Category: Spring 1997

Three years ago, while it was still owned by Thomson Newspapers, the Niagara Falls Review’s newsroom was organized by the Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild. Mark Skeffington, a general reporter at the Review for four years, was its union steward. The paper’s first contract came into effect just over a year later, around the same time… Continue reading United We Falter

My best friend in the whole wide world just bought Space Invaders for his brand new Atari 2600. The game is so cool. He saved up all the money he got from delivering the weekend newspaper just to buy it. Me, I couldn’t do a paper route. Gettin’ up in the morning—before the street lights… Continue reading www.clueless.@nd.hopeless.ca

On the evening of January 20, 1994, Angela Lawrence sat in disbelief as she watched a TVOntario program featuring a panel discussion on diversity in Canadian newsrooms. Among the four panelists was radio and television commentator Dick Smythe, who argued that the dearth of newsroom diversity was due to a lack of qualified candidates in… Continue reading Equality, Fraternity, Opportunity

By the end of his first day as This Magazine‘s new business manager, Trevor Hutchinson knew that the historic left-wing magazine was in serious financial trouble. He began his new job by studying the accounts of the Toronto-based title, starting with payroll. He concentrated on the figures for a few minutes, and then looked at… Continue reading Publish or Perish?

To understand Alexander “Sandy” Ross, the man who engineered the rebirth of Canadian Business magazine and almost single-handedly created the consumer market for business writing in this country, you must understand that at age 51, at the height of his career, his jazz band fired him for speeding. Try as he might, Sandy just couldn’t… Continue reading Raggedy Sandy