Canada's Print Measurement Bureau recently released numbers showing a 14.2 percent drop in NOW's readership over the past two years, according to the Globe and Mail. The Canadian daily uses the readership drop as a springboard to examine the state of Toronto's alt-weeklies -- NOW and its competitor Eye Weekly, which is in the same ownership group as the daily Toronto Star. "Alt-weeklies are a particular case. Entirely reliant on advertising revenues, their revenue is not augmented by subscriptions or newsstand sales," the Globe and Mail reports. "At the same time, they're threatened by a panoply of other free offerings." NOW publisher Michael Hollett shrugs off the latest numbers, and says the paper's health is strong. "It's just one of many ways of counting," he says. "Our boxes are empty and business is good." Indeed, the Globe and Mail reports that NOW's ad revenue was up in 2007, and Hollett notes that the paper continues to innovate -- and gain readers -- online.
Michael Hollett was hurt in the Juno Cup Friday night, and will likely be in the hospital for several more days, the Calgary Herald reports. The Juno Cup is a hockey game where rockers take on NHL old-timers. "He fractured his leg in three places and it's a pretty bad situation," team captain Jim Cuddy tells the Calgary Sun. "He's in pretty rough shape. They'll operate on him, they'll put a rod in his leg, they'll put some screws in. I think it'll be quite a long recovery."
In "How I Could Have Voted Three Times," James Di Fiore claimed that no fixed address or ID card was required to vote in Canada -- and he went to three polling places on election day to prove it. However, he never explicitly stated that he cast ballots in all three locations. After more than a year had passed, Di Fiore wrote a letter to the Toronto Star admitting that he "voted -- three times." That caught the eye of election officials, and nine months later Di Fiore was charged under the Canada Elections Act. When the trial began in December, Di Fiore told the National Post he was disappointed that NOW was not supporting him. But senior news editor Ellie Kirzner said Di Fiore was to blame. "We felt our story was completely discredited, he had lied to our readers about staying within the bounds of not tampering with the election," she said. "Painful as it was for us, we realized we could not defend the story." Di Fiore's trial resumes in February. He faces a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and up to three months in prison.
John Harkness, the film critic for NOW since its inception on Sept. 10, 1981, was found dead in his home in Toronto on Tuesday. "John Harkness was simply the best film critic in Canada over the last 26 years," editor and publisher Michael Hollett says in a release. "He will be sorely missed by all of us at NOW, his family, friends and the film community as a whole." Harkness, who was 53, had been suffering from high cholesterol. "He had never missed a deadline in 26 years," Hollet tells the Globe and Mail, "so we sent somebody to his house when his copy didn't arrive." They then found his body and called the police.
Adria Vasil answers readers' environmental queries in her "Ecoholic" column for the Toronto alt-weekly. While her just-released book shares its name with the column, it "takes a different approach, with in-depth discussion and advice covering fashion, beauty, home improvement, outdoor living, money and more," NOW reports. She says her approach is to counsel people on the small things they can do to be more earth-friendly. "Let's face it," Vasil says. "You can't achieve environmental purity unless you're Woody Harrelson and you have millions of dollars."
Alice Klein, editor and CEO of the Toronto alt-weekly, has recently completed her debut film, Call of the Hummingbird. The "full-frontal eco-manifesto," which Klein directed, produced and wrote, will premiere next month at the SXSW Film Festival in Austin, Texas.
Her stage name is "Champain," but in real life she's Stacy Reardon, marketing coordinator for NOW Magazine in Toronto. "The league will be back down in the States in April so this marketing chick has loads of title defending to do!" Stacy exclaims, promoting her own appearances like a true marketing coordinator-Pillow Fight League champion.
