What I’ve learned as an online publisher

By Frank Moher backofthebook.ca turned three a few weeks ago. We launched on October 16, 2006, and I would have marked the occasion back then, but I’ve been busy piecing our archives back together after our recent redesign. I’m almost done; I’ve got the photos loading in on old stories again, and pretty soon all [...]

Y’all come out west, Billy Bob

By Frank Moher You have to give Jian Ghomeshi credit for the way he handled Billy Boob Thornton’s meltdown on his radio program “Q” on Wednesday morning.   Respeck, too, to his long-suffering bandmates, who have obviously become practised in the fine art of prima-donna handling. At least they understood they were there to try [...]

Top 10 web searches of 2008

By Frank Moher We’re a bit sniffy about top 10 lists at backofthebook.ca, for the reasons outlined here, but we’re very big on checking our web stats. Or at least I am, in my capacity as publisher/editor/chief lackey. Now you may suppose web stats — that is, the numbers showing how many visitors a site [...]

From Toronto? Here, have a CBC show.

By guest blogger Zeff Davies Jian Ghomeshi admitted at the top of a recent broadcast of the new CBC Radio arts show “Q” that some listeners were finding it a bit “Torontocentric.” Gosh, what a surprise. The CBC appoints yet another young man from Toronto as host of a program produced from Toronto, and it [...]

Dumb and dumber

By guest blogger Brian Brennan Update to story below: CBC Radio announced on January 18 that it is cancelling the pop-culture show “Freestyle” effective mid-March and replacing it with an as yet unnamed daily arts magazine program hosted by Jian Ghomeshi. A CBC executive told the Globe and Mail “this does not mean an increased [...]