Hamilton Media

[matt602]

Uh, ok?

[ShavedParmesanCheese]

They really know their readers, eh

[Dr Awesomesauce]

“Doing this as part of Torstar will help support the growth and expansion of quality community-based journalism.”

At the expense of...

The final death throes of a medium that's been on life support for decades.

https://www.thestar.com/business/202...n-deal.html?rf

[johnnyhamont]

What happened to Andrew Dreschel? I havent seen him in the Spec for a long time, nor have I seen the kind of commentary he used to offer being written by anyone else. Has the Spec cut his position??

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by johnnyhamont

What happened to Andrew Dreschel? I havent seen him in the Spec for a long time, nor have I seen the kind of commentary he used to offer being written by anyone else. Has the Spec cut his position??

I didn't know he had left. There are a few references to him online but I have not seen any columns in a while. Teviah Moro, Matthew Van Dongen and others have been handling the city hall stuff, but not in the same way... Dreschel was often critical in his commentary.

"A former staff columnist, Andrew Dreschel is a freelance contributing columnist for The Hamilton Spectator."
https://www.thestar.com/authors.dreschel_andrew.html

"Andrew Dreschel is a former longtime Hamilton Spectator columnist who covered City Hall and municipal politics."
https://www.hamiltonnews.com/hamilto...-b1d3032af5aa/

And he's not been active on Twitter since last February.
https://twitter.com/AndrewDreschel/with_replies?lang=en

[Bubba9000]

I for one have been enjoying the absence of Andrew Dreschel. We want journalism to be critical of council but he almost never failed to annoy me. Now Scott Radley is the annoying one and he doesn't really do city hall, just pushes the hot buttons and sore spots, poorly.

[matt602]

Yeah I'll agree that I won't be missing Dreschel.

[johnnyhamont]

Originally Posted by matt602

Yeah I'll agree that I won't be missing Dreschel.

Dreschel himself isn't necessarily a loss, sure, but I'll miss having someone with their finger to the pulse of council to the degree that he did. Scott Radley, VanDongen, Moro etc have their hands in too many stories to offer the insight that Dreschel could covering City Hall full-time. Is the Spec not planning to have anyone in that role going forward?

[ScreamingViking]

Originally Posted by matt602

Yeah I'll agree that I won't be missing Dreschel.

There were times I thought he was way off base. And others where I completely agreed with him.

His role was inquisitor/devil's advocate. He did that well, I think, despite the occasional roll of my eyes at what I was reading in his columns.

[thistleclub]

The clock is ticking once again.

Canadian news outlets close physical offices, codifying remote work
(Toronto Star, Anita Balakrishnan, Mar 22 2021)

Some of Canada’s newsrooms will now permanently exist only in cyberspace, as publishers look to save money on physical offices amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Torstar plans to permanently close the physical office spaces for the Waterloo Region Record and the St. Catharines Standard by the end of next month as the news media follows industries such as technology that have embraced remote work as a permanent default.

All staff at the two news outlets will work remotely on a permanent basis — following the same model as the Peterborough Examiner, which closed its offices last summer after the COVID-19 pandemic forced staff to work from home to avoid spreading the virus.

There will be no changes to headcount or the print and digital products as a result of the office closures, says Torstar spokesman Bob Hepburn, which allow the company to reduce office space leasing costs.

Torstar’s decision comes amid a similar shift in the U.S. and U.K., where the New York Daily News no longer has a physical newsroom and the publisher of Britain’s Daily Mirror is moving many employees to work from home near office hubs.…

Hepburn said that after a full year of remote work, the company views the model as a successful way to keep readers informed.

“Torstar remains fully committed to these publications, both in print and digital,” said Hepburn.

Read it in full here.

[SteelTown]

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bce...adio-1.6876075

Bell Media is also selling Hamilton's AM Radio 1150 and AM 820, as well as Windsor's AM 580, to an undisclosed third party, subject to CRTC approval.

[SteelTown]

Hamilton Spectator losing its office space as parent company Torstar tries to save money
Meanwhile, several area weeklies are going online only and their reporters will be let go

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamil...fice-1.6970467

The Hamilton Spectator is losing its office space as its owner tries to save money, CBC Hamilton has learned.

It means one of Ontario's longest-running newspapers with roughly 50 editorial staff will no longer have a physical newsroom.

Bob Hepburn, a spokesperson for Torstar Corporation, which publishes the Toronto Star, the Spec and Metroland community newspapers, declined an interview but said The Spec's offices will close in early October.

Torstar is owned by Nordstar Capital.

The Spec has been publishing since 1846. The paper moved its office from the lower city Frid Street location to Pritchard Road on the east Mountain in 2020.

[Innsertnamehere]

Jeez. I bet the Spec will be shutting up in the next year or two at the rate things are going.

[TheHonestMaple]

That might be a good thing. Their articles are sooo slanted with a left wing social activist biased. I can't feel sorry for them, when they produce garbage journalism that no one wants to read. It used to be so much better 15-20 years ago. Went down the drain in recent years.

[drpgq]

Considering the Metroland people didn't get severance, I would be worried if I was a Spec reporter.

[TheRitsman]

The Spec has a slight left leaning bias, but far from an extremist bias. It is also decent journalism in my mind in terms of reporting on the facts. https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/hamilton-spectator-bias/

You may be thinking about the opinion pieces which have more heavily been written by social advocates in recent years.

[TheHonestMaple]

Come on. Treviah Moro, Kate McCullough and Sebastian Bron produce nothing but far left activist crap. I used to read the spec daily back when I was in highschool. It was a respectable balanced paper back then, and I supported it. Can't say the same for the garbage they produce today, and I actually hope they either go out of business or rethink their entire model.

[ShavedParmesanCheese]

On the other side of the coin, from my perspective the paper's adopted the tone of middle-aged condescension. Perhaps it's just the sections I gravitate towards (planning topics, go figure ) but the amount that NIMBY arguments are covered in articles evokes a more conservative lean for me.

[ScreamingViking]

There's so much Star content now and that keeps growing, so I can see The Spec getting pulled fully into the tent and then beaten into dust. Probably the same for the other "largish" dailies in the family.

If we're lucky they'll keep a few Hamilton writers around and we'll get some local news. Once that dwindles (and I think it will, especially if there's attrition among those writers) my online subscription shall be cancelled.

I just hope CBC Hamilton picks up the slack, because while they often have a version of the same story, I find they come out later with it and often in less detail. I really appreciate The Spec's photographers too.

[ScreamingViking]

I wasn't aware that Brian Henley passed away. I loved his research and writing.

His blog is aged now, but interesting nonetheless (a treasure trove of old photos!): https://henleyshamilton1.wordpress.com/


Obituary: Local historian Brian Henley was ‘one of Hamilton’s great storytellers’
His longtime Spectator column and numerous books told tales of Steeltown

Daniel-Nolan
The Hamilton Spectator
Wednesday, September 20, 2023

https://www.thespec.com/opinion/obit...5988152f9.html

If it had anything to do with Hamilton history, chances are Brian Henley wrote about it.

Henley — who died at age 75 on Aug. 14 — had a popular history column in The Hamilton Spectator between 1986 and 1999 telling all kinds of stories about the city’s past.

He wrote about the development and collapse of commercial fishing in Hamilton Harbour in the late 1800s, the creation of the Art Gallery of Hamilton in 1914, the pleas of Mountain residents to be annexed by the city in the 1920s, the long road to building the Burlington Bay Skyway Bridge in the 1950s and the destruction of the Sunken Gardens to make way for the McMaster University Medical Centre in the 1960s.

Henley, who worked as the head of special collections and archives at the Hamilton Public Library, also displayed his historical knowledge in talks, online, appearances on CHCH and in several books such as “The Grand Old Buildings of Hamilton” and “Hamilton Back Then.”

CHML morning host Paul Hanover once said Henley spent so much time in the archives that he was starting to look like one.

His book “Hamilton: Our Lives and Times” was published by The Spectator in 1993. It was culled from his weekly columns and its first printing of 3,000 sold out quickly. That caught everyone by surprise and another run of 3,000 came out before Christmas.

Henley said he worried The Spec would be stuck with boxes of unsold books and was heartened by the response.

“There’s a community pride identified within the region and people have always been interested in how this area developed and continues to develop,” Henley told the paper.

In 1995, he was honoured by the Sertom a Club with the Laura Secord Award for his contributions to Canadian heritage. By then, he had four history books under his belt.

“I can’t walk through Jackson Square without someone saying ‘I liked that article’ or ‘I didn’t like that article’ or ‘I’ve got something to share with you,’” he said.

He said he found inspiration from comments from the public, an old photo or an old newspaper. And he liked aspects of the city relating to its geography, such as its harbour, Red Hill Creek and Dundas Valley.

In 1996, he came out with “1846 Hamilton — From Frontier Town to Ambitious City,” to help mark the city’s 150th anniversary, and “Henley’s People.” Spectator reporter Mary K. Nolan, in reviewing the latter book, said, “Henley’s writing is, as always, straight up, unembellished and authoritative.”

Residents took to X (formerly Twitter) to mourn the passing of their favourite local historian. The library called him a “devoted historian.”

“Brian Henley’s commitment to preserving Hamilton’s history was invaluable. He will be truly missed.”

Ward 1 councillor Maureen Wilson said Henley was “one of Hamilton’s great storytellers.”

“I am grateful for the legacy of his work, his love of this place and the people who have been proud to call it home,” she wrote. “My sincere condolences to his family, many friends and admirers. I was one of them.”

“Profoundly sad that one of my local heroes died,” wrote activist Graham Crawford. “Brian Henley inspired me to embrace Hamilton’s history from the first time I met him almost 20 years ago. When I opened Hamilton HIStory + HERitage on James Street North, Brian was there to provide his support.”

Singer Tom Wilson said, “Brian leaves a giant hole in the heart of this city. Rave On Brian.”

Henley was born in Belleville on Oct. 17, 1947, and grew up in Port Hope. He attended Port Hope High School, Trent University and studied library and information science at the University of Western. He came to Hamilton in 1973.

Henley is survived by his wife Bronwen, children Didymus and Phaedra, and his sister Barbara.