy Buttignol, creative head of network programming, may also be on the chopping block. When I asked de Wilde about his fate, she said she would ''get back to me.''

Rudy -- whom I consider to be a friend -- is one of the most respected commissioners of documentaries in Canada, and a valued member of the film and TV community. If he gets kicked out quits, it would be a travesty.

I am told he is considering his options.

As for Doug Grant, he just told me he was ''shocked'' and ''didn't know it was coming until 10:30 this morning." He added that he feels ''very bad about the people'' --about 20 producers, many of whom he hired right out of journalism school. But it's been a ''good run'' after 12 years on-air. "I am very proud of the show which was my baby."

UPDATE (3:57 p.m.): Just talked to Paula Todd who is recovering from major foot surgery. She says everybody around her is crying and that she feels very badly bad for all her fellow journalists at Studio 2, adding that she is ''grateful'' to still be hosting Person to Person.

UPDATE (6:36 p.m.) Just noticed this in one of the news releases:

Steve Paikin will host a live online Q&A from 1-2 pm Friday, June 30 on the topic of TVO's new current affairs show. Log on at tvo.org or leave a message in advance with your question by calling 1-800-613-0513, selecting 1 and then entering extension 2604.

Studio 2 staffers are upset that their show, after an incredible 12 year run, will not be allowed to go out with a bang. You know, a highlight reel, a look back, a whatever. It will just slink off the air tomorrow night forever.

UPDATE (9:00 p.m.): Just stumbled on the last couple of minutes of Paikin jawing with a bunch of white guys in suits. Preston Manning, Hugh Segal, David Peterson and another man whose name and face I didn't catch. What a range of opinion, from right to center-right. I guess this is what we have to look forward to on The Agenda.

(I stand corrected!!! A whole lot of you point out that the other two white guys in suits were NDPers: Floyd Laughren, Ontario finance minister for the NDP from 1990-95 and Allan Blakeney, NDP premier of Saskatchewan from 1971-1982. That's what happens when I watch TV, blog, write columns and eat dinner at the same time. Thanks.)

Incidentally, Studio 2 will go out with a whimper tomorrow night. Because of how it was axed, staffers didn't even get a chance to put together a highlight reel.

UPDATE (12:13 a.m.): Exec producer Doug Grant said that Studio 2 was averaging about 95,000 viewers a night, which is excellent for a show of its type in a very competitive time slot filled with sitcomes and reality shows.

Dunsky discusses The Agenda here.

All systems go

National Post publisher Gordon Fisher put out a lengthy memo to staff yesterday, congratulating all for a job well done. The tone is upbeat and reassuring, making staffers feel more confident about the future for the first time in years. Here are two excerpts.

It has been a very good year to date for this newspaper. With two months to go to the end of our fiscal, we are ahead of last year on several important fronts.

Most importantly, our advertising team has done a tremendous job of delivering the goods as promised. Most months were strong in terms of meeting budget and/or beating last year, two key indicators. Although April and May were somewhat weaker than we had hoped, June is going to end very strong, probably ahead of budget, and demonstrably ahead of last year.

We have also recently completed a wave of hirings in advertising (lots of new faces in the building) and reorganized the teams in a manner that is already showing strong signs of even better times to come. We have been particularly successful in building a growing classified business, and recent months have been record-setting months.  In fact, the Classified department surpassed the million dollar mark for the first time in its history in the month of June.  Our on-line revenue generated by Working and Driving has been a remarkable success story, and continues to grow.

On the editorial front, we have delivered a very strong performance in terms of meeting our objectives to improve dramatically on several fronts—with particular emphasis on Toronto coverage and sport.

We have made some early and very positive steps in the world of on-line, and traffic is growing as we integrate the newspaper and on-line operations in a much more strategic manner. We will be doing more on this front over the next few months.

Our readership strategy is developing as we had hoped. Our focus on growing readership in key urban centers, with particular attention to Toronto, has been very positively accepted by the advertising community. They understand clearly that it is readership and not numbers of copies that will move our readers to their stores. Many of our competitors continue to play the numbers game, but that is an out-dated concept, as we are proving and will continue to prove in the months and years ahead.

<SNIP>

On the cost front, we have made significant progress in a number of areas. We have focused on eliminating costly and non-productive circulation, re-investing the money saved in key major urban markets. This is an ongoing initiative that continues to offer promise. All departments have worked with passion to eliminate unnecessary expense, and the results are showing. This kind of effort has a magic to it: If we continue to grow the top line (and we will) while bringing down expenses, our owners and shareholders will continue to show the strong support we have been getting. On that front, all the signs are good. We have recently presented our budget for Fiscal 07 and received what I felt was a very encouraging response.

And the bonus?

Everybody gets news computers to replace the eight year old system that has been creaking along. That means the Post has some life in her yet.

Twelve months after

Remember this?

Click!

This morning on CBC Radio One's Sounds Like Canada, summer host Jian Ghomeshi has the Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page and me back to discuss what good, if any, came out of last year's Live 8 concert extravaganza to end poverty.

We're pretty much in agreement: Not much.

Unplugged

Not surprisingly, CanWest Global today served formal notice to the Canadian Press that it may soon no longer be requiring its wire services. Here's the CP story on the likely withdrawal:

The Winnipeg-based broadcaster and newspaper publisher gave notice under CP rules that require members of the co-operative to give a year's notice by the end of June if they want to leave by the following summer. However, CanWest remains free to change its mind about withdrawing at any time over the next 12 months. In the meantime, the remaining ownership groups within CP say they're fully committed to the co-operative.

"CP has the unqualified support of the vast majority of the Canadian media industry," said Michael Sifton, the co-operative's chairman of the board and president and CEO of Osprey Media, which owns numerous small papers in Ontario.

"No other company in Canada is positioned at the forefront of the digital era of multimedia, multiplatform news the way CP is. The future is exciting."

<SNIP>

Scott Anderson, vice-president of editorial for CanWest MediaWorks Publications, said the company gave notice to CP to keep its options open.

"One of the things we want to do is look at our own news service and what we might do to invest in it, grow it and make it a much better provider for our readers than it is now," Anderson said in an interview from Ottawa. "And own our own content."

The company, he added, is concerned that it pays for CP content it doesn't use and is also somewhat uneasy about sharing its news with other CP members that are direct competitors, even though CP does not distribute CanWest content on its growing online operations.

Paul Knox, chairman of Ryerson University's School of Journalism, said CanWest still faces the challenge of being comprehensive in its national news coverage if it leaves CP.

"One difficulty with the CanWest News Service is probably that it's in between - it's neither local nor totally national in terms of its comprehensiveness," he said.

"On the one hand, you don't have the economies of scale that you get with an organization like CP whose structure is completely different. And on the other hand . . . you are trying to place your stories with a relatively small number of newspapers with idiosyncratic tastes. So, you kind of have the worst of both worlds, in a sense."

CP, which is owned by its member media, feeds domestic and international stories to some 600 newsrooms across Canada. In some markets, where the news organizations can't afford to send their own correrspondents to Ottawa or abroad, CP is a critical source of coverage.

But, ever since it launched its centralized Canadian News Desk in Winnipeg, CanWest has been making noises about not needing the expense of CP anymore. The following is from an internal memo put out by Ottawa bureau honcho Gerry Nott:

This is a business decision driven by content. While we were unable to come to the agreements we sought with Canadian Press during the review process, in the end, our goal of providing a high calibre unique file to our papers was foremost in the decision.

The decision is also a strong commitment to the CanWest News Service, and means growth and hiring of journalists in the organization. In the weeks and months ahead we'll roll out our plan to provide a comprehensive 24/7 breaking news service to our readers.

As I have previously blogged, CP was prepared for this pullout. CWG accounts for only about 10% of its revenue stream so the effect of the withdrawal is not as painful as it might have been had it happened a few years ago. What's more, CanWest had become both a cooperative member -- and a competitor. That meant that some decisions might have been taken without CP's greater good in mind.

Which is why nobody seems to be too sorry to see CanWest go over at CP.

In fact, Lise Lareau of the Canadian Media Guild emailed to say that

We've been able to look at the books at CP, and this is not a fatal blow to the organization or does it mean any imminent layoffs.  But it does raise a larger more crucial issue: the concentration of ownership of the media in this country. 

The Senate committee made the point last week and this is yet another example.

All this made me dig out CanWest's testimony last year before the Senate committee which last week presented its report (scroll down) on media concentration. (Emphasis is mine.)

Senator Munson: Would CanWest try to fill that void if CP was driven out of business? If you did, I am curious how francophone news organizations would get their news from Quebec and how Anglophone news organizations would get their news from Quebec?

Mr. Nott: We are not that far along to have even considered the question, frankly. On the point about the value of Canadian Press, (Scott) Anderson runs a newspaper, and the one point I would make is that CP has done a wonderful job of keeping its assessments flat for the newspapers for about ten years in a challenging environment for them. At the same time, since the CND has been launched, our papers have used significantly less CP content. That measures into the value equation that the editors are undertaking as they go through the budgeting process.

Mr. Anderson: With more and more easily accessible news, on the Internet, for example, and across Canada and around the world, CP becomes less and less relevant over time. We have to take that into account when we consider how much we pay for it and what the service does for us.

Uh, okay. Except that, if you go online, the dominant provider of Canadian news to web portals is CP. All the other news organizations pick up CP on their websites because it is usually first with the news. Just how long will CanWest be able to go without it, without ever filching CP info off the web?

Stop signs

Now this promises to get nasty: A website called Stop Iggy. (Emphasis theirs.) 

We are Liberals who are deeply concerned by Michael Ignatieff’s candidacy for leadership of the Liberal Party.  His campaign has already mobilized all across the country, and there is a very real possibility that he could become the next leader of the Liberal Party of Canada.  Should that happen, Mr. Ignatieff might actually have a shot at becoming Prime Minister.  But it is not too late!  If each and every one of us commits to work together, we can STOP IGGY!  Please take a moment to view our website to find out how, and to discover some disturbing things you may not have known about the Man Who Could Be Prime Minister.

The web site references all sorts of ''nasty'' pronouncements by Ignatieff on war and torture and American imperialism.

The domain name's registrar is Tucows Inc. (har, har) in Calgary and the registrant is Thunderline Internet Solutions in Thunder Bay.

But the ''Stop Iggy'' symbols were first seen in Drummondville, Quebec in April -- when this site was registered. Here's the top of a Montreal Gazette story published April 30.

Standing in the crowded lobby of a local hotel, Marsha Akman was like a kid on a shopping spree.

"We have a meeting right now with Stephane Dion, then we're meeting Carolyn Bennett at 12, then we're going to be meeting (Ken) Dryden afterwards," said Akman, a Liberal activist in the riding of Mount Royal and a member of the party's women's commission. "We're going to start talking issues and get a feel for how they are and go from there."

Like many members of the federal party's Quebec wing, Akman does not yet know who will get her vote when Liberals meet in early December in Montreal to choose their next leader.

However, she has already scratched one candidate off her list. "It's anybody but Ignatieff," said Akman, sporting two "Stop Iggy" stickers on her shirt to protest what she sees as Michael Ignatieff's right-wing views.

Could there be a connection?

I doubt that any card-carry Liberal would be so self-destructive. (Oh wait ...!)

According to conservative blogger Steve Janke:

The person behind this (the registration information says only to contact Thunderline, which is a company run by a fellow named David James) doesn't care who wins, as long as it is not Michael Ignatieff. Even Joe Volpe would be better. Here's the insightful analysis that explains why:

Although we at STOP IGGY know very little about this guy, we are happy he is running because he is NOT IGGY!

Against intellectual titans like these, what chance does Ignatieff have?

I can't handicap this race but it looks like it may be a fun ride for political observers.

Sun burn

More trouble at Sun TV, the beleaguered station for which Quebecor overpaid and is desperately trying to keep afloat even as it is sinking its newspaper chain.

I'm reliably informed that Canoe Live's and Inside Jam's Riaz Meghji has quit Sun TV because the place didn't live up to expectations. (Seriously, who could have expected anything as bad as Canoe Live?)

There's more from Quebecor. Apparently -- I haven't been able to confirm this yet -- Sun Media's Ottawa and Queen's Park bureaus, already bare bones operations both, (2 reporters, 1 columnist in Ottawa; 1 reporter, 1 columnist at QP) have been ordered not to cover scrums and question periods. Daily political coverage -- aside from the big story of the day -- will be left to Canadian Press. Instead, Sun staffers will be focusing on features and enterprise reporting.

To add insult to injury, after last week's announcement of 120 job cuts at the newspaper chain, Sun staffers are sickened to see all the postings for people needed at this stinko station. Last Friday, employees were invited to apply for seven jobs, including junior promo producer, graphics designers and marketing specialists, ad types, a senior producer for a ''daily live current affairs show'' ... and ... drum roll please ...

an energetic, personable, enthusiastic, highly motivated Host/ reporter to join (the) In-House Production team. The ideal candidate will be a detail-oriented team player with proven interview skills, writing skills, and news gathering skills. The successful candidate should have 3-5 years experience as a TV Host and or News / Reporter. You will demonstrate network caliber on-air presentation skills, ease with live reporting, and be poised and calm under pressure.

Could that be Meghji's job?

Anyway, as expected, Sun Media will be converging its non-local content and quite a bit of its local content as well. That means a uniform looking paper right across the chain with identical lifestyle, entertainment and other coverage. So much for local theatre and concert reviews, it would appear. The redesign is expected later this year.

Ten bucks says that, by the end of next year, they will have to give the paper away.

Way to go, Pierre Karl Peladeau!

What I don't get is why Sun reporters in Toronto, after all that Canoe Live is costing their paper, continue to go on the show. I guess $37.50 is all you need to sell your soul.