Globe/union get extension till Thursday midnight

Typically, once a final offer is on the table bargaining stops, and the next step when the final offer is refused is strike/lockout. The Globe and Mail and its union, though, have opted for mediation, to the above deadline. It doesn’t mean a deal is imminent though; a mediator first has to determine whether there’s [...]

New Media from Iran troubles MSM

The tendency of mainstream media to simply quote from new media, without seeking a second source or other verification, is troubling enough. It’s even worse when the state clamps down on all media, new or traditional, and observers outside that state try to get a sense of what’s going on. As a result, blogs, posts, [...]

Union rejects Globe final offer

A strike or lockout at the Globe as early as Thursday is possible as the CEP local at the Globe and Mail rejected what management described as its final offer. While there is some talk of the sides going back to the table on Tuesday, it’s difficult to do so after one side has tabled [...]

Reader’s Digest goes right in the U.S.

Faced with too much debt (what is it about MSM that makes it go too far in debt?), the U.S. version of Reader’s Digest is going socially and religiously conservative. I doubt that it will mean much in Canada, whose social conservatives don’t constitute a large part of the population, but it is interesting that [...]

Raitt-gate leads to new privacy law ruling

You have to dig a bit into this link to find the legal implications of the media’s right to use private information which comes their way accidentally, in this case, a tape recorder left behind after a media interview by a hapless aide. A Nova Scotia judge agreed the media had the right to use [...]

Globe gets strike vote

There are still a couple of bargaining dates to go, but the CEP local at the Globe has given the bargaining committee a 97 per cent majority vote to go on strike. Many rollbacks (at least according to the union; management isn’t talking) and a 7.2 per cent pay hike over 6 years. That would [...]

New media fueling Iranian revolution

Youtube, Twitter et al are all being used by Iranian youth and protesters to get their side of the story out, given that Iranian MSM is all government-owned and controlled. The Iranian religious/political establishment has reason to be worried; this is the same type of protest that overthrew the Shah, despite his goons and guns. [...]

MP’s boot fee-for-carriage back to CRTC

CP reports that MP’s have been studying the fee-for-carriage issue, but decided to send it back to the CRTC, which has twice rejected it. They did offer a sweetener, uping a $60 million fund for programming to about $150 million. Don’t get too excited the increase would come out of your cable/satellite fees, as would [...]

New Archive for American newspapers

Want to find out what the media reaction to the Wright Brothers first flight was, or dig into the Teapot Dome scandal? It’s all available now on a new website: http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/. Wish we had something like this in Canada.

Story, AP/Canoe, June 16 2009

AP looks to new revenue streams

The Associated Press is lowering membership fees, as its media members face a serious cash crunch in the U.S., but trying to make deals with key Internet suppliers (Googol, AOL, Yahoo and Microsoft). Canadian Press is facing the same crunch, particularly since CanWest dropped out a while ago. CP is looking at a new business [...]