Now on J-Source: Massive cuts at Sun Media; The Lac-Mégantic train disaster: What The Montreal Gazette learned; Drone journalism; Newsroom strategies for mobile web

TORONTO, July 18, 2013 /CNW/ -

FEATURES

Sun Media announces massive cuts and two Sun editors leave their newspapers
By Eric Mark Do
There was grim news for Sun Media this week as it slashed 360 jobs and 11 newspapers. The Winnipeg Sun editor was laid off just a day after the Toronto Sun editor stepped down, and the cuts will be felt across the country.

The Lac-Mégantic train disaster: What The Montreal Gazette learned
By Montreal Gazette managing editor Catherine Wallace  
The Lac-Mégantic derailment was, from the start, clearly a tragedy on a big scale, and the dimensions and complexity of the tragedy only grew with each day. Wallace gives a first-hand account of how her newsroom handled coverage starting from day one, and shares important lessons from the experience.

Corporate Knights: The contentious 'clean capitalism' fighter
By Eric Mark Do
The idea for Corporate Knights was rejected by one of Canada's largest publishing organizations before the magazine was even launched. But a decade later, the magazine that promotes 'clean capitalism' is pulling in advertisers, readers and even the country's top magazine prize.

Some journalists and news organizations took government funding to produce work: Is that a problem?
By Justin Ling
As newsrooms shrink, budgets contract and reporting jobs get axed, journalism is desperately looking for its next stream of funding. But what if that source of cash flow is from the Canadian government? That ethical quandary appeared to fly under the radar at many news organizations when they received lucrative grants from the Canadian International Development Agency to cover the cost of sending journalists abroad to report on CIDA programs.

Drone journalism: How it's been used and the potential for its future use
By Lisa Lynch
If you haven't heard about drones being used for journalistic purposes, Lisa Lynch's interview with Alexandra Gibb will tell you much of what you need to know. Gibb's master's thesis was on the use of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, for journalistic purposes. She discusses how drones have been used for journalism so far and their potential for further use.

Responsive vs. adaptive design: Mobile strategies of top news sites
By Phillip Smith
The Global News website was re-developed last year by some of the leading minds in the responsive web design community, but a speed test showed  the revamped site required  almost 20 seconds to load a feature article on a mobile phone. By comparison, a similar article on the The Globe and Mail loaded  in 3.81 seconds on the same device. Clearly, there's more to Global News' web strategy than load times, so why do publishers choose one approach to mobile web traffic over another?

IN THE NEWS

• Discussion on real-time ethics
• David Skok on Nelson Mandela and the importance of press freedom
• Working together helps us all punch above our weight for freelancers in danger
• Canadian Media Guild seeks a staff rep for Western Canada
• Global Toronto names Beatrice Politi as its new managing editor
• How the business-to-business media landscape can thrive in the future
• Kevin Newman to launch new newscast on CTV News Channel this fall
• Memo: Update on APS Collective Agreement
• Absence of evidence is evidence of absence in health policy
• Long-time Globe and Mail and Maclean's foreign correspondent Malcolm Ian MacDonald Gray has died
• Three journalists join City Montreal's Breakfast Television as on-air talent

EVENTS CALENDAR

• July 24: Hazlitt hosts Press Pass
• All events

J-Source and ProjetJ are projects of The Canadian Journalism Foundation in collaboration with leading journalism schools and organizations.

SOURCE: Canadian Journalism Foundation