Across The Media Universe: Gulf Of Canada Edition
Land Of The Free: A free daily newspaper in Boston is about to begin webcasting its editorial meetings live on the Web, "subjecting their important decisions to the whims of any lunatic with AOL Instant Messenger and the time to tell them their ideas suck," as Paul McMorrow puts it. BostonNOW will also publish bloggers who are "willing and literate enough to work with them." RELATED: Justin Canning is making an environmental argument against free newspapers, the production of which means the destruction of 400 trees per day in London alone. He writes: "Is it possible to carry on letting the newspaper publishers of the world churn out a product that serves no real purpose other than to provide opportunity for advertising? Basic economics is one thing. Stupidity and irresponsibility is quite another."
Eh, Canada: The Toronto Star notes that, with the Washington Post closing its Toronto bureau, American newspapers will no longer have any correspondents in Canada. News from our northern neighbor will now be covered by "wire services, contract writers, freelancers and reporters parachuted in for specific events." The news, which comes amid a number of foreign bureau closings around the world, has observers fretting about a widening of the gulf between the two nations. Says Roy Peter Clark of the Poynter Institute: "Any American editor who finds Canadians boring has his or her head up their ice."