Post Media layoffs

[Hack&Lube]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

You're right that the old model was bound for extinction. But let's not kid ourselves that what replaces it will be better. Cheaper? Certainly. Can't get much cheaper than free. But I'm enough of a dinosaur to believe that you get what you pay for.

So how will we get information about how our governments and businesses are behaving? Opinion columns spit out by independent bloggers while they sit at home in their bathrobe are no substitute for hard news. You need to know actual stuff. Talk to actual people. Do research that is not fun. And be held accountable professionally and legally for what you write. These 'people in positions of knowledge and access' will be insiders motivated by vendettas and private agendas. Of course, those sorts of people often acted as sources under the traditional news model. But professional journalists exercised scepticism and care dealing with them, and had enough expertise on their beat to know when they were being played.

Essentially, I think hard news will die along with the newspaper industry. What we'll be left with is partisan opinion-pieces spackled with a veneer of cherry-picked data. Our public policy and civic engagement will be based on sources of information with as much legitimacy and credibility as internet forum flame-wars.

We as human beings take on the role of editor. You take the information you get from all these sources, filter, and construct the right narrative out of it with your own brain.

I'm not saying hard news is dying. There are hundreds of websites with lengthy write-ups and investigative articles. They all function like independent newspapers, free of the shackles of print empires, media conglomerates, and the corrupted Conrad Blacks of the world.

Tying great talent down to a dinosaur model will only crush the drive and ambitions of that talent.

[mikephoen]

Originally Posted by Hack&Lube

That's only a problem if you believe everything that you read. The people who cry foul about Wikipedia's accuracy are the kind of people who lack the ability to understand there are nuances and biases to every piece of information you come across. One good thing about internet forums is that even if you have a hack come along posting something widely inaccurate, that people will come along to either point out the errors or slowly add more nuance and push the information back in the right direction. Everybody who reads it is free to comment, correct and expand the topic. You take all the knowledge and generate your own understanding of things, not only the original source of the information.

I would rather have a wide breath of information, collaborated on and contributed from a million expert users than something a minimum wage journalism major writes which was then processed through an editor in a tweed suit and then permanently printed onto a piece of newsprint to be flushed down the toilet. The resulting CP thread about clogged office toilets was likely more informative and compelling than the original content was.

This is fine for most stories, but what about true investigative journalism? Things like Watergate or the Edward Snowden stuff? Or embedded journalists in war torn areas?

Investigative journalism is an important check and balance to Western society. I'm concerned that losing (or even hampering it) it has more consequences than we think.

[SebC]

If Dick Smell's still employed...

[Ashasx]

Roger Millions ‏@RogMillions
Just wanted to wish @SUNRandySportak all the best. Randy worked hard, and cared passionately about Sport. He deserves much better.

[SuperMatt18]

Count on Roger Millions to announce it to the world before Sportak even had a chance.

[tvp2003]

Glad the tributes for George Johnson are flooding in on twitter. Hope he sticks around somewhere -- I've always enjoyed his work.

https://twitter.com/search?q=georgejohnsonch&src=typd

[Locke]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Count on Roger Millions to announce it to the world before Sportak even had a chance.

Hes trying to be respectful to a colleague.

[Matty81]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

You're right that the old model was bound for extinction. But let's not kid ourselves that what replaces it will be better. Cheaper? Certainly. Can't get much cheaper than free. But I'm enough of a dinosaur to believe that you get what you pay for.

So how will we get information about how our governments and businesses are behaving? Opinion columns spit out by independent bloggers while they sit at home in their bathrobe are no substitute for hard news. You need to know actual stuff. Talk to actual people. Do research that is not fun. And be held accountable professionally and legally for what you write. These 'people in positions of knowledge and access' will be insiders motivated by vendettas and private agendas. Of course, those sorts of people often acted as sources under the traditional news model. But professional journalists exercised scepticism and care dealing with them, and had enough expertise on their beat to know when they were being played.

Essentially, I think hard news will die along with the newspaper industry. What we'll be left with is partisan opinion-pieces spackled with a veneer of cherry-picked data. Our public policy and civic engagement will be based on sources of information with as much legitimacy and credibility as internet forum flame-wars.

For me your point about investing the time and talking to people and doing research is the bottom line. People who aren't journalists have viewpoints that are just as valid but don't typically have the time (unless they are independently wealthy) and access to people that professional journalists have to validate and refine them. And further a newspaper, at least in theory, is also held accountable on facts by being subject to libel charges that I think are exceptionally rare on internet forums.

That said I've been really put off by the influence of corporate ownership on editorial boards lately and am not exactly in love with the medium. Seeing Paul Godfrey pocket 2 million bucks this year for basically being a headsman and general greaseball was pretty disgusting.

To be honest I've come to value the CBC more and more as time has gone on. If there's any positive in this it strengthens their importance in the Canadian news media considerably.

[hockey.modern]

Confirmed from Randy.

Randy Sportak ‏@SUNRandySportak:
It's out there, so yes, this is my last game covering the Flames for The Sun. Was a heck of a run dating back ot the fall of 2000.

[Ashasx]

Looks like Terry Jones is done up north.

[Resolute 14]

George Johnson had an amazing ability to see the grey cloud through the silver lining in any situation, but he was still a damn good columnist. Sportak was also one of the best the Sun had. These are two major losses for the Calgary sports community.

[albertGQ]

I'm assuming Randy will still contribute to THN?

[SuperMatt18]

Originally Posted by Locke

Hes trying to be respectful to a colleague.

Yeah but give the guy a chance to announce it on his own terms.

He is on the roadtrip with the team and is working the game tonight. Quite possible that he really didn't want it to become public before the game, and judging from his tweet it seemed like he really didn't want it come out.

Millions even went and deleted his tweet now and retweeted Sportak announcing it, so even he probably realizes it wasn't his best move.

In related news ######### is still such an idiot.

[Locke]

Originally Posted by SuperMatt18

Yeah but give the guy a chance to announce it on his own terms.

He is on the roadtrip with the team and is working the game tonight. Quite possible that he really didn't want it to become public before the game, and judging from his tweet it seemed like he really didn't want it come out.

In related news ######### is still such an idiot.

Fair enough. I agree with that.

[Resolute 14]

On a more general level, Postmedia is handling this about as poorly as the NHL handled John Scott. What purpose does it serve to condense the Sun and Herald to one newsroom, but still print two papers? This is obviously a prelude to folding one of the papers, but why wouldn't you just do that now and get it over with? (edit: aside from getting roasted by the government?)

Ignoring the people cost from the inevitable layoffs, the best set-up for them is to fold the Sun and convert the Herald to easily read tabloid format. (By that, I mean the style of the actual paper, not the nature of the writing.)

[shermanator]

Well, this just further justifies my decision as a 17 year old to not pursue a career in sports journalism. I liked Sportak and Johnson

[greentree]

Originally Posted by Senator Clay Davis

The basically fired the entire National Post sports section.

National Post sports was gutted long ago. It relies on Postmedia copy from across the chain. It is still quite robust. Or relatively so.

[greentree]

Originally Posted by Locke

Oh yeah, Post Media is a Union shop. They're going to get PAID!

I did the taxes last year for a few Post Media workers, even the unskilled low- paid guys got huge severances.

I'm talking a couple year's wages.

The Herald and the Journal are not union newsrooms. I doubt the two Sun papers are either. No one is getting two years severence, either. It will be a formula based on years served, to a maximum of about $150k.

[Freeway]

Ugh, today was a gut-punch. Randy and George are good people, good mentors and even better writers. Hopefully they land on their feet.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Ashasx

Looks like Terry Jones is done up north.

Seeing they are letting all the Calgary guys go I was wondering if they would let Jones or any of the Edmonton media go seeing most of these guys are on the Oilers payroll.