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March 19, 2003 — 11 AM

100% From Concentrate

A story out of the Toronto Star this morning notes that CanWest Global, owners of most of the city dailies in Canada (but not the Star), will cut film, TV and rock critics from their staff and consolidate the positions, perhaps at their new national hub (located in that cultural magnet of Winnipeg).

Rather than hope everyone will buy one single newspaper (the ever-disappointing National Post), CanWest Global has instead decided to make sure every other paper has the same corporate-approved drivel inside. Of course they will insist that every paper still has an independent editorial voice, and hey, they’re only movie reviews, right? That’s not serious news, so unique insight isn’t really important. Is it?

Imagine if you will, a major movie distributor promises to buy more ads in CanWest papers, and every paper runs the same review, and hmm, wouldn’t it be great if we could make sure that the review doesn’t say anything nasty about the client’s new film? I mean that’s a win-win, right?

And really, we don’t need to review any of those films that aren’t playing in all of our markets. Why would the fine, upstanding citizens of Downtown Canada need to know about some artsy indie film that’s only playing in Toronto and Vancouver? And local music…who cares really? I mean, nobody buys those bands’ CDs anyway.

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Previously: Someday We’ll Stop Talking About the Weather

Subsequently: Childhood v2.0

March 2003
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