Categories: Paul Wells

The old grey Globe she ain’t what she used to be

Globe publisher Philip Crawley announced this week that editor Ed Greenspon had moved on to ‘new challenges’

by Paul Wells on Friday, May 29, 2009 9:00am - 43 Comments

This was the most surprising thing about Greenspon’s years as editor. In the 1990s he was one of the very best Ottawa reporters. He wrote seriously about how Canadians are governed and not only about who was hot or not. Every other reporter in Ottawa spent part of each week chasing his stories.

I think he was embarrassed about his own seriousness, later, when he was trying to get in good with his less politically obsessed Toronto newsroom. “You have to have some leavening,” Greenspon told an interviewer in 2005. “You just can’t have a large percentage of your readers getting bored by endless stories about public policy.” He wanted to “relate” to readers “in all their guises”—as investors, employees, parents, potential patients or caregivers. It all sounded so shiny and postmodern. So the Globe would be precisely as good a source for political news as for advice about palliative care. Or lawn seed. Or for annual Juno Awards coverage by an interchangeable assortment of critics complaining about how Nickelback provokes ennui.

But there were always plenty of places to get wise counsel about lawn seed. There were fewer places to get the information and context that could give the idea of “consent of the governed” any meaning. A decade into the Google era, there aren’t many more. CBC Newsworld is struggling mightily with whether to replace Don Newman’s Politics show. It’s come to this: the state broadcaster is trying to decide whether the number of hours of dedicated political coverage in a day should be one or zero, instead of, say, three or six.

I offer this advice as a former Globe subscriber, but of course we are also competitors here at Maclean’s for scarce ad dollars and busy readers. And frankly on that score, if the Crawley-Stackhouse regime continues to chase trends and apologize for showing a sense of perspective, we won’t mind at all. When I joined this magazine we used to tell one another it wouldn’t do to indulge our various passions for politics or culture or real debate too deeply. In the last four years, we’ve been less reticent, and it’s going well. Our readers are really happy that we picked up our game. It’s almost as though people cared about things that are worth caring about.

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Tags: Ed Greenspon, Globe and Mail, John Stackhouse, Philip Crawley

More by Paul Wells

http://bcinto.blogspot.com BCer in Toronto

My thoughts on the Globe aside, get rid of Barbara Amiel, and have Mark Steyn drive her to the airport, and then we’ll talk. I’d gladly pay another $1/month on my Rogers bill if it meant someone would tear-out their columns before my weekly copy of Maclean’s arrived.

Scott in Ottawa

And yet, and yet, here you are BCer in Toronto. The very first person to lap up Paul’s column and post a comment. If you are so in need of ideologically pure publications, shouldn’t you be posting on the Toronto Star’s site? Or if that’s not your cup of tea, trolling through Ezra’s online publication? Or is it possible, is it conceivable, that being confronted with a variety of competing and challenging views is what brought you here in the first place?

Nah. Can’t be. Off with Amiel’s head and bring me another heaping plate of O’Malley and Wherry!

Kaplan

Media guy writing about how crappy his competitors are…well, at least I don’t pay for this!
http://bcinto.blogspot.com BCer in Toronto

I just happened to come to Paul’s blog shortly after he posted it. And I also subscribe (and pay for) Maclean’s dead tree edition, because, besides liking killing trees, I also value the commentary of folks like Wells, and Coyne (who I rarely agree with), I always find a few fascinating articles on topics I wouldn’t normally read, and I enjoy the back page obits of regular folks. All in all its a good mag, and well worth the extra few bucks on my cable bill.

I like a diversity of well-argued opinion. Steyn and Amiel are anything but. My objections to them have little to do with their politics. There are plenty all around the political spectrum that can offer reasoned opinions that, while I may disagree with them, make me think and consider my own views from another perspective.

Amiel, on the other hand, I just don’t like her writing. It has nothing to do with her politics. I just find her columns a meandering dog’s breakfast of who gives a crap, with a side-dish of WTF? I remember one column of hers I tried to read that supposedly had something to do with Michelle Obama. Judging from the headline, I think it may have even been a positive piece. But I couldn’t get past the first few columns, where she talked about being bothered by young black children while walking her dog in Florida.

You can try to paint my comment as ideological if you wish, but in actual fact my objection has far more to do with journalism then politics.

http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

” . . . about being bothered by young black children while walking her dog in Florida.”

An Amiel classic. The best part was when she fantasised about her 115-lb. pit bull tearing an orphan’s arm off. A black orphan, naturally. Oh, and not really an orphan, just (she guessed) fatherless, and therefore worthy of her contempt.

Seriously, while one has the greatest respect for many Maclean’s writers, they need to deliver Amiel back to the asylum and at least tell Steyn to write something original. I’m sure it is possible to be controversial, in a lively prose style, and still do more than just bang the big drum about the dangers of brown people.

Jenn

Okay, Scott, I take your point with regard to Steyn. I pretty much hate everything he says, but I will admit he knows how to write. And when I absolutely can’t stand the cynical mean-spirit of the thing, I can stop reading.

Barbara Amiel, on the other hand–have you ever read one of her articles? Have you ever understood what the heck she was trying to say? Have you ever grasped her point? The thing is, you have to read the whole thing just in case it becomes clear in the next paragraph, and so on. Once you’re done the article, only then do you realize you’ve just wasted precious moments of your life.

Tam

AMEN!

Mulletaur

“When I joined this magazine we used to tell one another it wouldn’t do to indulge our various passions for politics or culture or real debate too deeply. In the last four years, we’ve been less reticent, and it’s going well. Our readers are really happy that we picked up our game. It’s almost as though people cared about things that are worth caring about.”

Yes, thank you for that. Thank you and your colleagues for treating us, the readers, as intelligent beings with opinions who care about important matters rather than consumers of post-modern infotainment.

http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

Hear hear. And may the Globe follow suit. One ace political magazine (at least) and one ace newspaper (at least) is the minimum to ensure a healthy democracy. I suppose TV is important too, but without the print ( / online) media we have no safety net.
http://challengingthecommonplace.blogspot.com/ Chrystal Ocean

Yes. Macleans’ is a must-read for me. Among blogs, those of Macleans I never miss. They consistently have the most relevant comment, even if I don’t always agree with it. Thank you, Macleans, for providing this starved political junkie something to chew on.

Jenn

Absolutely! I try very hard for time to read all of Maclean’s every week (I don’t always succeed since I get it digitally and can’t download it to my ebook reader) but I almost never miss the Canada Blog. The interest in the various subject matters–even when I disagree–builds upon itself. I’m going to take a history course this summer, I attend a lot of current affairs lectures and things, and am far more knowledgeable about a lot of things than I used to be. (Okay, that’s still not much, but its a comparative thing!)

Thanks, Maclean’s. Anyway you can be required reading in high school?

http://www.savedarfur.org Sophia Geffros

Oh, but they are, Jenn!
Ontario College level Media Studies (grade 11) and Ontario University Writer’s Craft use them all the time.
Actually, I believe that the Writer’s Craft used a Wells column to learn about writing columns.

Jenn

Hey, that’s good to hear! I was thinking about that half-year civics class specifically (do they still have that?), but any class is good.
http://www.jackmitchell.ca Jack Mitchell

Wells columns in Writer’s Craft courses! Man, I can’t wait for the Sardonic Generation. Things are looking up!

markus

All in all a decent article, but that self-serving last paragraph …

http://bigcitylib.blogspot.com bigcitylib

Steyn is crap, and worth reading only to see if he’s committed a hate crime or violated Heritage Canada’s questionable content guidelines. Amiel used to be hot, but thats long gone out the window so yeah scrub her too.

As for the language issue, Paul’s gotta relax. Sit back and get beveragized, Paul. And make sure they supersize it.

http://www.walkersunknownthoughts.blogspot.com walker morrow

BCL, I’d calm down a bit about Steyn if I were you – or is this just sour grapes for the whole ‘shagged sheep’ thing?

http://deleted Sandi

So much for the sisterhood/brotherhood of journalism – they now eat their own.

Kaplan

They always have, Sandi.
Rabbit

There’s nothing wrong with journalists criticizing other journalists.

Even journalists need critiquing, and who better to do the job?

Arminius

“And the Ottawa coverage is pathetically obsessed with insider gossip at the expense of clear thinking about questions of governance”

Exactly, the absolute nadir being Jane Taber. She isn’t a Grit or a Tory, she is just inane, but seemingly the archetype to which the Globe aspires.

Mulletaur

Yeah, that comment struck me too – as being too true. If I want parliamentary gossip, I’ll read the Hill Times. The Globe and Mail can certainly aspire to something higher on behalf of its readership.

Kaplan

As far as I’m concerned, the Globe’s still a great paper, and a necessary read every morning. I think Stackhouse is exactly the guy to help figure out how to ensure the Globe doesn’t go the way of its American cousins. Is there room for improvement? Of course there is – just as there’s boatloads of improvement needed at publications like Maclean’s.

I share the same disdain as others do for the likes of Amiel and Steyn, but ditching those two wackjobs isn’t going to settle the issue of what type of news Maclean’s is going to specialize in when treeware goes out, and how they’re going to synchronize whatever readership the magazine had with the new batch of online readers they have now (who get everything for free and are not likely to fork over a dime for the privilege of critiquing another Coyne piece).

Not to begrudge the guy, but Anthony Smith era really isn’t that long ago, and while Maclean’s has taken some steps towards standing out in the crowd (look, blogs! look, magazine covers with boobies! look, lawsuits!) I’m pretty sure it’s hardly in the same league as The Atlantic, The New Yorker or The Economist in terms of branding, image and reader loyalty. The Globe, by contrast, has far more in common with papers of record like the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal (in terms of perception, branding, etc), and I think it’s these kind of attributes that will help sustain it over the short and long term as news publications transform they way they transmit their news.
Kaplan

If tthe Globe can keep these web interviews going on a very regular basis, well, I’d be just tickled…especially since CBC has cancelled Politics.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/video/will-ignatieff-pull-the-trigger/article1159670/
Lynda

Thanks for this column. Like you, I no longer read the Globe regularly. And like you, “my main problem as a reader is not that the Globe is insufficiently thrilled by the marvels of the Internet. It is that too often the paper reveals too little about the depth and richness of the stories” – and country – “it covers.”

At its worst, the Globe offers a certain kind of cliquish sophistication that is, frankly, really really boring. I mean how many times do I need to read about Leanne Delap’s Birkin bag?
sf

I agree that the Globe has gone downhill. It’s really trite and the writing is poor in comparison to Maclean’s. They never have a scoop, and the analysis in the opinion pages is shallow and weak.

I disagree with some of the people here: Wente is a bright spot.
Two Yen

I was a devoted Globe reader for 40 years, left the country to live in Japan for 5 months. When I came back to Canada in early May I didn’t bother to resubcribe to the Globe. Paul hit he nail on the head. It’s no longer what it used to be. Let’s hope the new editor can bring it back to life – if only to keep the revitalized Maclean’s honest by providing competition.
http://www.windyroom.wordpress.com truemuse

http://www.randomhouse.com/catalog/display.pperl?isbn=9780771007521

I like Greenspon’s Introduction to ‘The New Canada’. Greenspon is an erudite thinker with so much more than ‘Digital’ on his mind. I think that the important Canadian news publications have experienced far too much management change and that this, alone, threatens our democracy. There needs to be continuity in Editorship and Editors need the chance to grow and change and change their minds and collaborate with their peers. Reducing the whole enterprise into ‘Font’ and ‘Video’ Selection is what always happens at the turn-about for Editors, while the publication floats without legs for a time. It’s too dangerous to treat these special writers and thinkers, who have led crews of journalists, too dangerous to throw them to the wind of solo endeavour when their place, their home, has become part of them and of us.
http://www.windyroom.wordpress.com truemuse

Maclean’s was better under previous editorship. The Globe was better too. Yet after the change, the newbies are never bad hires. They are trainees. It takes a decade to train to lead a major news publication!!! Anyone who gets the job can learn it. The Public, like Two Yen above, hoping that change of editorship can make the thing new again, are so wrong. Eventually, the publication that has its own form and being apart from all contributors and editorship will assert itself over its masters. At that time, the old integrates with the new and we recognize again greatness –when the Editor succumbs to the larger meaning that arises out of the collective. It all takes time.
Rabbit

My greatest complaint with the G&M was how abysmally ignorant of and arrogant to western Canada they were. They, like the Liberals they so fondly nurtured, were clueless about anything west of the Soo. I’m sure that has tempered in recent years, but I still consider it “Toronto’s National Newspaper”.

Gene Rayburn

Really? I find the papers out here abysmal to put it nicely. At least my bird enjoys the Vancouver Sun
John D

Keep reading the Sun

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nothot

Paul, I was watching for you to be Hot on QP yesterday. Not.
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sandy gemmell

I blame Greenspan for firing David MacFarlane.PLEASE bring him
back
http://intensedebate.com/people/MaggiesFarmboy MaggiesFarmboy

I'm kinda curious as to why for the last three days "The Buy: Almar hats tweedy cap" keeps appearing as the top Globe and Mail story on my blackberry and ipod, and on the Globe's RSS feed.

I mean, sure, I like a tweed cap as much as the next person, but isn't there anything else going on in the world?
Tam

And Scott Feschuk is a delight.
Fact challenged

In a glass house down the road, I'm going to introduce the pot to the kettle, and give each them a handful of stones.
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http://intensedebate.com/people/mpick mpick

Wells has it right. But one error; 2x he suggests the globe can give good advice on LAWN SEED. Karen von Hahn's June 6 column on lawns was replete with errors. In typical globe fashion she did not even respond to a polite summary of corrections I provided.
The ultimate globe arrogance seeps through though when reading their ads on their Mediterranean Odyssey; the privilege of having breakfast with globe "personalities" Give me a break!
Martin Pick
D

I buy and/or read a publication based on its’ crap-to-quality ratio. Sure the Globe and Mail has dross generators like Jane Taber, Margarent Wente and Neil Reynolds (to name a few) but it also has Doug Saunders, Simon Houpt, Eric Reguly, Stephanie Nolen, and many others that are worth my reading time. I read the Globe every day. I would argue that overall it has a relatively low C-to-Q ratio compared to other Canadian newspapers or magazines.

I can’t remember the last time I bought a newstand copy of Macleans but I do read some articles online, particularly the blogs. The Macleans blogs I read for their immediacy and some of the longer articles are excellent. But I find that with the Macleans blogs and magazine articles the C-to-Q ratio is significantly higher than in the Globe and Mail. That’s why Macleans gets less of my limited, leisure reading time.

Your mileage may vary.
Tam

Kady O'Malley's great!