Apart from the bending red bars of the digital clock on the wall, the studio is cold and still. It’s 8:30 a.m. and counting, and the seat for the morning show host is uncomfortably empty. The only promises of anyone’s arrival are an unopened can of Diet Coke under the CKNW microphone and flasks of… Continue reading The Fastest Gums in the West
Category: The Magazine
Where do we re-draw the line?
You won’t find the June 27,1994 U.S. edition ofTime in any library. Nor can you order a back copy – all of them have been sold. The issue has become a collector’s item because of an error in judgment. On its cover, a colour police mug shot of ex-football hero O.J Simpson was darkened using… Continue reading Where do we re-draw the line?
Report on Silver Linings
By last spring many in the industry knew that Confederation Life was in dire financial trouble. Only four years earlier the company had posted earnings above $100 million. But by 1992 those profits had dropped to $1.9 million, and last year the company lost $29 million. Oddly, the Report on Insurance that ran in The… Continue reading Report on Silver Linings
All Work, No Pay
The job listing posted in the student lounge at Ryerson’s journalism school sounded great: it invited “university graduates interested in working in the magazine industry” to apply of a position that would offer experience in “many aspects of magazine production including story conferences, post-mortem and production meetings, fact-checking, copy-editing.” To qualify, applicants had to come… Continue reading All Work, No Pay
An Ominous Sign
For eight weeks last fall, there bruised and angry faces glared menacingly down on passersby from 30 massive billboards around Toronto. The four police-lineup-style mug shots—of an Asian and black man, and two white men, one of whom could be taken as Latino— were stamped with the word “deported” in large red block letters. Underneath,… Continue reading An Ominous Sign