Journalism, Online Media and Freedom of the Press.

Newspapers used to report on every single robbery, murder, traffic ticket, high school swim meet, council meeting and bridal shower. New media outlets get to pick and choose the topics they want to delve in to. This is good for things like the recent expose on the takeover of the Sooke Harbour House hotel.

 

But there are stories to be told beyond long-form scandals. Just plain old reportage--what happened at City Hall last night. The daily mundane stuff. 

It's the mundane, the ho-hum, the regular mechanisms of City Hall, town goings on, and news about the rest of Canada etc. this anchors me and informs my forward (backward) movement in all bits of my life.  The right and left of media of record, I try to read both, for example Globe and Mail AND National Post.  The long-form, which in my opinion was somewhat missing, is enjoyable and has a time and place in my life and I don't hold it to the same standard that I hold media of record.  How about you?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 May 2021 - 08:52 AM.

And younger consumers want to know when the next iPhone is coming out, not whether political paradigms are intertwined with corporate agendas in a municipality they drive through on their way to a camping spot. That's the conundrum media faces, in that young readers are busy with their personal lives, and older readers (with money) are looking to understand the complexity of issues that matter to them, not an editor and how she or he wants to slant them.

And younger consumers want to know when the next iPhone is coming out, not whether political paradigms are intertwined with corporate agendas in a municipality they drive through on their way to a camping spot. That's the conundrum media faces, in that young readers are busy with their personal lives, and older readers (with money) are looking to understand the complexity of issues that matter to them, not an editor and how she or he wants to slant them.

it's tough for sure.  

The Capital just sent an email to its subscribers asking them to convert to a subscription model. $9.99 a month or $99 a year. $500 a year if you want the full pull.

Will be interesting to see how effective that approach is. The Capital has original work but they also link to other stories. If I was the TC I wouldn't be too happy with someone else monetizing my work.

Edited by spanky123, 10 June 2021 - 02:34 PM.

$9.99 for less than ~1 article per day?   that's hard to say.

i think the TC only charges $9.99/mo. for the digital edition.  even though they also give that away to everyone for free online.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 10 June 2021 - 02:38 PM.

^FOCUS has a lot of subscribers and donors, even though it's a free rag. Sort of like public television, if people take a liking to it they will nurture it.

$9.99 for less than ~1 article per day? that's hard to say.

i think the TC only charges $9.99/mo. for the digital edition. even though they also give that away to everyone for free online.

Spanky, what does $500/year entail?

^

Annual impact report

Member tote bag

Special mention on their website

Ok, gotcha.

Ok, gotcha.

VV top tier has to be worth $5,000 then!

That's the buy-in. Then there's the monthly fee!

$9.99 for less than ~1 article per day? that's hard to say.

i think the TC only charges $9.99/mo. for the digital edition. even though they also give that away to everyone for free online.

Edited by todd, 10 June 2021 - 07:46 PM.

https://abacusdata.c...tion-in-canada/

52% THINK OFFICIAL GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTS OF EVENTS CAN’T BE TRUSTED

More than half of those interviewed found themselves agreeing with the statement “official government accounts of events can’t be trusted”

As with trust in news organizations, those with no post-secondary education, Alberta residents and those on the right showed markedly higher levels of mistrust in government.

Majorities of People’s Party, Conservative and Green Party voters indicate mistrust.  Those on the left and Liberal voters show higher levels of trust.

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 08 June 2022 - 12:35 PM.

Green Party voters are considered right of centre? 

https://youtu.be/p1agAgF46NQ

So how do we reform these institutions that have degraded to such abysmal levels?   

Cutting off all public funding might help. Perhaps then the media might do more than regurgitate government press releases.

I have been involved with marketing and know that this is the way it is. We would write press releases to sound like stories. Then the magazines would tweak them a bit and publish them as stories. This was at least honest information for cool products that work and do no harm....