Winnipeg Sun Switches to Broadsheet

This is going on third week or so of the Winnipeg Sun's switch from the tabloid format it has had since its 1980 beginning. The paper initially was only three days a week and began evening delivery about a month into publication. Initially, the paper was black and white but eventually started having colour in their Sun logo. The publication was owned and operated by Winnipeggers, many of whom were refugees from the shuttered and beloved Winnipeg Tribune.  After getting to a respectable 34,000 plus circulation, Quebecor bought the paper and folded it into their national national Sun chain.

The early Sun was a little more serious paper in that there was no Sun girl. Editorial policy was more local and more encompassing. The tabloid format was streamlined and within two years some editions had a whopping 120 pages. The new Sun managers had a way of doing things that was more pugnacious and heavily conservative. It should be no surprise now that with a former Progressive Conservative cabinet minister, the new Winnipeg Sun should continue to be very conservative. However, it has picked up on local which the former owners seemed to have cut considerably in recent years.

Kevin Klein contributes regular columns and there are several additions in terms of columnists and writers on the paper. The relationship with the former Sun ownership continues but the focus there is all too often on the federal government. It is likely why Klein has tried to beef up local coverage.

The broadsheet format change is more of a hybrid. The broadsheet has a tabloid sports section in it. That section more closely resembles what a Sunday Sun was like. Even the logo more or less is the same. However, the front section has a banner type font reading Winnipeg Sun with a that at first glance looks like the Free Press even though the lettering is completely different. A rising sun in the middle of the letters is the one splash of colour in the heading. The stories and columns are laid out around a main picture. 

Inside the broadsheet is a fair amount of news and editorial. This seems to be true of both the Saturday and Sunday printed papers. It would appear that the newspaper is a work in progress so I am treating it more like what those 1980s days were like when the paper kept adding colours, days printed, delivery and the like. Klein keeps adding content because it is the only way to grow subscriptions.

Print newspapers are now quite dead yet. Just like books were written off far too early, newspapers and magazines can survive but they can't exist on classified and commercial ads. The big 6 gatekeepers such as Google and Facebook are starting to run afoul of antitrust. The fact that they can have anti-competitive practices hurts news media is only one aspect of concern. Their systems are capable of taking down banks, airlines and government services. The Microsoft update shows how badly we can be hurt. It cost billions.

Government can't pay media but these large groups that use content paid for by groups such as the Free Press and the Sun need to be held to account. If a new Conservative government drops supports for TV/film and media, it is entirely possible we see large areas of industry, news and production cease. 

Winnipeg is lucky as it has two local owners for their major newspapers. Kevin Klein will have his work cut out for him re-building the Sun. It still heavily favours a lot of national Sun/Postmedia content. To appeal to women, they will need different content than they do now. The New York Times gets thousands of subscribers for their game section. Other newspapers get reader for their advice columns. It was the Winnipeg Sun that was original home of Miss Lonelyhearts. There are many things that a newspaper is on a daily basis. But a big part of it should be informative and entertaining. 

The Sun really needs to build their Winnipeg Jets and Moose coverage. It is possible some relationship with the various sports podcasts is appropriate. This could apply to radio stations as well. Hal Anderson has contributed to the Sun for years. However, the paper could benefit from more restaurant reviews. More entertainment reports on what is happening in the city.

I get that this will be a piece by piece building project. And it won't all be about print newspaper. But it can be about news and information. And it can be a heck of a lot better than TikTok or Facebook.

Media Changes in North Dakota and Minnesota

Media shake-ups abound on both sides of the border. in 2024, Winnipeg Sun was spun off from National Post media group to locally owned Kevin Klein Group. It marks the first time that both major newspapers in the city have been owned locally in their history. For the Sun, it has led to more local news columnists. It also led to breaking more stories.

The Winnipeg Free Press has also added more local columnists over the years even if some have been controversial such as Charles Adler. Local is what newspapers and TV/Radio news need to stand out and yes, make money. Large conglomerates cut and cut again and then often just close and add the tax loss to write off debts. They are rarely builders. Free Press ownership is shared by Winnipegger Bob Silver and former Winnipegger Ronald N. Stern.

Two local owners of major newspapers in Canada is so unusual that is you can count on three fingers the cities they are in. For the west, it is only one city: Winnipeg. And so far they are fighting a battle against what many in Europe call the six gatekeepers: Amazon, Alphabet (Google), Apple, ByteDance (TikTok), Meta (Facebook) and Microsoft. Even those who receive no government money, companies such as these can control access to their platforms. The breakdown of Microsoft update shutting down the Internet is one 2024 example of how bad things can get. And digital ad money gets swooped up and AI from these giants creates content mined from creators all over. In other words, an independent journalist who breaks a story can see it used by the biggies and not get paid for it.

The gatekeepers can do this to even larger companies too. Artificial Intelligence is being used to create new stories. But where does that information come from? It is often mined from companies such as the New York Times. If the largest newspapers, media companies and the like are vulnerable from the super giants, how do the rest of us even cope. Those saying that the government tinkering in business ignore the fact anti-trust moves are to keep things competitive in a capitalist market. For example, the modern Internet became possible when AT&T was broken up. It triggered some of the biggest investments in telecom ever seen which was essential to a widespread, faster Internet.

The questions of what to do about the supranational giants will remain the question of the day. In recent weeks, Google's search engine has been declared a monopoly by the U.S. government. It remains to be seen see what the federal agencies will decide to do. In the meantime, news and media companies are coming up with new strategies to stay relevant and profitable. North Dakota and Minnesota have seen some of their largest media companies make moves in 2024.

The Minneapolis Star Tribune has dropped the Minneapolis part and it is now Minnesota Star Tribune. This would be in keeping with their sports teams that have always been wise to using Minnesota for their NHL, NBA, NFL and MLB teams without fail. Minneapolis and St. Paul are truly Twin Cities and there are communities of some size all through the metropolitan area. Changing the name makes sense.

A competing broadsheet in St. Paul, Minnesota also dropped their city name in favour of just Pioneer Press. It is not owned locally and have experienced massive cuts over the years. In 2006 they had over 200 unionized writers. By 2023, that number was down to 23. The MediaNews Group that owns the paper and has a reputation of cuttings. Still, like the Star Tribune, it is trying to extend its readership and their website to include all of Minnesota. Their website is twincities.com which doesn't even mention Pioneer Press.

The Twin Cities also has MinnPost.com which is a non-profit digital news for the region. TV and radio stations have substantial news and sports content in Minnesota as well as North Dakota. PBS has extensive coverage of the regions. While there is less local ownership of TV and radio stations in big markets likes Minneapolis, there remains some. In this way, they are not much different than Winnipeg where nearly all local TV and radio has ownership outside Manitoba.

It is the digital audience that everyone in media is trying to capture. Just as landlines are being cut, people are cutting their print newspapers and cable. The problem is that digital ads don't pay as much as print or TV ones. Plus, the gatekeepers scoop up all the money that is there as well as use the content for their own ends. It is the definition of antitrust. 

What the big digital companies don't do as well is news that people might want or need locally. Reddit has discussions on local stuff but it isn't curated in news, weather and sports categories in the way other media is. To that end, local news and TV/radio in North Dakota and Minnesota are offering much more local appeal. Having a local meteorologist reporting is standard for TV stations in the U.S. where some of the wildest weather keeps them on our toes. Winnipeg does not make this a priority. Also, the new digital sub-channels that a station like WDAY Fargo as makes local sports a priority. Al the high school football games in the Fargo region is on the WDAY sub-channels. We don't have digital sub-channels on TV or radio in Manitoba yet and none seem to be happening in Canada. It would appear media empires and the CRTC just don't see the need. If it is Canadian content guidelines that are required, there would seem to be enough library material of older shows to put in place.

In terms of Minnesota, the 157 years old Star Tribune is hiring more writers, not less. The are focusing on placing more reporters outside Minneapolis-St. Paul and covering areas such as business, downtown, regional state issues and investigations. Cannabis stores are new in Minnesota so they will cover that. This is a familiar area for Free Press who covered cannabis with a dedicated journalist for a while. Overall, the state-wide focus means that the Star Tribune will be reaching large audiences but still remain hyper-local. Large media networks just don't cover those areas except in general terms of news, weather and sports.

There will be a lot of eyes on the Star Tribune's investment in expanded coverage. Glen Taylor, the billionaire local owner, is spending new money on top of the $100 million that he paid for the paper in 2014 has turned the paper around. It makes money and has maintained around 225 writing staff and a total of 1,000 or so altogether. The Free Press, by contrast, has 50 reporter and 580 total staff. The Free Press also have community newspapers, Brandon and Steinbach journalists which adds to total writers in Manitoba.  

The Winnipeg Free Press, like Star Tribune, have rich owners. The Free Press is owned by Bob Silver from Winnipeg and Ronald N. Stern, formerly from Winnipeg but now based in Vancouver. Bob Silver is the director in charge. Stern owns companies valued just under $2 billion including many based in Winnipeg. Some wags have suggested that only papers with deep pocketed owners, preferably local, will ever invest in local media. Examples abound in Canada and the U.S. of this.

Digital subscriptions, as the New York Times has shown, is the way for the newspapers to find success. However, the big six grow ever more powerful so that that they can simply use artificial intelligence to create news stories largely harvested from what others report. All the money flowing to the big six even threatens the major industrial nations. It is the inherent danger if antitrust is not pursued. Total monopolies bullying nations.

The Star Tribune is probably not finished evolving. Both the Star Tribune and Free Press are doing newsletters and podcasts. Those are likely a lot of better for a newspaper than X/Twitter or Facebook. As the fifth largest newspaper in America and the addition of hiring six more Minnesota reporters, it will be creating considerably content.

In Canada, TV and radio conglomerates such as Corus, Rogers and Bell use their news teams across platforms. However, they have all made cuts and likely overpaying for show rights in the U.S. This makes them routinely ask to cut Canadian content. Rarely do they use Canadian-made content such as news as part of their commercial success. The mergers and acquisitions and overpaying for product brings inevitable cuts. And for what? Some of the radio and TV stations that get bought get closed down. Often enough there isn't even an attempt to sell the enterprise. Luckily, in Winnipeg, the National Post sold three papers including the Winnipeg Sun to Kevin Klein so they could be owned locally. There is a strong possibility that the papers might have been closed otherwise.

Throughout North America, the rate of closures is about two newspapers a week. Often this mean no local coverage of any regional issues which can lead to poor performance from local officials who face no scrutiny. You don't need a billionaire for a small media company but you sure could use a leading citizen or two interested in running and operating something that can't be treated like a franchise 

with identical reporting.

The Star Tribune has a billionaire owner in Glen Taylor and a local interested in investing in more reporting. The competitive market in Minnesota will be very interesting to keep an eye on. However, Minnesota is not the only state to keep an eye on. North Dakota has seen their own local media become regional in focus.

In the case of North Dakota, Winnipeg has been able to watch the growth of this media company much more closely. Anyone from Manitoba has been able to read the Grand Forks Herald and Fargo Forum newspapers has been exposed this Pulitzer-prize winning companies. The Herald won the Pulitzer for its coverage of the 1997 flood and fire which flooded and burned down their building.  The Forum won the Pulitzer for coverage of the 1957 F5 tornado that killed over 100 people. It was the northern most F5 today until the Elie, Manitoba F5 in 2007. 

The Black-Marcil family have built their business from the Fargo Forum platform. The newspaper was started in 1878 and took on the name Forum in 1891. The Black-Marcil family have owned it since 1917 and took over the Grand Forks Herald in 2006. Forum Communications is also a TV and radio owner. Most in Winnipeg will be familiar with today's WDAY (formerly WDAZ) that has been on the cable band for decades. Along with Prairie Pubic Broadcasting (PBS), these two station remain the only North Dakota stations still seen in Manitoba.

Forum Communications, from their Fargo headquarters, has run a large news team from their newspaper as well as their TV station. WDAY began in 1953 and was originally a NBC affiliate with a helping of other network programming from CBC, ABC and Dumont. A sister station in Grand Forks was started in 1967 because the region needed a station since Fargo's signal was now powerful enough to reach the area with CBC Winnipeg's broadcast. WDAZ ended in 2006 except for a news bureau of WDAY.

The Marcil family has had to adjust to the size of the state and but to go where their audience is. The state capital is down the highway from Fargo and has to be covered so a Forum bureau reporter is based there. The WDAY network maintains a bureau and sales office in Grand Forks. All of the newspapers that Forum Communications has purchased from big media companies have been folded into a news service that covers North Dakota, Minnesota and South Dakota.

In 2024, Forum Communications continues to pick up independent TV stations in places like South Dakota with the intent of establishing a regional media presence. The company has been expanding rather contracting. While it was a blow to Grand Forks to lose WDAZ, the trade off has been great state broadcasting of local sports throughout the region including Grand Forks. No national media corporation will ever be interested in this type of work.

Forum also owns WDAY radio but literally everything in radio is owned by huge conglomerates. Forum contracts out management to a North Dakota media group. Almost everything in American AM radio is conservative or Christian broadcasting. In many cases there is not a single employee working aside from some technical person. It has been problematic in disasters as there is often no one to even broadcast emergency signals as mandated by the FCC.

Bismarck, which is the second largest city in North Dakota, literally has no media that is locally owned. Were it not for  Forum Communications, it would not have any North Dakota owned media. So much of newspaper, TV and radio industry is controlled from somewhere else and often, they would rather shutter the business than attempt to sell it. It has been Forum Communications that has picked up these assets when they have come available.

In Canada and the U.S. we have seen newspapers, TV station and radio stations closed down with very little attempt to find buyers. Assets are trades by big corporations and then dumped after after a while. It is only local owners who will care such as we see in Minneapolis and Fargo or in Winnipeg. And the goal of the local owners is to expand coverage and reach a larger regional audience.

New York Times versus Washington Post

In recent years, two of the largest newspapers in the U.S. have struggled under the challenges of operating print and digital publications in a time when news operations are closing all over the U.S. and the world. Both papers have deep pocketed owners are navigating a world that shouts fake news for reporting that doesn't reflect their views. In America, newspaper readers are more likely to vote Democrat in recent years. This should not diminish their importance in news gathering. For the Washington Post, the commitment of their reporters has seen one assassinated and another held hostage for treason in a very short time.

The New York Times has about 1500 staff and the Washington Post has about 1000. Both have had their share of controversies over the years including that of bias and continuing bias. Some of this even applies to something like the New York Times Best Seller list that some conservatives says works against them. A recent Economist magazine investigation says they are right.

At one time books stores like McNally carried New York Times but that is an expensive proposition when the digital forms are so available today. Almost all print papers that used to come to the city from other places have ended. A place like Dominion News used to carry so many newspapers from all over daily. There was a time when Washington Post Syndicate columnists would appear in newspapers all across North America including Winnipeg. In the 1960s and 1970s, the Washington Post began to be known as being the investigative and insiders report of Capitol Hill. The reporter as hero with Bernstein and Woodward became synonymous with The Post.

It isn't like the New York Times was being a slouch. They had reporters in the various bureaus such as Vietnam covering some of the biggest stories in countries all over the world. But they also also reporters throughout the U.S. including fair size coverage in Washington. Between the Times and the Post, the amount of world-wide reporting bureaus easily surpassed U.S. TV and cable networks. No one quite has the coverage of the Wall Street Journal though. They have over 80 bureaus in over 50 countries. But it has always been different for a business newspaper reporting on markets across the world.

Almost all newspapers including the Times and the Post have laid off workers. Google, Facebook and others are hoovering up advertising dollars while using content produced by others. The Times has gotten better at subscription service and content people want to read and participate in such as Wordle and their crossword puzzle. Not everything is politics. New York City has so much media in it that if a publication does meet the needs, there are several newspapers in the city that will. Washington has a few newspapers but really only one is the daily newspaper where you would get your weather, sports and locals news as well. The Washington Post can't really think the Washington Times is competition.

There is a lot of disillusionment with newspapers in the U.S. and elsewhere in the world. They have made big errors in the past, made choices in their coverage but in some cases, it is just cynicism about all established forms of government, media, religion and culture. At worst, it is outright hostility. The culture wars writ large where the media is the enemy. Even business papers like the Wall Street Journal which are more likely to have conservative views are not embraced as they still don't show enough deference to Trump or his movement.

The Washington Post is going through some angst about losing readership and has changed their editor in the last while. So what is happening and why does the New York Times seem to have an edge in the new journalism world? I mentioned a few areas. The Times tries to engage with specialized areas such as book reviews, crosswords and other things. They have been known for their cooking section for a very long time. These are things along with video games that drive new audiences. The Times also makes use of social media and podcasts. They cut their sports department and contracted it out to wholly owned The Athletic. There was some calls that this might be union busting. Since sports reporters were transferred elsewhere in the paper, the argument didn't go anywhere.

The changes at the top at the Post possibly reflect that the paper, despite the need to be innovative, has failed to add value in the way as the Times has. The New York Times Books and Games sections make it a must read. They have a climate section and recipes section but recently shut down their weekend section of the paper. Politics and Investigation are too areas of strengths but if Republicans are not reading your newspaper, you are hooped.

The Boston Globe, another big metro paper, makes sure they are the go to for real estate in Boston. They also have advice columns. They also embrace podcasts which is where many of the younger news people go for information.  A few other sections are must reads and that is why their digital subscriptions are up. In Winnipeg, the Free Press has a religion section that other newspapers don't touch. They tried cannabis a few years ago but it didn't stick. They once had an exceptional pets section. Cars and real estate have made the Free Press a must read for many.

The Post is probably saved by their Metro section covering Washington, Maryland and Virginia. The local news and sports is what will keep readers coming back. There is nothing wrong with newspapers having an editorial slant. It is important to label news, analysis and opinion as clearly as you can. There will be people who dislike coverage no matter what angle it takes. In recent years many American newspapers have recruited reporters and editors from the UK who are thought to have a more spirited approach to news gathering. The opposite certainly isn't true where there are few American editors of the big papers in Britain. The Free Press is not immune and have hired some Brits from time to time to the staff themselves.

There are some fantastic columnists on the Washington Post but the New York Times does more to show them off on the first page of their website. And has been clearly pointed out, it is the editors job to make sure the paper is not boring. That is not to say to filled with clickbait but interesting coverage, strong analysis and well argued opinions. The new people in charge at the Post recently called their reporting boring. It remains to be seen if the Washington Post can reclaim lost readership. At the moment their CEO and publisher is fighting for his career in court over his time as leader at the Times of London. 

It is the New York Times that seems to have come up with ways to be relevant, make money but serve the public interested in a variety of things a newspaper provides. The line has blurred a bit and it is not just about print but pictures, video, podcasting and up to date breaking news. Still, a newspaper will take longer to develop stories, give them more in depth, develop sources and then break news themselves rather than just reporting after the fact. In recent years though, newspapers have fallen on manufacturing grievance rather than reporting. It is the low hanging fruit in journalism. 

The Times just doesn't have columnists. They have some very good reporters and do investigations well. These often require resources and time to do those stories. Not all are politics. Consumer and technology stores often take time take to put together. The various foreign bureaus offer insight just not found in television news since there are just fewer TV reporters based elsewhere. 

In the United States, polarization seems mean talk radio is a conservative medium, newspapers a liberal one. TV network news liberal and cable a mix of liberal and conservatives but even more slanted. Online it is often most slanted. It is sad that newspapers are being abandoned by conservatives. It didn't matter who you were in Washington, everyone read the Post. Now conservatives want to only hear from conservative sources and liberals want to hear from liberal sources. It is a confirmation bias that bangs it's head against certain realities. Unless some people accept alternate facts or narrative.

There is still much debate about social media like Google and Facebook hoovering up ad dollars. Even the Canadian federal government has spent millions on foreign owned social media advertisements. It seems counter to what is needed for a national media of any kind. Not every small newspaper can adopt the subscription model as successfully as the New York Times. Advertising remains important. The big social media companies seem prone to hacks, agent provocateurs from foreign governments and actors and sharing information with other companies who don't take privacy or security seriously. Worst, is the anti-competitive nature which concentrates everything in fewer and fewer hands.

So when it comes to Washington Post versus New York Times, it probably has to land with the Times because of all the extra stuff they bring to the table. And they have managed to change to a subscription model that makes money. The Times continues to be a newspaper that innovates and draws reader. Even Republicans read The Athletic which it owns. This might be the key for newspapers to beef up their sports and arts coverage to make the newspaper more universal. For kids, many read their first newspaper for the comics. After that for the sports, arts, etc. The only difference nowadays could be reading or viewing in digital. A newspaper needs to be able to deliver the goods digitally nowadays and how they present it is key. So for other newspapers out there, they should look at the New York Times to see what the future is like and how to be meaningful as well as successful.

Kevin Klein Group Buys Winnipeg Sun

 The announcement that Kevin Klein, former publisher of The Sun, former Councillor and former PC cabinet minister has purchased the Winnipeg Sun, the Portage la Prairie Graphic Leader and the Kenora Miner and News in Ontario. All related print and digital assets, employees and other associated activities of Postmedia Network related to the businesses is included in the sale to the Klein Group and its investors.

It is probably one of the most significant newspaper stories in Canada in a very long while. With this purchase, Winnipeg becomes the only other city in Canada aside from Toronto with at least two locally owned newspapers, owned by two different owners. The Free Press is owned by Bob Silver of Winnipeg and former Winnipegger and Vancouver resident Ron Stern and the The Sun will be owned by Winnipeg resident Kevin Klein. Compare to Toronto where the National Post and Toronto Sun are foreign owned, locally based newspapers, the Globe and Mail is the only remaining newspaper owned by David Thomson and the Toronto Star is owned by the Bitove Family of Toronto.

It simply is unheard of today that two competing newspapers have local ownership. Up until the 1980s Manitoba's local TV media aside from the public broadcaster were locally owned. This was true of radio stations ways back as well but this is true of neither now. In short, it is great news that both newspapers are locally owned by competing groups.

In the mix is Portage la Prairie and Kenora's newspaper which likely means a tighter focus on regional strengths. The National Post will still be a supplier content which should help, For 18 months there has been no agreement between the 37 union members at the Winnipeg Sun. New ownership will be tasked with getting an agreement for stability on that front. There are are agreements with non-unionized staff that will have to be settled but if labour issues are settled, Klein will be tasked with finding a way to make money in the news business.

Kevin Klein as former publisher knows the money side of the business. He has been providing to the content side as a columnist after his political career came to an electoral halt. One of the the things that will be interesting to see is if there is a return of sports reporters travelling with the Jets and the Bombers. The home games have reporters present but the away games have been covered from home base. This is a weakness because exclusives and on the spot coverage are suddenly lacking. 

For the Winnipeg Sun, sports and local stories, particularly crime and court stories are likely things to bring readers in. The paper, which was founded in 1980, started off as a locally owned tabloid publishing a few times a week. It was an act of faith that kept it goes before it got scooped up in 1983 by the larger national Sun chain. It adopted the corporate model of the Sun girl...or boy and the editorial comment on letters. Sports and local news became the focus and Peter Warren would contribute columns. It had its own comics section and TV and movie reviewers. 

In recent years, the Sun has lost some columnists to the Free Press and shrank its newsroom. It still puts out content but it has been in need of TLC from ownership who will both invest and somehow let the journalists pursue news, analysis and opinion. They need to fill the gaps the Free Press leaves open. Crime, city hall could all use a new perspective. It will be a challenge to reach skeptical citizens. And somehow make money on print and digital.

It seems Klein is likely to drop the local journalism initiative. The government money is needed to replace lost ad revenue. Also, the new media group is likely to apply for the digital fund supports coming from Google and the like. But more will be needed to support the business. Government ads of all kinds for announcements used to be helpful. There is no way Canada should be using Facebook when all money goes out of the country. However, the government has used media not based in the country.

Big media companies in Canada have been shutting down newspapers, radio stations and TV stations for years after stripping them down. It has seemed they are more willing to shut them down than sell them. Postmedia has owned The Sun since 2015. The Klein Group purchase The Sun and the other two papers is a welcome change.

I think there will be shockwaves across media in Canada about the purchase and what it might mean for other communities to purchase newspapers, radio stations and the like from large corporations who otherwise would just shut down these companies. I hope for success for The Sun and a healthy competition for readers with the Free Press.

Should Winnipeg Have More Non-Profit News Sources?

 

In 2020, the rules changed in CRA to allow for non-profits to be a journalism provider. Only eight organizations, including the environmental news provider The Narwhal, have done so. What does this do? This means the non-profit pays no taxes to provide news. None. They can issue donation receipts for gifts and can receive Canadian foundation support with less snags. 

The Winnipeg Foundation, The Winnipeg Free Press and the non-profit digital media site Narwhal are among the first to work together. One journalist is paid to write environmental stories for Manitoba for a three year term that appears in the Free Press and the Narwhal. The reporter is identified in their byline as to their position and focus area. It is unknown what the independence of the editorial policy is but I assume that it supports the mandate of both Free Press, Narwhal and Winnipeg Foundation for local journalism initiatives.

Manitoba is no different than many other areas of the country in that it has lost local news outlets outright. Winnipeg is luckier than other places in that there are print, radio and TV options although the cuts to CTV have meant fewer later night, weekend and holiday options. There are more digital options and podcasts out there but many private broadcasters are looking to get out of news altogether.

Social media can be a source of local news but it is difficult to sift through. It can lead you to the newest ice cream shop but it is not necessarily going to give more in depth reports about the state of the restaurant business locally. That is where someone who makes a living writing and covering news can do that. Influencers in Canada often don't get any money but they may get considerations from the places they cover. This can represent a conflict of interest for some, especially if not disclosed or if they don't have independent editorial policy.

Given how many for profit news sites have closed and how local journalism and withered in so many communities, the non-profit option might offer hope for those communities to support local media. The aspect of no tax and no dividend to shareholders is an attractive one. It means money is poured back into the local news product. 

There has been some very interesting developments in non-profits in the U.S. In Maine, a number of dailies and weeklies have now come under the umbrella of a non-profit. They will no longer have private owners or pay profit in the form of dividends to those owners. The non-profit will be supported by donations and subscriptions. Advertising is still accepted but the dependence on it as the basis of success is no longer as important.

MinnPost is very much a newspaper. Minneapolis-St. Paul has two dailies which makes it luckier than a lot of cities. But they have always been twin cities and doing things twice. Minnesota also has a very active National Public Radio group of stations, Twin Cities PBS and major newsrooms from the four affiliates of ABC, CBS. FOX and NBC. It is an embarrassment of riches that is only added to by having MinnPost.

MinnPost is a non-profit and manages to cover quite a lot of material with no firewall on the material. The donations it receives and the readership it has clearly indicate that Minnesota is very much interested in more journalism, not less. The fact that they include all Minnesota in their coverage is an indication that they look beyond just Minneapolis-St. Paul. 

It is too late for communities like Selkirk, Altona and Winkler who have lost their newspapers when PostMedia closed them. There wasn't even an attempt to sell them or let a non-profit takeover. We have seen then same type of closures on radio stations recently. In many cases, it isn't a question of some of these areas losing population. It is just profit margins are not there to the satisfaction of an out of province owner.

Does Manitoba need a non-profit for local coverage on a provincial level? If you ask Selkirk, Altona and Winkler, the answer is probably yes. But what does that look like? Well, it likely has no physical address aside from a P.O.  Box. No need of printers. It probably has to have some seed money as did MinnPost. Four families put up the initial money. Once set up as a non-profit, they can accept money from Foundations. A membership drive comes along the way at some point. MinnPost has 5000 members or so each year.

Is it possible that people in Manitoba could do this? I suspect they could but that it would need leadership from journalists, a former publisher or two and some initial seed money to get off the ground. I know I'd support it. 

Washington Post Story October 1, 2023 on Prairie Green Landfill

Unifor's message on Red Dress Day October 4

https://archive.ph/20231002000903/https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2023/10/01/canada-prairie-green-landfill-search/

USA Today

The above is the cover of USA Today first publish on September 15, 1982. For those Winnipeggers looking to get a copy at the international newsstands, it wasn't easy. Even in the States it was limited to only a few metropolitan areas. However, the colour pages, graphics and weather map of the entire United States would go on to influence every other print paper including the Winnipeg Free Press. Derided by the big news groups at the time as being McPaper, it lost money until 1987.

It was in 1984 that USA Today's began to show up in Winnipeg. Unlike the U.S., it cost 50 cents. Canada got the U.S. version rather than the newly developed international version. Eventually USA Today boxes that looked different from any other news box arrived in the city. In various parts of the downtown and even in neighbourhoods like River Heights, the USA boxes shaped like TV stands appeared, usually by bus stops.

It would be wrong to call it the great era of newspapers in Winnipeg as each era has had great and sometimes terrible moments. The historical start of Winnipeg had many scrappy English and non-English newspapers covering the region and beyond. The 1970s had an epic battle between the The Winnipeg Free Press and the Winnipeg Tribune with many innovations for subscribers. Sadly, that ended when the Tribune closed in 1980.

Luckily, Winnipeg only went a number of months before a number of local business people and former writers of the Tribune got together to start the Winnipeg Sun. While tabloid in format, it was local and distinguishable from Sun counterparts for nearly 20 years. The sports department was excellent and the yellow news boxes were easily recognizable. From 1980 on there were often four or five news boxes on prominent corners. Local, national and international. And a good book store or new store might have copies of everything from New York Times to the Calgary Herald. It was a heyday for print media.

And why not? There was no Internet and print was the best way to report news and make money from advertising. Our family at one point sometimes had four newspapers in the house. With no Sunday shopping till the late 1980s, a weekend paper would stretch over two days. The Sun eventually added a Sunday paper and people took a section each to read whether it was local, sports, comics or opinion. 

USA Today had a Friday, Saturday and Sunday version that I'd pick up. The price of 50 cents a day was too rich for me but a weekend paper often had special sections. Their "Labor" weekend paper was usually something we picked up when down in Grand Forks, North Dakota. The early 1980s Columbia Mall had 71 stores along with Target, JCPenney and Dayton's. Prior to the 1978 opening of Columbia, our family had made a few trips to Fargo, North Dakota for the 1972 built West Acres Mall.  Often it was just a day trip from Grand Forks where we'd have our hotel. In Grand Forks, as young kids I remember shopping in downtown Grand Forks.

By 1984, we mostly stayed only in Grand Forks at the Westward Ho. And we always picked up a Grand Forks Herald and a USA Today. The Sunday Herald was thick with ads that we perused before shopping. The USA Today on Labor Day would feature the upcoming TV season. I had occasionally bought TV Guide's Fall Preview but found it less satisfactory than reading USA Today.  Our family was fairly well informed about what might be good in the coming season. A lot it was revealed in the TV listings of both Free Press and Sun. But USA Today compared and contrasted the offerings and got me excited about shows I might like.

USA Today also ran special sections for baseball and the NFL that were popular. I'd liked the graphics for the various shuttle missions. The most impressive thing that often attracted the eye was the full page weather map. I contend that more geography and sense of America came from looking at the 50 state weather map than what appeared in any national media or in education. It also listed much of the world fairly well.

I loved the USA Today logo. The new one since 2012 feels more washed out and even years later I'm still not used to it. Truth is, since the pandemic, I have only been to the States once since 2019 and that was this spring. One thing had changed and that is, it isn't easy to find print newspapers of any kind. Where they used to be at every gas station or news boxes outside restaurants, these things have gone missing. And hotels used to have newspapers at front desk for free or dropped by your room. I still see newspapers at some Winnipeg hotels but not once in 2023 south of the border.

Perhaps the assumption is that people will get all their information and news online. However, the roaming charges for Canadians makes use of a cellphone prohibitive except when using WIFI. The good news is that WIFI is far more available than it was prior to the pandemic. But I'll be honest. I don't like reading newspapers or magazines very much on a cellphone. As such, I sought out USA Today and found it hard to find a print copy. I had to do a search about retailers who sold it. Some grocers and gas stations. But far less than a few years ago. And far less copies!

Contrast that to Winnipeg where there are quite a few Saturday papers at most 7/11s and grocers. And a good supply any other time they print during the week. The digital wave is only a part of the assault on news. Polarization means that many people stick to their silos when it comes to news and media. USA Today has some editorial and opinion content that is ranked left of centre but there is enough to appeal to many with sports, weather and entertainment as well as news stories from across the United States.

I hope papers like USA Today survive in print. We have seen books and records make comebacks in part because people have preferred the format instead of a digital option. The newspaper once called McPaper has been far more resilient, colourful and national than than the regional fare that came before it but it wasn't really meant to replace your local paper. The national scope of the newspaper was what made it different and special. Here's to many more years of USA Today.

Magazines

 

I love magazines. Still do. 

When I was young we did not usually subscribe to too many magazines. Things like Consumer Reports, Women's Day and other were in the house. Others were received them from grandparents when they were done with them. For years that was usually Reader's Digest from my dad's side of the family. We had the the Winnipeg Tribune delivered to our River Heights home and I was a carrier from about 7 years old. Both the Free Press and the Trib were evening papers and the newspaper bundles were dropped off late afternoon and papers were to be delivered after school. Below from the Hulton Archive. See Free Press peaking out.

The 1970s were a busy a time and somewhat of a golden era for print media. A number of new magazines began and  check out stands and book stores were filled with all manner of offerings. People Magazine started in 1974,  Maclean's went weekly in 1975, Starlog in 1976, TV Guide Canada came onto newsstands in 1977, US Magazine in 1977 and Omni in 1978. There were quite a few others.

Our family didn't get cable from Videon till 1971. It was the same year we got a colour TV from my mom's parents. It was a huge cabinet TV and the picture tube was 21 inches. The TV cost about $500 which is $3000+ in today's dollars. The aspect was 4:3 but the quality of the Zenith TV was great. And Videon was about $5 a month. All of this was a lot of money for many families. Even in 1971, many people did not have cable or colour TVs. Cable only came to Winnipeg in 1968. Prior to Grade 1, we had CBWT and CJAY (which became CKY in 1973). The French channel came in fuzzy on rabbit ears as did KCND in Pembina, North Dakota. If they came in at all. To say it was a revolution in 1971 getting colour TV and cable would be to put it bluntly.

As mentioned, we didn't get TV Guide except for fall preview. It really didn't do anything for Canada that wasn't in the newspaper TV listings. By 1969, the Tribune and the Free Press were offering their own TV magazines. The Trib's TV Times was 32 pages. As cable grew across North America, many people looked to the newspapers and magazines to see what what was on TV.

If people got newspapers on Saturdays in the 1970s, they generally got a magazine a week. As it was part of the Southam newspaper chain, the Trib also distributed the Canadian magazine on Saturdays. The Free Press version was the Weekend. The Tribune also put their Saturday comics in magazine form in 1977 and it lasted till 1978. A visit to any friends houses who got newspapers meant seeing a pile of them. I became interested in the nexus between movies, TV and magazines. 

Star Wars came out in 1977 in my last year of elementary school, I had seen a preview in Starlog and had begun reading the Star Wars Marvel comic just before the movie came out. Thus, I was able to be there on opening night and 12 times more that summer for the movie that George Lucas said was aimed at 13 year olds. Like me. Or what age I was less than a year after it came out when I entered junior high.

I did not have the type of budget to get People magazine unless there was something compelling like Star Wars on the cover. The cover below was not even published till nearly three months after the movie became a sensation. I bought this one but alas didn't keep it. I did end up buying many other Star Wars things in 1977 including art, books and the like. I still have them today. But I never kept any of the magazines such as People or Starlog which I regret today.

I was always pretty up to date on current affairs. A kindergarten teacher told my mom that I shouldn't listen to CBC Radio anymore because I was too young to worry about Israel being attacked by surrounding Arab countries. While we had a TV in 1968, it did not factor as much as the radio did and we listened to As it Happens when it first broadcast that year. When we moved to Kingsway, it became a habit to prepare meals with CBC on in the background and through dinner. In 1970, my first year of school, my questions to the teacher on the conflict was no news is good news. My mom took the advice under advisement but the radio stayed on.

The National on CBC started in 1969 but I don't believe I really saw it till 1970 when Lloyd Robertson was the anchor. and we lived on Kingsway. Since the broadcast was at 11 PM, I saw it infrequently as the kids were off to bed much earlier. However, things like church, community club and union meetings often ran till 10:30 PM according to my mom's date book. No lie. There was a reason why the national and local news was so late. It was because 11 PM was the first time parents might be free.

As mentioned, my interest in current affairs was strong. One of the first books I read at the school library that I read was the Battle of Britain. There were so many veterans back then as the war was not even 25 years in the past. The Korean War was a mere 15 or so years past. I was already aware of conflict in Israel and by 1968 was aware of the Vietnam War. In 1972, the series MASH started and lasted 11 seasons surpassing the Korean War by 8 years in duration. All of this meant was that there was a keen interest in the Canadian public in general about the world around them.

This was reflected in the magazine racks at grocery and convenient store checkouts first placing magazines at cash checkouts. In Winnipeg that was in the 1950s and by the late 50s, Canadian magazines like Chatelaine and Maclean's would compete with space with Harper's and Saturday Evening Post. Archie Comics would also be a mainstay at checkout counters.

At 7/Elevens the checkout featured Time, Newsweek and Maclean's along with Rolling Stone right at the counter. On one horrific week, four magazine covers reflected the same tragic event in the same picture.

In 1978 all the newsmagazines including Maclean's, Time, Newsweek and U.S. News and World Report all had the same picture on the cover. Not sure I've seen the same event use the exact same picture ever since. It was very eerie and there it was at every checkout counter at every store in the land.

While young people watched other programs on other stations, ABC was a favourite American channel for many of its programs such as Three's Company, Fantasy Island, The Love Boat and Happy Days. One show, the Partridge Family from 1970 to 1974 on ABC, was both a music show and family show and star David Cassidy was a staple of magazines like Tiger Beat. My sister would often get for Christmas or birthday a Tiger Beat which started in 1965 and would be end up in pasted pics on walls all over North America. The first teen publication was Seventeen and could be found at most newsstands in Winnipeg. Another Cassidy struck fame with an ABC show when in 1977, the Hardy Boys/Nancy Drew Mysteries series starred Shaun Cassidy. This resulted in a new wave of Tiger Beat covers in our home.

Towards the end of the 1970s our family would subscribe at different times to People, Time, Newsweek, Chatelaine, Women's Day and National Geographic. These were the result of subscription deals and the fact the pretty much every kind of the family was working while going to school and could afford both newspapers and magazines. Sundays were free days with work in most retail and businesses closed, a day of rest meant being able to read newspapers, magazines and books. And we did a lot of reading in our family.

In the 1980s, this tradition of various magazines being in the house along with newspapers continued. All through highschool in the first three years of the decade and up till graduation in 1988, we had various news magazines as well as the Beaver and several urban city publications befitting one of my majors in school. The 7/Eleven on Academy Road also carried USA Today and Toronto Star which I often got for a different perspective. USA Today boxes were all over the city. including Academy Road.

I left for Japan in 1989 and survived on Canadian news in greater detail from Maclean's and Free Press that my mom packed in about once every two months care packs. In Japan, I got the Japan Times, Tokyo Weekender and Tokyo Journal for my newspaper and magazine combos. The latter two let me know what things to do and see in Tokyo whether it was shows, sports, theatre and everything in between. I would get an Economist but it would take me a week to read of various train trips or at the office.

Upon return to Canada, I resumed some of magazine subscriptions such as Maclean's and by end of the 1990s our family often had four newspapers in the house. Today, I still love print magazines but digital has allowed me today to enjoy the occasional Atlantic or Vanity Fair issue among many others. And some magazines are entirely digital so I can enjoy them that way too.

Still, all things being equal, I do love a print magazine especially for the pictures which look great on paper. Some magazines have discontinued over recent years including beloved Starlog. Newsweek has moved totally online and by all accounts this has been successful financially for it. One thing I miss over the years are more Manitoba magazines.

Today, I still get a few print magazines a month at home and will likely do so for as long as it is possible. The long form journalism, the great photographs or graphics and the investment in reading something that is not standard news but a deeper look at a subject is always compelling. I have dropped much of social media but it lacks context, nuance and substance. It can be a useful business tool but only insofar as promotion. It can give immediate headlines or links to bigger stories but it isn't a debate most of the time, it is a bun fight. Give me a magazine with something to chew on every day.

The Changes in Community Newspapers

Five newspapers are now the Winnipeg Free Press Community Review. The five were the The Lance, The Herald, The Metro, The Times, The Headliner and the Sou'Wester

Some of the papers started as early as 1917.

The Herald was established in 1917 (originally the Elmwood Advertiser)

The Lance was established in 1931

The Metro was established in 1973

The Times was established in 1973

The Headliner was established in 1992

The Sou'Wester was established in 2009.

In 2004, the Winnipeg Free Press parent company took over the local newspapers as part of a Manitoba regional consolidation. FP now owns a number of publications in the province.

Each of the papers had a reporter and sports reporter or about 20 staff all told. The new east and west regional papers maintain their staff which looks to be around three reporters each. 

Winnipeg Free Press is one of that last major independent papers in Canada with a daily print circulation running six days a week. It has major assets within Manitoba including the Brandon Sun and The Carillon in Steinbach along with Derksen Printers.

Local news has never been more important even if it is what is happening on your street. The advertising though has bled away to Facebook, Google and others. The new deal with Google paying for content they use could near $100 million to $150 million. Major digital companies require content and if everything is increasingly firewalled, it means less money. We don't know how much money for FP Publications but it was zero before the deal while they freely used material they didn't pay for.

The new East and West Review will still be available freely to people in Winnipeg along with the ads for that region. It will also be included in Free Press home delivery and online digitally. Hyperlocal stories remain one of the areas that covered by a lot of media. In Winnipeg, it is good that at least a dozen are paid for weekly work in this area and that their contributions remain archived for the years to come.

Metro Winnipeg to Close

In a whirlwind it is over for the free newspaper Metro Winnipeg. This morning it was sold by the Toronto Star along with over 20 other newspapers to Postmedia, owner of the National Post. Immediately, Postmedia announced the shutdown of the majority of those paper including Metro Winnipeg.

Most of the newspapers are in Ontario and around 250 jobs will be lost as a result of the closure. It is uncertain how many jobs are affected in Winnipeg although to be sure there will be a number of full-time jobs gone.

Metro was not a detailed newspaper but it had few local and outside the region stories that made it a quick commuter read. It also ran ads that did not appear in regular papers about local activities

It is uncertain if Metro Winnipeg ever made money and to sure it was a long reach for a Toronto Star publication  reaching into Winnipeg's market. However, since Postmedia owns the Winnipeg Sun, the addition of Metro meant the company would own two newspapers in the same market. Obviously this could not stand.

Postmedia shut down Metro to bolster The Sun. It could not be anymore plain and simple as that.

It remains to be seen if Winnipeg Sun will ultimately be saved by the move. Postmedia has been aggressive in removing staff and it is a wonder how the put the paper out. Truth is that all newspaper companies have been. One wonders in five years if there will be any print media left and if any local content will be produced.

Lindor Reynolds and the Free Press

Lindor Reynolds has produced what is likely her last column from the Free Press as she spends her last days at Riverview Health Centre in palliative care. This year my family made a contribution to the Riverview Health Centre Foundation for the care they have provided for us over the years.

The last column is terribly sad for her family, friends and readers.

I'll be the first to say that I read certain writers not because I love them but because they can be cathartic in the other emotions they can elicit. They can also make me look at other points of view that shed insight on things.

What I do love is newspapers. I generally read four different one on a weekend. Try my best to turn every page, scout online for other stuff local and farther afield and just expand my mind. No, I don't read every comic anymore. And no I don't read every story or column in every section. Try as I might, I just don't read humour columns no matter how gut bustingly funny people tell me they are. I like funny things but in life I don't really watch sit-coms or go to too many funny movies either. Why? I guess as we get more time pressed, it is harder to commit to a column, a show or a movie. You make choices.

I still don't really know how the newspaper industry works. I don't don't how the Free Press works in particular. I don't know who gets chosen to write a general interest column, what editorial direction or oversight is involved, how they measure success or failure or anything really. I often wish there were regular columns on papermaking. And by that I mean, how things get done and why.

Lindor Reynolds was a content producer for the paper. In addition to the general interest column, she wrote travel stories. It was always from a personal level and often her family was part of the story. In many cases, based on years of her stories, you knew when she was going to be on her high horse, when she was going to be starstruck and what type of column was about to appear.

There were some excellent columns, a lot of clunkers, journeymen work and plenty to annoy me. Yes, I said annoyed. Plenty of times I would read and say to myself: here we go again. That's fine. Some issues deserve repeating. I read the late Tom Oleson not because I agreed with him. He was a curmudgeon, held opinions that were wrongheaded and liked to poke the bear.  I read Fred Cleverly and Frances Russell because they would fight the good fight every week.

It is okay to be disagreeable. Don't need dittoheads everywhere you go.

If hundreds of people say they don't like you, it probably means they read you. You need thick skin to write. Not everyone will like you but it doesn't matter if it sells newspapers.

I often want newspapers to better. I do get annoyed at some for having some for having a wide canvas to paint on but only choosing one small corner of it or using only a select amount of colours. I have been told by some inside the field that it might be a strategy of that writer or a chosen editorial direction for that type of writing.

It is hard not to think that some writers in the Sun are also actors. My inference here is that they chose a role to play and then strike up the band. I don't think too many people would disagree that it can be theatre.

Lindor Reynolds will be dearly missed by many of her readers. It is a giant beast that needs to be fed this thing called newspapers. Her last column reminded that there are people who put these stories out. True to her style, she delivered a personal note of where any of us can be when we least expect it.

They say newspapers are going out of style. I certainly hope that isn't true. I am not as journalist but I always hope we have a world full of them even when they say things we disagree with or are annoyed by, especially so.

What the Media Ignores

The media is often accused on not reporting stories. Or they get accused of editorial bias as part of their ownership strategy or on the part of individual reporters.

In some cases reporters or their respective owners are being maligned but in other cases the criticism is bang on. I think it is no secret that political leanings of some newspaper groups is fairly obvious.

The blurring between news and editorial is what appears to be the most obvious point of frustration for reader of newspapers. The news section generally follows the formula of who, what, where, why, when and how.

It isn't that simple of course. What stories do you choose to put in the newspaper though that are simply reported? I suppose in the case of a local newspaper, you put in local news, weather, sports and entertainment.

For example, a crime story ought to be reported with the W5 formula. Who was the crime committed against, who committed it? What was the crime? When did it happen? Where did it happen? How did it happen? The why of it happening can lead to editorializing but it is okay to quote others in reporting.

"He was a target of opportunity on a dark street."

"The house was known to police for past violent episodes."

In some cases, the media has to push for a story or investigate. They gather information as part of an overall mandate to serve the greater community in the freedom of the press and freedom of information. Political scandal, consumer dangers, law enforcement operations, government departments and spending all present challenges to reporting.

Police are always a tough nut. They will often say the media never gets things right in reporting but then button up as a reflex or because of orders from higher up. And if one of their own is in trouble, it is near impossible to get any information.

But what about the media themselves? They will acknowledge that they need to dig for stories and that they face hostile responses in their efforts. They proceed anyway as many regard it their reporting as a calling. But what happens when the story is the media themselves or more specifically, a reporter?

I say this only because social media is linking to a story involving police and the press that no media inside Manitoba is covering. None. Zero. Nada.

How is this possible when a national news reporting organization is reporting it?

I won't mention the specifics but it is easy for anyone to find out.

You have to ask though: if the media expresses frustration with others for withholding information, what credibility do they have if they don't cover their own?

This isn't the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last. It does seem curious the lack of reporting in Manitoba and if the story was spiked.

Basic principles of W5 and How should have prevailed despite the sympathies for the plight of the subject of a police matter.

No one is perfect. But ignoring a story that ultimately gets reported by other outside media is poor form.

James Turner Metro Reporter

I hadn't seen it mentioned anywhere but James Turner is a reporter for the Metro News.

The intelligence quotient of the paper increased with that addition.

Metro and Sunday Xtra

It has been a couple of days of Metro papers in Winnipeg and a couple of days after the debut of the Winnipeg Free Press Sunday Xtra paper. I have read the papers cover to cover.

The Metro is a paper published in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal and Halifax and is available free daily in distinctive green boxes. In Winnipeg those boxes are often found around bus stops or other high traffic areas.

Most of the stories in the Metro are bite sized and can be read in about a minute or two. The paper is meant as a quick coffee shop read or a bus ride to your destination. It is very light on news, entertainment and sport.

Despite this, the paper does cover local stories albeit in short form. For example, the closing of Gisele's beauty school is buried in the business section of the Free Press whereas the story in the Metro is more front and center and features one of the displaced students. I have no problem of two different media groups covering the story differently.

Tuesday's Metro made a huge error in one of its interviews of a former premier. Edward Schreyer was being interviewed and the reporter wrote that his name was Shrayer. Yikes. I have no idea how the mistake was made but perhaps it is because the staff is so new to the city or to the profession or whatever. Schreyer probably has suits older than the reporter which doesn't help.

The Metro relies on a lot of newswire services and from the rest of its media empire to fill its pages. This isn't all a bad thing but it is noticeable and sometimes the lack of original takes on a subject can make people look elsewhere for that information.

Lack of local original content is not limited to the Metro. The Free Press Sunday Xtra is filled to the rafters with wire service stories. This isn't entirely a bad thing but local and original content for a weekly paper would be extremely welcome. They had two blogger stories which I think is excellent and would like to see more of that for sure. I would also like to see more original and local columnists.

This is an improvement over the On7 tabloid format that the Free Press tried. That paper proved to be too light on news updates from Saturday and too fluffy elsewhere to make the average reader want to pay more and seek out their boxes in the city.

I am still waiting a few weeks to fully decide on the Sunday Xtra. As far as the Metro goes, I think the Winnipeg Sun needs to look over its shoulder. If it comes down to a free paper versus The Sun, there might be a problem. Over the years The Sun has shed workers, local coverage and some important original coverage. This could be a problem as ultimately, it is doubtful whether people will pay just for the Sun girl.

Overall, I think the print media got more interesting this week.

Now, if we could only get new boxes across the city for all the college newspapers.