The Edmonton Journal Launches “The Bridge” Community Newsroom and Seeks Your Stories, Your Photos, Your Videos
On October 25, the Edmonton Journal launched its community newsroom initiative called ‘The Bridge.” Before and since then they have been inviting citizen journalists to test out and submit stories to the newsroom. I got to take a close look at the newsroom myself when, as a member of the Get Publishing Communications Society, I attended their Citizen Journalism Workshop at the Edmonton Journal on Saturday morning October 29. Read more 
Postmedia Network to Expand Online Paywall Strategy Across Canada
Postmedia Network Canada publisher of the National Post, the Edmonton Journal, the Calgary Herald and other daily and community papers in Alberta across the country, will soon be asking more of its readers to pay for online articles. In Report on Business magazine: The November 2011 issue Chief executive officer Paul Godfrey confirmed on Friday that in the coming months, Postmedia will begin expanding its “metered model” – which gives online readers a limited number of free articles before prompting them to pay for access – to the websites of its newspapers across the country. The announcement is not a surprise: Postmedia began testing this model in May on the websites of the Montreal Gazette and the Victoria Times-Colonist. (Postmedia sold the Victoria paper last week.) But this is the most definitive statement yet of how that experiment has gone. Read more
Jian Ghomeshi’s Q to Broadcast Two Hour Special with Jann Arden on November 17
According to their website, CBC’s Q hosted by Jian Ghomeshi will be taping a special two-hour-long show at the MacEwan Centre, on the University of Calgary campus, on Thursday November 17th. Jann Arden will talk about her new memoir, “Falling Backwards,” and her new CD “Uncover Me 2″. Plus Mayor Naheed Nenshi, and much, much more to be announced in the coming days. Doors at 6! Show starts at 7 p.m. Read more
“Celebrating Women’s Voices from the Past to the Future” Fundraiser, U of A, November 15, 2011
Celebrating Women’s Voices from the Past to the Future, a fund-raiser for the Alberta Women’s Memory Project, will be held Tuesday, November 15th, 2011 from 4:30 to 7:30 at the TELUS Centre, University of Alberta campus. Come and see the digitized collections and memoirs already on the website; listen to speakers Paula Simons, Edmonton Journal columnist, and Dr. Kelly Dabbs, renowned breast cancer surgeon; talk with committee members about preserving the voices of Alberta women. Read more
“St Albert Leader” Weekly Newspaper Launched in St Albert on October 20, 2011
On October 20, 2011 St Albert gained a new weekly newspaper — the St Albert Leader. Edited by Glenn Cook, former editor of the now defunct Saint City News that ceased publishing this past June and published by Rob LeLacheur, former GM of the Golddust Casino in St Albert and son of Rick LeLacheur soon to be former Edmonton Eskimos CEO. The newspaper will publish 20,000 copies every Thursday for distribution by Sun Media. Sun Media also prints the paper and provides editorial services. Read more
Canadian Online Publishing Awards 2011 Winners Announced
More than 250 publishers, editors, designers and other publishing pros packed the Gladstone Hotel ballroom in Toronto on Monday, October 24, 2011 to celebrate the best in editorial-based online and digital publishing at the third annual Canadian Online Publishing Awards. The awards capped off the first annual COPA+ Digital Publishing Conference, also at the Gladstone, featuring keynote presentations, panels, vendor demonstrations and exhibits. Among the big winners of the evening were Sparksheet, which dominated the Blue division (Business-to-Business) with seven Gold medals; and Torontoist, leading the pack in the Red division (Consumer) with three Gold medals. In the Green division (Newspaper and Broadcaster), the accolades were divided among leading titles including The Globe and Mail, Toronto Star, National Post, CBC, The Tyee and others. CBC Radio’s Nora Young, host of the network’s show on culture and technology, Spark, emceed this year’s COPA. Read more
CTV Edmonton Bestows Citizen of the Year Awards on Two Edmontonians
In its inaugural year, the judging committee for the 2011 CTV Citizen Of The Year Award has chosen two recipients: Mr. Issa Kamara: Founder/Executive Director of the Sinkunia Community Development Organization (SCDO) and Mr. Amson Saintime: Co-Founder/Executive Director of the ArbreDeVie Fine-Arts World Fellowship. The CTV Citizen Of The Year Award was created by CTV Edmonton in partnership with the Edmonton Heritage Festival Association to recognize those who have contributed to the promotion, awareness, understanding and appreciation for cultural diversity. Read more
Astral Media to Launch On-Demand Streaming Music and Music Video Service
Astral Radio, a division of Astral Media Inc., will launch an on-demand streaming music and music video service. Available online and on mobile devices, the innovative service is Astral Radio’s most recent initiative to reach listeners beyond the airwaves. “Astral Radio continues its long history of innovation in the digital space and we are excited to be the first radio broadcaster in North America to bring this on-demand offering to Canadian music fans in both English and French,” said Charles Benoit, Executive Vice President at Astral Radio. Read more
The Movie “Campus Radio” Written and Directed by Alberta’s Aaron Sorensen Now Screening at the Princess Theatre
Edmonton’s Princess Theatre presented the world premiere of the SXSW comedy Campus Radio, written and directed by Northern Alberta native, Aaron James Sorensen. In this interview posted to Avenue Edmonton Magazine’s website, Sorensen, who is also a notable musician, discusses how his time hanging around and listening to Edmonton and Calgary’s campus radio stations also inspired the Texas-centric flick; why he made the decision to create a Canadian-cast, Canadian-funded, Canadian-manned movie about a quintessential part of American music culture; and how he gave the lead role to an actor he just met in a Chinese gift shop. Campus Radio premiered on the evening of Friday, October 14 at the Princess Theatre (10337 Whyte Ave.). Read more
Jane Ash Poitras Celebrated in New Book and Exhibition at Bearclaw Gallery
Jane Ash Poitra was born a Cree in Fort Chipewyan in northern Alberta in 1951. Orphaned at six years with the death of her mother from tuberculosis, she was raised in Edmonton by an elderly German lady, at a time when “people did not take too kindly to Indians.” She was also raised in the Catholic Church, and with an atmosphere of prayer, dreams, and spirits imparted to her by this woman she affectionately refers to as “Grandma.” Her upbringing had a strong spiritual component, which facilitated the transition to a Native spirituality in the artist’s adult life. Her schooling was not a residential school experience, but rather a conventional school situation with its presentation of a distinctly non-Native perspective coincided with her development as an artist. Read more
Your newsletter is packed full of info!
Your October issue of mediamag ezine looked great Marilyn – we really appreciate you including our event, it’s really packed full of info – lots going on out there!
Paula Gerlach
Communications Director
Alberta Media Production Industries Association
October 12, 2011
Shaw and Cisco Plan an Extensive WiFi Network in Western Canada for 2012
Shaw and Cisco announced announced an agreement this past September to deploy an extensive and advanced wifi network in Western Canada. The broadband wireless network will be available to Shaw customers. The network will allow Shaw customers to connect Wi-Fi enabled devices like tablets, mobile phones and computers to thousands of wifi access points in Shaw’s communities. Data usage and the demand for connectivity continue to increase: according to Cisco’s Visual Networking Index Forecast , there will be nearly 15 billion network connections by 2015. Read more
Marilyn
Jones is a corporate and social media advocate for individuals, small businesses
and nonprofit organizations in Alberta. She lives in Edmonton, Alberta,
Canada and is the proprietor of RiverCity Productions. You can contact her
by phone at 780-695-5675 or by email at marilyn@mediamag.ca.