Category: Spring 2004

When stock price drives management change at a newspaper – journalists, prick up your ears. In the aftermath of Toronto Star Publisher John Honderich’s resignation over the now famous “corporate desire for change” there remains a creeping cynicism over Torstar CEO Rob Prichard. In the 1990s, as president of the University of Toronto, Prichard was… Continue reading The Five Per Cent Delusion

A strong jolt of caffeine does little to prepare me for the shock of seeing a dishevelled Saddam Hussein in the custody of the United States Army – especially on a Sunday morning. I sit on the couch with a notebook and instinctively click to CNN for the latest update. The endless loop of the… Continue reading Newsworld vs. Newsnet

Tony Burman can’t sit still. He shifts and fidgets, changes position, taps his foot, leans back in his chair, never losing balance. He gestures wildly as he talks, touching his hair, then his face, snapping his fingers to emphasize epiphanies. He doesn’t seem bored or distracted. Instead the movements seem like a physical manifestation of… Continue reading Master and Commander

Saving Tesfaye Kumsa’s life may have destroyed his reason for living. In 1992, Kumsa, a documentary and features program producer for Ethiopian Television in Addis Ababa, was imprisoned in a concentration camp after refusing to abide by government imposed censorship laws. When released 11 months later, he was undeterred and organized a handful of colleagues… Continue reading A Puzzling Question

Mark Cripps, senior editor of The Stoney Creek News, strides into the Animal Control Centre with a mission. He’s here to take pictures for a regular animal adoption spot in his paper, called Pet Pause, which he started at a local girl’s suggestion. “Hi Mark. I didn’t get my paper last week,” a woman at… Continue reading Big Push, Big Worry