The latest addition to the duties of Toronto Star public editor Kathy English: compelling Mayor David Miller to issue a correction — five days after the fact — for a tweet implicating the Toronto Star, along with the Toronto Sun, for reporting on February 18 that Gordon Lightfoot was dead. Guilty of the initial Twitter-sourced report was actually Canwest News Service and, a week later, The Globe and Mail commissioned Rebecca Fleming — an acquaintance of fake-news source Ronnie Hawkins — to pen a piece about how she didn’t kill Gord, but the Star are the ones who get to weave it into a larger ethics lesson. English dives into the fact that the Star’s Reality Check blog, rehashing a Los Angeles Times blog report that last year’s American Idol champ Kris Allen faked a relief trip to Haiti, generated “a flurry of emails” from rabid fans. Now, of course none of them know whether they’re writing to the Toronto Star, or the Star you find at the supermarket checkout, or The Star tabloid from Malaysia — they’re just instructing each other to shout down any outlet that questions the credibility of their favourite Christian lite-rock cowboy: “Just as we expect the mayor of Toronto to communicate accurate information,” wrote English in her weekend column, “the message conveyed by those who complained about the Star’s treatment of Kris Allen is that they expect more than speculation and rumours from a credible news organization. As one reader stated, ‘You really should do some research and fact-check before you publish nonsense.’” Good thing the Star wasn’t up to such shenanigans in the heyday of the Claymates — women shrieking for years that American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken was not gay. Now, it seems they have all moved on to Kris, a married missionary less likely to let them down.

The 2010 edition of Canpages is currently being dropped at doors around Toronto. Yet, many telephone directories will sit there untouched in apartment lobbies through 2011 — whereas many a homeowner can just transfer them immediately to the recycling bin. And using their website to opt out of future delivery isn’t something they’re too inclined to promote. Those who bother to pick one up will find a welcome message from one of the corporate directors, the Hon. Brian V. Tobin, P.C.: “During the last 7 years as I have worked and lived in the GTA, I have been thrilled to see the innovation and enthusiasm for growth that defines one of Canada’s largest regions and—…” Turn to page 630, where six full pages of display ads in the “Escort” category follow (Toronto Asian Escort, Gorgeous Escorts, All Toronto Escorts, VIP Escorts Services, Entertainment International, College Escorts) — a fraction of those still buying space in the Yellow Pages — and flipping to the last page reveals a promotion for the mobile app version of the dead tree book: “Would your Canpages phonebook fit in your handbag? Absolutely!” The company has more ambition than this, though: Canpages is an apparent backer in one of the bids to buy 46 newspapers from Canwest, as part of a consortium being led by current National Post publisher Paul Godfrey and other executives. Surely, each plumber that trips over a stack of unclaimed Canpages on their way to unclog a drain is one less prospective advertising client. Continue Reading

Starweek, the newspaper supplement that was once the most coveted thing about the Saturday Star for some, is now moving to home delivery distribution that requires opting-in via the internet — this will cost an extra 50 cents for subscribers who explicitly ask for it, while it will continue to be packaged in stores and boxes as part of a $2.50 package. The move allows the Star to bulk up the listing features that were perniciously shrinking for lack of revenue: a decade ago, based on figures published in trade publication Masthead, it was the ninth most successful publication in Canada by revenue, taking in $13.6 million of advertising in 2002. The print edition of TV Guide sold nearly as much print space, $11.1 million, but that was combined with $13.6 million in circulation revenue — while a multi-market newspaper supplement, the Southam-turned-Canwest-owned TVTimes, was making $9 million. Both of those vanished by 2008, when Starweek was down to taking in $4.4 million, far and away the fastest-falling Canadian periodical. The legacy of Starweek was such that when its longtime Hollywood-based freelancer Eirik Knutzen died in 2008 — his claim to fame was the ability to succinctly answer “TV Talkback” questions in the pre-interweb age — the Star tossed off an obituary that spelled his name wrong. Continue Reading

Innovate News was a conference hosted by the Canadian Association of Journalists on Saturday at the MaRS Centre — of 135 registered attendees, the Toronto Star dispatched 35. So, if publisher John Cruickshank had any motivation to print a state-of-the-Star column that day, this was it. “Good news for newspapers — for a change” fuzzily explained how, contrary to the original proposed plan last fall, not every production job at One Yonge Street will be outsourced: “It was a small but significant step on the path to the next Golden Age.” And, taking old-fashioned notes at the CAJ tweetup were the Star interns, who now have their own blog to indulge in the least welcome innovation of the past half-decade — the presumption that industry navel-gazing is itself a priority style of journalism, if not the justification for calling oneself a member of the media. Globe and Mail freelance columnist Ivor Tossell seemed a less biased observer: “Room full of journalists told, by reliable source, that making money via web browswers is a lost cause,” he tweeted. “Instead, room full of journalists hears, go straight to mobile and make money there. The journalists pull out their iPhones and twitter this.” Closing the day was Bill Buxton , principal researcher for Microsoft, who rattled the room with his no-money quote: reading news on paper in five years will be like smoking in a restaurant is today. Continue Reading