Through the static of Rob Lamberti’s police scanner, the calm, detached voice of a female dispatcher announces that a car has crashed and is on fire on Queens Quay West. “Maybe we’ll get a Pepsodent smile tonight,” The Toronto Sun reporter says with a wry grin as he floors his red jeep and heads for… Continue reading Hooked on Crime
Tune in, turn on, print out
Journalism has seen many evolutions-advocacy, gonzo, investigative and new journalism have all made their impact. But it’s precision journalism which may bring about the biggest change. Any journalist can join the movement. All it takes is a computer. Finding the unfindable is one goal of precision journalists. Adept statisticians, they are motivated by calculating precise… Continue reading Tune in, turn on, print out
Globe 101
Inside a portable in Toronto’s Leaside High School, Bill Velos, a short, dark-haired entrepreneurship teachers from his desk, picks up a piece of chalk and writes BANKRUPTCY on the board. Hearing idle students chattering behind him, he turns around to survey his class. The students are dressed in worn baseball caps and torn blue jeans… Continue reading Globe 101
Xtra! Xtra!
When the intellectual and controversial gay magazine, The Body Politic, folded in 1987, a part of it would not give up. Xtra!, the magazine’s gay entertainment supplement, has grown into Toronto’s most popular gay newspaper. Its readership and revenue have far surpassed TBP’s, and Xtra! is now the largest gay publication in the country. When… Continue reading Xtra! Xtra!
The Drive for Quality at Thomson Newspapers
This is crap…it’s truly dreadful. This headline doesn’t tell me anything. I don’t want to read such a piece of shit.” Tony Sutton, the in-house design consultant for Thomson Newspapers Corp., is critiquing the prototype of a new Sunday edition of The Daily Mercury of Guelph, Ontario. He’s standing in his office on the 24th… Continue reading The Drive for Quality at Thomson Newspapers
