Author Topic: Goodbye National Post  (Read 1191 times)

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Offline Warren Toda

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Goodbye National Post
« on: November 26, 2016, 11:34 PM »
It seems that the National Post is moving to digital-only although no timeline has been mentioned. The Post denies this, despite an internal memo saying exactly that.

The Post is now saying that its newsroom will go digital-only (whatever that means) and the newsroom will be split into two hubs — print and digital. Of course, other papers have tried this (having separate print and web desks) and they failed, but don't tell that to the Post.

Twenty NatPost newsroom employees took buyouts over the past several weeks including the director of photography and a picture editor. No idea if Postmedia has met its target of 20% staff reduction. If not, layoffs will happen.

« Last Edit: November 26, 2016, 11:39 PM by Warren Toda »

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Moe Doiron

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Re: Goodbye National Post
« Reply #1 on: November 28, 2016, 06:14 PM »
It simply means that there will no longer be any print specific content, that all is created as platform agnostic, but to state the obvious that would mean digital. The print part of the process is now just production, ie- dealing with page allocation and printing plant logistics. The separate desks are no more than traffic control, they are not doing any of the driving. That way as one (most likely, um, print) shuts down the other just keeps going without any disruption.

Having the luxury of both was just a direct benefit of having the people do do so, with staff cuts it simply helps protect that content flow.

Not an entirely new concept and if anyone has failed in doing this I would guess it's because they didn't do it right.



Offline Richard Ernst

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Re: Goodbye National Post
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2016, 03:42 PM »
This change is long overdue.

A section of all newsrooms dedicated to digital platforms was needed probably 15 years ago. Print media has been consistently slow to adapt to the new digital medium and may never catch up. Especially when you consider their past initiatives when trying to engage their readers online. It's been a slow, arduous and painful journey for print media and a digital information media model will dominate it, perhaps even replacing it completely. Predictably, skilled and informed photographers, people who know how to communicate using visual information, will be in high demand in this future.

NPAC can continue to play a role in this future and encourage the pursuit of photojournalism in Canada no matter what the medium. Our members were some of the first to embrace digital news gathering in Canada and use the tools and techniques to further it. We need to continue to push the news industry towards this new era and be advocates for high-quality, truthful and ethical visuals as we encourage these types of initiatives and embrace the new digital medium.

Ric Ernst