The Amazing Race and The Star's Radio Room

Reports are out today that the Toronto Star is considering closing down its famous Radio Room as part of staff layoffs and belt tightening because of declining ad revenue. Here is the Toronto Star Union bulletin  about the cuts.

http://www.song.on.ca/files/Wrongmove.pdf

The news also came in Steve Ladurantaye’s story in the Globe and Mail.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/toronto-star-to-cut-jobs-citing-declines-in-ad-revenue/article9263051/ 

This story has special reverberations for Centennial Journalism.

Many of our best and brightest students have launched their journalism careers thanks to the Star’s “infamous” radio room, where student interns monitor the police scanners and chase down stories on overnights and weekends and holidays, and then are rewarded with bylines on the online front pages, and print editions, as well.  Several of our students worked at the radio room during the school year, and juggled their “real” jobs while also trying to meet course requirements and assignments and attend meetings with their classmates. Some are still there now.

Clinching a job at the radio room has been seen as one of the best journalism internships in the country, and students from across the country (many with master’s degrees) compete fiercely for a slot.

We do hope the Star changes its mind about the radio room.

Photo of Adam Chester by Toronto Observer reporter Kevin Campbell

It’s Reading Week for journalism students and staff at Centennial Journalism in Toronto, but that doesn’t mean everyone is on a beach somewhere drinking pina coladas. Well, except for Ted Fairhurst, the coordinator of the Fast Track and University of Toronto Scarborough joint journalism program with Centennial. Hola Ted!

But the sports journalism students and faculty are also down in the sunny south, in Florida, although they are not lounging by the pool all day.

Program Coordinator Malcolm Kelly @sportsnag and Digital Imaging coordinator Neil Ward and the students arrived in Tampa on the weekend, after 25 hours on the bus, and are now busy covering sports in Florida, including MLB’s Spring Training, and also reporting on up and coming varsity athletes now living in the sunshine state.

Even when the athlete hails from across the pond in England! Here is student https://twitter.com/Kev_Cam   Kevin Campbell’s story about Marquette University golf recruit Adam Chester, posted in @TorontoObserver “The Toronto Observer”.

http://torontoobserver.ca/2013/03/05/marquette-golfer-adam-chester-eying-a-pro-career/

Advanced Interviewing students with instructor Lindy Oughtred got some up close and personal time recently with CBC interviewer George Stroumboulopoulos, during Centennial Journalism’s annual trip to watch his TV show at CBC headquarters in Toronto. @strombo.com

Centennial Journalism students with George Stroumboulopoulos (photo by Mark A. Cadiz)

Fast Track journalism graduate Alexandra Innes recently won an Award of Excellence from the Poetry Institute of Canada for a story she entered in their 2012 National Short Story Contest. The Poetry Institute has now published a collection of short stories called Fireside Dreams, which you can buy online through the organization.

http://www.poetryinstituteofcanada.ca/bookstore.html

Student Tichaon Tapawamba is making a name for himself among the @CityLife film crowd in Toronto, and beyond, with a screening of his film recently at the Toronto International Film Festival Bell Lightbox. 

Tichaon was one of three finalists selected to create a documentary, with the support of Academy Award winner Ben Affleck.

A story about Ticahon’s work was recently published by GoodNews Toronto, where another of our JJ/UTSC students Georgia Williams, is currently interning.

http://www.goodnewstoronto.ca/2013/02/young-filmmaker-battles-adversity-to-inspire-others-with-work/

Here’s Tichaon’s Bio from the CityLife project itself.

http://citylifefilmproject.com/#/filmmakers/tichaona-tapambwa/

Bailey Stead, a graduate from Centennial Journalism’s joint program with the UTSC, is applying to be a contestant on the new Canadian version of The Amazing Race.

http://www.ctv.ca/TheAmazingRaceCanada.aspx

Deadline is Thursday. Bailey now works for Discovery. 

Here’s her audition tape, with her potential race partner and cousin Aly Ferguson. Good luck girls!

Lingerie model, Blue Jays, and covering a sex orgy: All in a day for Centennial Journalism students

We all know that SEO (Search Engine Optimization) means you have to put searchable key words into your news stories and headlines, so that people will easily find your stories on your news site.  Put in the term Justin Bieber, and you are guaranteed more hits. Put in x-rated terms, and watch the analytics statistics skyrocket even more.

But we  didn't have to make anything up for the SEO headline in this latest news post about Centennial Journalism.

Ashley Diana Morris (courtesy Vancouver Province)

That's because the new photos of Centennial Sports Journalism grad Ashley Diana Morris are among the most viewed on Google these days. She has been doing a flurry of media interviews and photo shoots after being discovered and named Guess Lingerie and Bikini's newest international model.  The blond Scarborough native now lives in Vancouver, where she moved after graduation from Centennial to work as an intern at CTV. She did want to be a journalist, but her naturally stunning curves and smile are taking her in a completely different direction. 

http://www.theprovince.com/never+Guess+first+love/7886277/story.html

At Guess, Morris will be following in the footsteps of supermodel Claudia Schiffer. Here's what the Guess campaign looks like.

(courtesy Thefashionspot.com)







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Threeyear journalism grad Adam Bemma spent time in January working for Ghana’s Pravda radio
during the country’s recent elections, where he got to interview, among others, former UN Secretary
General Kofi Annan. Here's the link for one of his radio broadcasts.

http://adambemma.com/2013/01/09/pravda-world-news-tonight-third-edition-pwnt-africa/

And here are some photos from his Facebook page.

Adam Bemma interviewing Ghanaians in Accra. (courtesy Adam Bemma)

Adam Bemma in Accra, Ghana (courtesy Facebook)

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CTV Canada AM co-host Marcie Ien visited Lindy Oughtred’s advanced interviewing class on Thursday Feb. 7, 2013. Ien also sits on the Journalism school’s Program Advisory Committee.

CTV Canada AM co host Marci Ien at Centennial Journalism  (Mark Cadiz/Photo)

Scarborough Observer and Page Design instructor Andrew Mair and his family had to flee their home after a massive January 27 weekend fire.  The Mairs were among 35 people who had to be evacuated from the townhouse complex. No one was hurt. He says the family was moved to the Westin Prince Hotel by their insurance company, a spot which his kids loved because there is a candy store in the lobby.

http://toronto.ctvnews.ca/three-alarm-blaze-causes-500k-in-damage-1.1130564

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Overheard in the newsroom:

Student was covering the University of Toronto's sex orgy event: “I did record two minutes of background sound of moaning, but should I use it all the way through the radio piece? “

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Jerry Howarth, Blue Jays play by play announcer, with Sports Journalism coordinator Malcolm Kelly (Ellin Bessner/photo)

The voice of the Toronto Blue Jays for more than 30 years, Jerry Howarth visited students at Centennial Sports Journalism last week.  Howarth has held that play-by-play role since 1982.  He worked together with the late American Baseball Hall of Fame broadcaster Tom Cheek in the Blue Jays booth until Cheek died of cancer in 2004.  Until the end of the 2012 season, he worked with Alan Ashby.

Read former Centennial Journalism professor John Lott's story on Howarth's recent award by the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.

http://sports.nationalpost.com/2012/12/13/blue-jays-broadcaster-jerry-howarth-honoured-by-canadian-baseball-hall-of-fame/ 

Centennial Journalism internship supervisor and Internet Radio Station coordinator Jules Elder has been receiving a lot of congratulations lately. The long time journalist and professor has retired from the news room at OMNI Television after 15 years. Elder says he will spend more time at Centennial and take courses in improving his command of social media.   Prior to joining OMNI Television, he was managing editor of Share Newspaper, which he helped to launch. He is a former columnist for the Toronto Sun and freelance contributor for Radio Canada International. Elder is a member of the Canadian Association of Black Journalists and the Canadian Ethnic Media Association. 

How I covered the Columbia Space Shuttle Disaster 10 years ago this week

My NASA press pass to Cape Canaveral 2003

I can't believe it's been 10 years already since I was on vacation in Florida with my mother when we saw on CNN that the space shuttle Columbia had broken up over the southern United States. Ten years ago this week, we didn't have Twitter or Facebook and we didn't have smart phones. You just got into your car, and went to the scene at Cape Canaveral and did your best to cover the story. Which is what I did, for CTV News Net (that's what it was called in those days).

Here is the account I wrote for the Canadian Association of Journalists' Media Magazine of my Columbia diary, in 2003.  Go to P.24 in the PDF. Or read it here.

Death, Cars and Apps at Centennial Journalism

 Lots of special events this month at Centennial Journalism in Toronto!

(Photo by Theresa Spohn/Toronto Observer)  
 Sandra Martin with moderator Ted Barris and instructor Ellin Bessner, who’s grandfather, the late Superior Court justice A.H. Lieff is also mentioned in Martin’s book.

Canada’s top obituary writer, Sandra Martin of the Globe and Mail, was the first guest of the Centennial Journalism 2013 Speaker Series Wednesday Jan. 23 at the Centennial College library. 

Martin, who’s new book “Working the Dead Beat: 50 lives that changed Canada” was published in October, 2012, gave students some inside anecdotes about Gordon Lightfoot not really being dead, except on Twitter, for one hour, and about who wrote Jack Layton's obituary.  

Follow her on Twitter @SmartinObits.  

Martin told students it’s daunting to be worrying all the time about which famous Canadian is going to die next. 

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Jennifer Pang, Lindy Oughtred, Dylan Roberston, Ellin Bessner, Sunnie Huang, Diana Faria, Sarah Taguiam, Nick Tragianis at the Independent Publishers Association of Ontario awards dinner Jan 16, 2013.

Six senior journalism students presented their final magazine projects to the publishers of the Independent Publishers Association of Ontario Jan 16,  2013 at a meeting in Scarborough. Faculty members Ellin Bessner and Lindy Oughtred were also invited to the event. The students Nick Tragianis and Diana Faria won for “Drive” the best new student magazine in Lindy’s section of Beat Reporting, along with faculty Jim Wilson.

Jennifer Pang, Sunnie Huang, Dylan C. Robertson and Sarah Tagium also won the award for best new student magazine, for “ONset” magazine, in Ellin’s section of the course, taught along with Paul Grossinger.

Both groups each had 30 minutes to present their projects to the publishers, answer questions, and gain valuable business advice as they continue to produce their great new niche magazines.

This is the fourth year the IPAO has sponsored the award, and has also provided mentorships and support for the Advanced Magazine Publishing course at Centennial Journalism.

Follow Nick at the National Post, where he is writing about, what else, autos.

The members of the program advisory committee of the Journalism program have been rolling up their sleeves this month, giving direction to some curriculum changes now being considered. A hearty welcome to the newest members of the PAC, who are lending their expertise to guide Centennial Journalism into the future. The new members include:

Jen Melo,  Senior Web Editor, Canadian Living Magazine

Mark Mietkiewicz with Centennial Journalism students at CBC October 2011

Mark Mietkiewicz, CBC, Manager-Internships

Brodie Fenlon, managing editor of news, Huffington Post Canada

Wallie Seto,  vice president, Independent Publishers Association of  Ontario

Monique Beech, Social Media Manager, Toronto Sun

Sara Koonar, editor in chief, 29 Secrets.com

Sara Koonar (right) at Centennial Journalism teaching about web analytics October 2012.

Tim Harrower at Centennial Journalism  (Paula Last/Toronto Observer)

Design guru Tim Harrower, author of “The Newspaper Designer’s Handbook”, and “Inside Reporting”, led a one-day workshop for Centennial College journalism students on Jan. 12, 2013. He talked about everything from designing for traditional print publications and the web to tablet and mobile devices. His mantra? It’s all about eyeballs – attracting them to our publications, that is! Photos courtesy of Paula Last/Toronto Observer.

Centennial Journalism success stories January 2013

I was asked to put this together in advance our the Centennial Journalism Program Advisory Committee meeting this coming week. So here is just a sampling of what some of the Centennial Journalism students are doing now. First, the students in the joint journalism program with Centennial and the University of Toronto. If you have more that I missed, please do send them along.

Ellin Bessner photo

1. Graduating journalism students (from L to R) Jennifer Pang, Dylan Robertson, Sarah Taguiam and Sunnie Huang won the Independent Publishers Association of Ontario award for best new student magazine at their Dec 2012 launch-o-rama at Centennial. They beat out six other magazines for the title. They all were invited to attend the IPAO meeting/pitch session Wednesday Jan 16, 2013 at a Scarborough restaurant where they will pitch their magazine to the IPAO publishers and get ideas, and possible backers. They also are participating in Centennial College’s Centre for Entrepreneurship program this year, with mentoring for students and help to make a business plan, as they take this magazine forward.

http://onsetmag.com/

Their magazine, called Onset, is for Ontario young entrepreneurs who hope to launch or have recently launched technology apps, or have businesses using technology, and tells them how to find money, how to hire the right people, how to find a cool office, and some profiles of two of Toronto’s most successful poster boys for the sector:

Brennan McEachran, 22, CEO of Hitsend

Bryan Xu, 29, managing director of Idea Notion.

They also have a Windows 8 App for their magazine, and their digital site is up and running. It is a digital magazine only. Their PDFs are online

Here is the front cover.

Courtesy ONset Magazine

2.  One of last year’s JJ students Kayla Kreutzberg is using her television performance and sports knowledge and public speaking and interviewing skills, since she was hired an in-arena host for the Ryerson sports teams at the new university arena on Carleton Street in the old Maple Leaf Gardens. (She’s the one in the middle)

Photo from Kayla's Twitter feed

3.  Cole Carruthers from last year’s television news course, is a news reporter and photographer at the Moose Jaw Herald in Saskatchewan. Here’s one of his most recent video web extras for the newsroom – he tells viewers the top 5 stories of the week.

http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/Video/22223/Top-5-TimesHerald-stories-of-the-week

4.  Yamri Taddese hired full time as a reporter with Thompson Reuters  Law Times in Toronto to cover law and legal affairs. She credits the Toronto Observer on her online profile! Recent stories included former Quebec Premier Jean Charest’s new job with McCarthyTetrault.

Photo from Law Times website

5.   Maryam M Shah working as a multimedia journalist for the Toronto Sun.

She does tons of videos and web extras and is always in scrums. This week she is covering the Ashley Smith inquiry in Toronto are coroner’s court.

photo from Toronto Sun website

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/01/14/ashley-smith-caught-in-prison-nightmare-lawyer

6. Karen K. Ho  (from a few years ago) hired! In her dream job as a business reporter  in Mississauga for Yourmississaugabiz.   (Part of TorStar) After successful internships at National Post and Financial Post covering business this summer, and taking her Canadian Securities Course.

Courtesy her Twitter Feed.