Torstar Corporation is launching a major national expansion with a reinvention of its Metro urban commuter papers and more robust digital offerings. Torstar says it will hire 20 new reporters to join existing Metro newsrooms in western Canada. Effective Apr. 10, the free Metro free dailys will be rebranded as StarMetro Vancouver, StarMetro Calgary, StarMetro Edmonton, StarMetro Toronto and StarMetro Halifax. Torstar says it’s also significantly expanding its digital offerings in the five cities, with a focus on local news and investigative pieces in a “seamless print-to-digital experience.”
The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) has published a poll that finds the right to access news outweighs personal reputation considerations when it comes to online news stories. The Maru/Matchbox survey of more than 1,500 people found that 74 per cent believe broadly that Canadians’ right to access news overrides the right to remove accurate and lawful stories that have a negative impact on a person’s reputation. A more specific question involved removing a story if an individual is concerned about an accurate news story affecting his/her personal reputation. In that case, public opinion was more polarized: 58 per cent believed a search engine should not be required to remove it, while 42 per cent believed it should.
Spotify has gone public, predicting it will end 2018 with as many as 96 million paid subscribers, up from 71 million last year. The music streaming service also has its sights set on boosting revenue to $6.6 billion, with its pitch to investors that with growth, it will be able to leverage better terms with the big music labels.
Groupe Média TFO, ICI Radio-Canada Télé and Frima Originals have premiered Canadian comic book hero Jon Le Bon. Adapted for television and digital platforms, the series follows the successful comic by author Alex A. The famous James Bond-inspired secret agent will now be featured on TFO and the TFLIX TFO YouTube channel for 10 90-second episodes. Voicing the wacky character is famous comedian Pier-Luc Funk, alongside Sarah-Jeanne Labrosse in the role of espionage expert Bulle.
