Personality Profile > Nick Lees, a Fleet Street Journalist and a “Man of Certain Age”
Nick Lees is a journalist, an adventurer, and a philanthropist, whose insightful writing has been a cornerstone of the Edmonton Journal for decades. In his new column, “Man of a Certain Age,” he tells it like it is—after two hip replacements and approaching 70—as he continues to travel to exotic places, run marathons, and cycle over mountain passes, more often than not in support of one charity or another. Lees also writes a weekly column called “Business Buzz” for the paper’s Business section, and a charity-focused human interest piece for the weekly City section. Read more 
Edmonton Journal Reporters Win National and Provincial Awards
The Edmonton Journal was recognized during the National Newspaper Awards in Toronto on Friday, April 27, 2012 for exemplary news coverage. Veteran writer and editor Sheila Pratt received a certificate of merit for political writing and a team of reporters, editors and photographers received a certificate of merit for breaking news coverage of last May’s devastating wildfire in Slave Lake. Canada’s equivalent to the Pulitzer Prize, the National Newspaper Awards were established in 1949 by the Toronto Press Club and are presented annually by the not-for-profit Canadian Daily Newspaper Awards Programme Administration. Read more
Edmonton Journal Reporter Marty Klinkenberg Nominated for an Atlantic Journalism Award
According to the Edmonton Journal, Klinkenberg ” joined the Journal as a senior reporter in February, was nominated in the category of arts and entertainment reporting for a feature about John Richardson, the British art historian who helped orchestrate the first major modern art exhibition in Canada. This is the 11th nomination Klinkenberg has received for an Atlantic Journalism Award; all of the work was done for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. This is also the fourth year in a row Klinkenberg has been nominated for an Atlantic Journalism Award. In 2008 and 2010 he won for arts and entertainment writing and in 2009 he won for sports writing. In 2008, he was the only person in the 30-year history of the awards to be nominated in four categories: commentary, features, sports and arts and entertainment.” He is currently adding another category to his repetoire by covering the upcoming provincial election for the Journal. The winner will be announced at an awards gala on May 5 at the Delta hotel in Fredericton.
The Edmonton Journal Seeks Blogger-in-Residence by December 19
How would you like to be a blogger-in-residence at the Edmonton Journal? Their media lab is seeking applications for a six-week residency from a blogger who would like to share his or her knowledge and observe a newsroom in action. They’re hoping to give you an interesting and instructive experience in exchange for your expertise. The time commitment is roughly 25 hours spread over the six-week period. The honorarium is $150 per week. You would be free to blog about the experience before, during and after, as well as use social media to share your impressions and experiences. You would be expected to use discretion in what is shared, as some information may be sensitive or require more context than you have. But in essence, you’re a fly on the wall, and we’re expecting you will report fairly on what you see and hear. Interested? See more about the position and fill out an application form by Dec. 19 at noon. The successful applicant will start in mid-January.
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
Edmonton Journal Announces Community Newsroom Advisory Panel
Mack Male (aka Mastermaq pictured here), Karen Lynch (Volunteer Alberta), Elsie Stoltz (Edmonton Journal), Franco Savoia (YMCA), Todd Cranshaw (CKUA) and ten or so other community leaders have been choosen to serve as the advisory panel for the Edmonton Journal’s new online community newsroom set to launch on September 29, 2011. [Launch since moved to the last two weeks in October 2011]. The advisory panel was selected from 96 people who responded to their invitation to become part of their community advisory group. The panel is tasked with making sure The Journal is listening, learning and finding even more ways to interact with their readers and to find new ways to tell stories, take photos or videos, and produce quality journalism, whatever the platform. There will be more opportunities for others to participate, including the soon-to-be-launched community newsroom and their expanding blog network. If the pilot project proves successful, Postmedia plans on rolling the community newsroom concept out to their other papers across Canada.
Media Outlets in Edmonton Invite Citizen Journalists to Contribute to Ongoing News Stories
Strategic communications is becoming increasingly important for arts and community organizations with limited budgets, time and resources. There are many media outlets and even more communication tools to choose from to make effective use of any of them without a strategic communications plan. Last year, Sun Media launched their UR portal and invited readers to submit stories, photos and videos. At about the same time, CTV launched their MyNews portal and were joined soon thereafter by iNews 880 (CHQT) with the iNews portal and weekly newspapers such as the St. Albert Gazette began to encourage their listeners and readers to upload their own news stories. More recently Metro Edmonton launched their LiveWire initiative to invite people to contribute their news based on ongoing news stories they are developing for publication. On September 29, 2011, the Edmonton Journal is launching their online community newsroom. They are hoping to “make it as easy as possible for the arts and community organizations and their readers to contribute newsworthy events in a meaningful and relevant way on the special area on their website that will have tools for easily sharing stories, photos and videos.” 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.