The new age of newspaperism

This makes me weep. The Whig-Standard used to be the paper by which others in this nation set their standards. Now it's under ownership of Sun Media, which is about all I need to know about its future.

http://www.straightgoods.ca/ViewMediaFile8.cfm?REF=13

Some highlight graphs:

The Whig's publisher is Ron Laurin. And reporters have even been told by the publisher how to compose their stories. A case in point: On November 28, 2007 Laurin sent a memo to then-editor Christina Spencer instructing his underlings how to describe Kingston's controversial downtown arena, a pet project of the city's business elite.

"We need to discontinue our practice of referring to our City's new Kingston Regional Sports and Entertainment Centre as an arena," wrote Laurin.


On one midwinter day Page Two was dominated by three large photos of senior citizens playing ping-pong. Longtime photographer and community columnist Jack Chiang departed last year. The Whig hired no one new to fill his shoes.


For three days running around Christmas last year, the Whig ran a series of large front page photos above the fold. They featured people shopping at the mall.


Hence, the use of the term "above the fold" in a broadsheet like the Whig. In early January, as Kenya was rocked by post-election riots in which hundreds died, the front page of the National/World section trumpeted an Associated Press story out of Los Angeles: Britney Spears had lost custody of her children.


Editor Christina Spencer quit late last year. Instead of considering the seasoned crew of reporters with lots of Kingston experience, the Sun Media boss interviewed but one person, a junior staffer with scant daily newspaper experience.

As it turns out, his choice, Steve Serviss, serves on the board of the local Chamber of Commerce. When the Whig announced that Serviss would be stepping up to the Managing Editor job, it reported his leadership position in a prominent special interest group unblushingly, without any sense of embarrassment or inkling that this could be considered a conflict of interest. As City Editor, Serviss once assigned an award-winning reporter to cover a jump in rider-ship of the Confederation Tour Trolley, run by the Chamber of Commerce.

 

I like a paper that has the chamber of commerce seal of approval.

 

We're speaking here of Canada's oldest continuously published daily newspaper.

This is just plain sad.

 

Yes, but what is the bottom line? Are the shareholders getting another .00004 cents (or whatever Canada uses for money, rubles?) for their investment.

If so, success!

 

Slurp.