Friday squibs (Canadian edition)

Some things that might not have caught anyone’s attention outside the Great White North.

• Newspaper circulation drops 1.3%: ABC. I’m wary of reports that I don’t get to see (and I’m not well-off enough to belong to the myriad organizations that produce these reports) but the news reports on Canadian newspaper circulation aren’t all bad. Two newspapers are reported as being well up, the local Vancouver Province with an almost unbelievable 15 per cent increase and the Montreal Gazette up just over 11 per cent. Overall, though, 20 of the 34 newspapers reported declines. A word of caution: there are three fairly big Canadian newspaper chains that aren’t members of the ABC, so who knows how well this report reflects circulation reality in Canada.
• National Post cuts weekday availability in two provinces. Days after celebrating its 10th anniversary, the money-losing national newspaper cut weekday circulation to the provinces of Saskatchewan and Manitoba to cut costs. This comes about a year after cutting weekly circulation in the Maritimes. A full digital edition will be available to subscribers.
• Media: Okay, so is it time to panic yet? Mathew Ingram points out that the situation in Canada appears far better than the bleak, bleak circumstances among American newspaper folks, “But the unrelenting cascade of bad news does tend to make the palms a little sweaty regardless.” He remains optimistic about journalism, though. So do I.
• Legacy2010.com: Helping Vancouver citizens understand how the Winter Olympics are changing the city. Alfred Hermida’s very interesting, and very local, Knight News Challenge pitch.
• Following Canwest. This was a better week for the shares of CanWest, the big Canadian publishing company that I’ve been following. The five-day graph isn’t a ski slope this week; it’s more like mountain-and-valley country. But it did start the week at about $1.07 and finish it at 92 cents, down 10 cents today from yesterday. Note: I was interviewed for a Toronto Star business article on CanWest that I believe is coming this weekend. Not sure I said anything coherent enough to make it into the article, but I’m looking forward to it none-the-less.