AROUND APRIL FOOLS’ Day, 1993, Scott Milsom, editor and lone employee-of New Maritimes, sliced open an envelope bearing the Canada Council logo. It was a letter Milsom had anxiously awaited each spring since 1988, when his Halifax-based magazine had received its first small grant-$10,000-after six years of trying. Across town, another April Fools’ Day missive… Continue reading The Art of the Matter
Series: Spring 1994
Peter Desbarat’s Last Stand
WHEN I WAS APPROACHED IN the Windsor Star newsroom last May to sign a petition to save the University of Western Ontario’s Graduate School of Journalism, my reaction was immediate: No Way. I thought closing the school wasn’t a bad idea. I knew times there were tough, since the university had to cut between $10… Continue reading Peter Desbarat’s Last Stand
Vision Impossible?
In the March 1991 edition of the Ryerson Review of Journalism, Jack McIver, then editor of The Globe and Mail’s award-winning travel magazine Destinations, boldly predicted the magazine would survive despite a suspect balance sheet and a deep recession that was biting into ad revenues. “I think the Globe’s committed enough to hang tough,” said… Continue reading Vision Impossible?
Lost at Sea
BRIGHT NOVEMBER SUNSHINE SHONE through the windows in John Honderich’s corner office the day after his fifth anniversary as editor of The Toronto Star. He relaxed in his swivel chair, hands clasped behind his head, and talked about the last five years, a half-decade marred by economic and personnel catastrophes that would curl the hair… Continue reading Lost at Sea
New Kids on the Block
THEY DESCENDED ON LAST SUMMER’S TORY convention with a fury and spread out across the Ottawa Civic Centre like a crack battalion of Keystone Cops. It was the crowd from the nation’s music station, MuchMusic; newcomers to the political scene, a bunch of partiers in their 20s and 30s with no pretensions and a lot… Continue reading New Kids on the Block