…American newspapers have been going for some time.
New-age media seems to finally be shaking in bigger ways among Canadian newspapers. The National Post, for instance, has videographer Brent Foster at work and he’s producing some interesting video reports, including one from an animal hospital. Other video on the Post’s multimedia page still comes from Global TV (owned by the same company as the Post), but it’s a start.
The Post also has something called Full Comment, a blog-like compilation of bits and pieces. The content is interesting, but it appears to exist primarily to drive readers to the Post. At the moment, there are 27 links, 17 of which go to National Post stories.
The moves made by the Post may be part of what I’ve been hearing rumblings about: CanWest-owned newspapers across the country may be cutting themselves loose from the more or less cookie-cutter websites aggregated under the canada.com brand. There’s talk of more local blogs and multimedia and even a hint that paywalls, if not coming down, might be relaxed. Whether any of this happens, of course, remains to be seen. There are few industries that dispense rumour better than the newspaper biz.
Steps into the new age are being taken at the local level, too. A David Black-owned community newspaper group that has titles in and around Vancouver, has created a new position for a manager of multimedia for the chain.
Canadian media has lagged behind the Americans, Brits, and others when it comes to integrating “new media” into the mix but I’ve suspected for a while now that when the internet evolution finally hits here at home, it will arrive quickly. This could be the year.
TAGS: NEWSPAPERS, MULTIMEDIA, CANADA, RETHINKING MEDIA
