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Our Anniversary 30 Years of Covering
Toronto’s Greatest Communities
February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
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Dear Town Crier Reader,
Our Anniversary
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30 Years of Covering Toronto’s Greatest Communities
February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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ON THE COVER: Various Midtown residents enjoying the Town Crier. Francis crescia/town crier
Another
MulticomMedia Publication Diversity Publishers & Printers
Lori Abittan
PRODUCTION SERVICES
Publisher
Tony Lomuto
Joe Mastrogiacomo
Supervisor
Vice President of Finance
s the Town Crier rounds the clock on its 30th year in business, I find myself thinking of the place of community journalism in the world today. And I can say without hesitation that community newspapers are the future of media in this country. It’s a future that’s already playing out. A January 2010 study by the readership research group ComBase shows that 83 percent of Ontarians regularly read their local community newspaper. Those numbers are very impressive given the lower rates of readership of major dailies. Lately the print media has been asking itself some hard questions including “How do we engage our readers?”. Mainstream media is struggling with this one — struggling to connect with a local audience; struggling to cover issues and write stories that matter to its readers. We’re already there. We know the neighborhoods our readers care about. We’ve been here for 30 years, and we continue to engage and entertain our readers because we know them. The Town Crier has held its own and continued to show growth during this economic crises because we have remained relevant. We’ve brought you local coverage on everything from local news developments and Town
Crier exclusives to our Best in Town small business awards and bi-annual Education Guides. And we’re not stopping there. Over the past several months we’ve bolstered our online coverage by redesigning our website and delivering up-to-the minute information like we did during the city transit strike last summer. We have also made the site more interactive so community groups can contribute their own material and photos. We have refined our local coverage by identifying multiple neighbourhoods within the areas covered by our print editions. All so you can get the latest information on and about your specific community. There’s no other community newspaper doing that. We’ve set new standards. And, most important of all, we have never forgotten how much we owe to our readers. Simply put, without you, we wouldn’t be here. So we thank you for tucking the Town Crier under your arm at night as you relax, and for keeping it or one of our glossy supplements on your coffee table. For calling us when you have a news tip, or for writing a letter to offer your feedback. We’re connected because you are connected. We look forward to being here for another 30 years, stronger and bolder.
Lori Abittan, Publisher
Mark Winer
Doreen Iannuzzi
Production
Vice President of New Media
EDITORIAL
Advertising & Sales Don Bettger
Eric McMillan
Director, GROUP Sales
EDITOR-in-chief
Inside our Anniversary Edition
Jennifer Gardiner
Gordon Cameron
Director, Corporate Sales
MANAGING EDITOR
Kathy Kerluke
Kelly Gadzala
Business Manager
Shadi Raoufi
www.mytowncrier.ca
SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR EDITORIAL ART DIRECTOR
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8 Volume 1, Number 1 The cover that launched 30 years of great community journalism
10 Meet the team Profiles on three of the employees that have made the Town Crier what it’s been for the past three decades
Director of Distribution
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Tony Baron
What we’ve uncovered Memorable stories that still have readers talking years after they first appeared in our pages
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Group Circulation Manager For a limited time only, you can also find this guide on our corporate website: www.MulticomMedia.ca 101 Wingold Avenue, Toronto, Ontario, M6B 1P8 Tel: 416 785-4300 Fax: 416 785-7350
MulticomMedia is a wholly owned subsidiary of Multimedia NOVA Corporation, an integrated communications company publicly traded on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol MNC.A
22 Making a splash How the Town Crier has helped local businesses grow and prosper
Plus lots more! February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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Hear ye! Hear ye!
From its humble beginnings the Town Crier has become something to shout about
I
t all started with two people in a bedroom. And it’s not what you think. It was in that bedroom over 30 years ago that husbandand-wife team Harry and Ruth Goldhar conceived of and gave birth to the newspaper that was to become the Town Crier. From their Crescent Town condo, the Goldhars put out a paper they delivered to 3,000 apartments in the area. Harry was editor, reporter, and lay out person while Ruth sold the advertisements. Let’s just say that bedroom office is a distant memory. Today the Town Crier has nine papers throughout Toronto and is distributed to over 200,000 households — and bedrooms. You may not know it, but the monthly paper you pick up in your area changed the face of community journalism, thanks to its founder and father, Harry Goldhar. “Harry’s vision of all the Town Criers was community newspapers with the same journalistic standards as the big dailies,” says editor-in-chief Eric McMillan, who was the paper’s first full-time reporter in the early 1980s. Before the Crier, McMillan says, community papers had mainly political agendas and adlike content. “They weren’t professional publications.” Former Town Crier reporter and editor Malcolm Kelly has a more colourful image for what community print news looked like before the Goldhars: “It was almost like fish wrap for advertising.” Today
the paper still keeps advertising and editorial separate, says McMillan, so the ad department doesn’t dictate the news. That attitude was inherited from Goldhar, he says. “We started a whole new trend in community journalism.” But even proud parents can be rebellious. The paper has never written editorials that represented the opinions of the editorial staff, he says, like other papers. “I didn’t see the point of it,” said Goldhar during a telephone interview. “I didn’t think I was smarter than anyone else.” That was the great thing about Harry, Kelly says: “He firmly believed that you don’t put your own opinion in the story.” Kelly recalls one of Goldhar’s famous phrases he used to scrawl in red pen in the margins of stories. It was “Sez Who?”, meaning the writer was straying into his or her own personal opinion. In that spirit, McMillan says the paper has continued to leave the opinion making to its columnists and readers. “We don’t feel we should tell the community what to think.” For Lori Abittan, Town Crier president and CEO of Multimedia Nova, it was the Town Crier’s strong editorial content that stood out when the company bought the chain of papers in 2001 under the leadership of the late Dan Iannuzzi. Since then the quality of writing has only gotten better, she adds. What separates the Crier from the pack when it comes to community news, she says, is that it continues to cover local issues and develop relevant content for the communities it serves. Its reporters also participate in important editorial board meetings with its many sister publications and media partners, she says — meetings which over the last few years have included the likes of Stephen Harper, Michael Ignatieff and Toronto chief of police Bill Blair. Interviewing important leaders such as these isn’t an advantage many community papers exercise, says Abittan. “The Town Crier has become a real mainstream kind of newsroom,” she says. “That’s very different for a community paper.” – Kelly Gadzala
Back in the mid-90s the Town Crier newspapers used to hire an actual Town Crier, at left, to assist in its marketing at various festivals across the city. Above, former owner Julie Wang-Morris signs the documents to sell the papers to Dan Iannuzzi.
Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
AWARD WINNERS: Members of the Town Crier’s 2008 editorial team pose with the accolades they received at the Ontario Community Newspapers Association’s Better Newspaper Awards.
Great dates in our history
1978 • Harry and Ruth Goldhar start the Crescent Town Crier and distributed it to 3,000 apartments and condos in Crescent Town. April 5, 1979 • First edition of the Upper Yonge Villager paper, distributed to 19,000 households. Sept 16, 1981 • First edition of the Leaside Villager, distributed to 7,000 households.
company, Town Crier.
Town Crier group of newspapers from Wang-Morris.
1991 • First edition of The Mills Town Crier, which was later changed to the Bayview Mills Town Crier.
2001 • Willowdale East and West papers started, which eventually morphed the into the North York Town Crier.
1996 • The Goldhars sold the Town Crier to Julie Wang-Morris, who already owned the Beach Town Crier which she founded in May 1995.
2001 • The MidTown edition of the Town Crier started, which later was named Toronto Today.
1981 • First edition of the Forest Hill Villager.
1997 • Wang-Morris started the Annex Town Crier, which later became the Bay-Bloor Town Crier.
Oct 1982 • Villager name changed to the name of the newspapers’ parent
2001 • Multimedia Nova, a diversity publisher and printer, bought the
Happy 30th Anniversary
Town Crier
Thank You for helping me succeed for over 17 Years!
2003 • Riverdale-East York edition of the Town Crier began publishing. 2007 • The Bloor West Journal acquired and renamed the Bloor West Town Crier.
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February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
How it all began o o Harry and Ruth Goldhar and the early days of the Town Crier
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photo courtesy denis cliff
TOWN CRIER FOUNDERS Harry and Ruth Goldhar decided their Crescent Town neighbourhood needed a newspaper of its own so they started one from the bedroom of their condo.
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arry Goldhar jokes that he started what would become the Town Crier group of newspapers because he was going through a mid-life crises. The family took a trip to Uruguay in the late 1970s, and when they returned to their condo in Crescent Town, Goldhar says they were broke. So they decided to start a newspaper. But in all seriousness, Goldhar was well-equipped for the job of starting a community paper. A former reporter and copy editor at the Toronto Star, he had the experience and the expertise to know what made good journalism. He and his wife, Ruth, were involved in the community, he says, and there was no community newspaper where they lived at the time. So they started up a paper that was distributed to 3,000 condos and apartments in Crescent Town, putting it together in their condo. “We felt (the area) needed something,” says Ruth, a Toronto school trustee for 19 years who became the paper’s advertising director. “We fell into it together.” As the paper grew, with Ruth selling ads and Harry managing the editorial side, the Goldhars expanded their empire to include a North Toronto paper in 1979, called the Upper Yonge Villager. In 1981, a Leaside version followed. Eventually the paper expanded to four core publications covering North Toronto, Leaside, Forest Hill and an edition known as “The Mills” which covered Don Mills, York Mills and the Bridle Path. The Goldhars sold the company to Julie-Wang Morris in 1996. “It was getting too big,” Harry says. “If we didn’t know what to do with it, it was time to pass it off.” As successful as the paper became, the Goldhar clan has never forgotten its grassroots beginning, nor the fact that the Town Crier was a family affair from PAPER Page 7
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Paper was a family affair for the Goldhars Cont. from Page 6 the get-go. “That the whole family was involved was pretty unique,” says Ruth, who says when they moved the paper out of their condo they always made sure the paper’s headquarters were close to where they lived. “There and home was interchangeable,” says daughter Kathleen Goldhar of the Town Crier work space. “It became our second home for sure.” Kathleen and her sister, Caroline, have the exact same first memory of the newspaper: delivering it to apartment buildings in Crescent Town when they were nine and seven respectively. As they grew older both would work at the paper over the summers in just about every capacity you can think of, from answering phones to selling ads. Kathleen eventually became a journalism student at Ryerson and worked at the paper fulltime as a reporter for two summers. Meanwhile Caroline took a course and helped with layout and graphics. Though Caroline says reporting was never her cup of tea, Kathleen stayed in the journalism world and is a producer at CBC Radio One’s The Current. “What I learned from my father about storytelling I use to this day,” she says. “I loved the (Town Crier) experience. It completely formed who my sister and I are. It was our identity for so long.”
“We used to joke it was our little brother,” says Caroline. “It was such a huge part of our lives.” Both sisters speak fondly of working closely as a family and with their folks. One moment that stands out for them was their parents’ 25th wedding anniversary, when they put together a joke edition of the paper that they presented to their parents at a surprise party. Everyone got involved, says Kathleen: reporters wrote funny stories, and there was a hilarious photo on the cover of Harry kissing Ruth — with Ruth making this disgusted face, she says. All kidding aside, Kathleen says it was her parents that made the paper happen, attributing its editorial success to her dad and its financial success to her mom. “They’re an amazing team.” Today Harry and Ruth live in Leaside. Ruth sells real estate and Harry is partner in a book publishing business. They still go back to Uruguay even though their roots in the city run deep. “We still have people coming to us telling us we did a fabulous job,” says Ruth. “We built a chain of newspapers … We worked our buns off.” With a modesty that some past and present colleagues would identify as distinctly Harry, the Town Crier founder speaks simply about his vision for the paper and its success: “I tried to make it a good newspaper.” – Kelly Gadzala
“We still have people coming to us telling we did a fabulous job.”
francis crescia/town crier
WORKING FROM HOME: Kathleen, left, and Caroline Goldhar started at their parents’ paper when they were young children delivering it door-to-door.
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francis crescia/town crier
The view of Yonge and Erskine in 2010
On the cover of the first Upper Yonge Villager we featured a streetscape that is remarkably similar (styles of clothes and cars notwithstanding) to what can be found at the same location today.
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Happy 30th Anniversary, Town Crier, from the Staff & Students of Hudson!
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February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
The Town Crier’s prodigal journalist
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Editor-in-Chief Eric McMillan
H
e’s been with the Town Crier on and off for about 15 years, but Eric McMillan keeps coming back. The current editor-in-chief of the nine monthly newspapers in the Town Crier group, McMillan started as freelance writer for Crescent Town Crier in 1979, eventually becoming the paper’s first full-time reporter in 1981. To this day he’ll never forget what Town Crier founder Harry Goldhar said when he started his permanent gig at the paper: “Harry said to my wife, ‘You know, I think Eric is crazy enough to work for us full-time’.” It sure was crazy in those early days, says McMillan. “Not because Harry was crazy,” McMillan is quick to point out. “He was pretty down to earth.” But the Crier was small and you had to do everything from reporting and writing to laying out and graphics. McMillan says he even
sold the occasional advertisement and helped the company (successfully) sue advertisers for not paying their bills. As exciting as it was to learn all aspects of the newspaper publishing world, McMillan says the pressure to meet deadlines was more intense than in a larger publication. “In a larger organization if you fall down someone will cover for you,” he says. “(Here) if I didn’t get the paper done on time there was no paper.” It probably didn’t help that he was working other jobs to make ends meet, often freelancing and working as an editor for video and emerging computer publications. He was so busy he’d land at work at 6 or 7 p.m. and start making phone calls for all his stories. “Many times I wrote the entire paper overnight.” Once the paper was done, he and his boss would pile into Goldhar’s beat up station wagon and take the WRITING Page 13
Trusted in Real Estate since
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karolyn coorsh/town crier
CAN’T STAY AWAY: Eric McMillan was the first full-time reporter hired by Harry Goldhar at the Crescent Town Crier. McMillan later bought that edition from the Goldhars and ran it for a few years.
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
Want ad leads sales whiz to true calling o o Director of Corporate Sales Jennifer Gardiner
I
t began three decades ago with a phone call and screaming tots. The date was 1980 and the Town Crier’s director of corporate sales Jennifer Gardiner was running a daycare called Baby Days from her home. At the time she was officially listed as advertising manager in the paper, called the Upper Yonge Villager, but really was a volunteer who had never sold an ad in her life. During that first sales call, Gardiner wondered how professional she sounded to the person inquiring about advertising on the other end: “There were probably six kids screaming in the background,” she says. The rest, as they, say, is history for the Town Crier’s longest-standing employee. Gardiner got involved with the paper when she and her husband, Frank, saw an ad in the Upper Yonge Villager seeking advertising sales help. North Toronto residents at the time, the young couple felt passionate about their community. Frank, Gardiner says, was a real news buff on top of it, so the two met with the Goldhars. The plan at the time, she recalls, was to run ads in the paper looking for a small sales team of stay-at-home-moms who could sell advertisements on a part-time basis. “We used the term, ‘executive housewives’ at the time,” Gardiner recalls. “It was a very different world.” Five women responded to the ad and began selling ads in sales territories up and down Yonge Street, Gardiner recalls. But even then she just attended meetings and
wasn’t selling ads herself. Then came that phone call. That call propelled her into the world of sales. She took on a small territory and started selling ads while managing her daycare at the same time. Unlike the other women who started alongside her Gardiner showed she had staying power. “At the end of six months I was the only one left.” With minimal experience save for some door-to-door Avon sales, Gardiner took to the job like a duck to water. “From the day I went out there I just loved interacting with the client,” she says. “I get quite a bang out of making it happen.” Her territory grew quickly to include Yonge Street from Eglinton Avenue to Hoggs Hollow; Avenue Road from Lawrence Avenue to the 401; Eglinton from Yonge to Bathurst; and Forest Hill. As she grew more successful she closed the daycare to dedicate herself to full-time professional sales, taking only a year or so off in the mid-1980s when her youngest started school. When the Town Crier newspapers were sold to Julie Wang-Morris in 1996, Gardiner became sales manager, overseeing a sales team. Today she works with a small list of long-standing clients, and also with the paper’s many private school accounts. A lot has changed over the years, she says, including the six bucks commission she used to get on a $32 business card ad. Given a telephone conversation started her off in sales world, it makes sense that, 30 years later, Gardiner frequently connects with clients over the phone. Many have become friends, she says, and calls are a mix of business and pleasure. Personal connections aside, Gardiner says the longevity of the Town Crier shows there’s still a place for community news in Toronto today. “We’re still the best source for community news.” – Kelly Gadzala
francis crescia/town crier
ONE CALL: When she started in sales, Jennifer Gardiner was also running a daycare out of her home. It wasn’t long before she got out of the childcare business and into sales full-time.
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Brash youth grew into a polished professional o o Former Editor Malcolm Kelly
Bennington Heights x Flemingdon Park x Leaside Thorncliffe x Wynford-Concorde
Best Wishes on your 30th Anniversary Let me help you with your municipal questions and concerns. 416 392-0215 councillor_parker@toronto.ca
“W
hen I first started at the Town Crier I was a typical snotty 25-year old.” Spoken with the objectivity of a true journalist. Actually the person doing the talking hasn’t drunk from the fountain of truth. Malcolm Kelly is speaking frankly, and rather engagingly, about his 11year relationship with the Town Crier as a reporter and editor. And believe it or not, being a snotty 25-year old is part of the story. Now a sports writer and columnist at cbcsports.ca and the founder and coordinator of the graduate sports journalism program at Centennial College, Kelly says the paper’s founder Harry Goldhar was the mentor to end all mentors, propelling
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him out of the realm of youthful arrogance and into the world of pro reporting and writing. “I remember this clearly,” Kelly says. “Harry said to me, ‘You have tons of talent but almost no ability.’ “He set out to teach me. He was ruthless.” It was, as Kelly recalls, a trial by fire — or rather by red pen. “It was hell,” he says, recalling crimson ink Goldhar would use to mark up stories that needed to be rewritten — and then sometimes rewritten again. “I swear to God it looked as though he slit his wrists and bled all over the copy.” Kelly recalls being so angry over a story lead Goldhar insisted he change — here comes the youthful arrogance part — that he picked up a seemingly unbreakable microwave bowl and hurled it across the room. It broke into two. But Kelly changed the lead, and later received compliments on both the story and its beginning. “He was a pain in the ass but boy I learned,” says Kelly. “He taught me good writing is hard. Your job is to always get better.” Today there’s no denying Goldhar’s influence when Kelly is instructing a class full of journalism students. “The basics of everything I teach, you could say was — Harry would hate this — the Harry Goldhar method,” he says. Kelly attributes his rule of
francis crescia/town crier
STUDENT BECOMES THE MASTER: After his training at the Town Crier, Malcolm Kelly has gone on to found Centennial College’s graduate sports journalism program. five to Goldhar’s influence, which dictates that even if a publication says it can’t afford to pay you for an article, you should ask for $5. That way, Kelly says, you come off as a pro who values your work, and because you received payment, no matter how small, you can actually call yourself a professional. “Harry didn’t believe in doing things for free,” says Kelly, who adds he was never more proud than when he received the first $10 he made for a story he wrote as a freelancer in the paper’s early days.
When Goldhar hired him on as sports editor in 1985, he says he was paid $250 a week — a good salary for those days. By the time he left his post in 1997 Kelly was managing editor. Though he went on to Canadian Press and later, to the National Post before the CBC, he still maintains his ties with the Crier. In fact he’s taught refresher seminars to the paper’s journalist in recent years – employing many a Harry-ism in the process. “I am immensely proud of my time at the Town Crier.” – Kelly Gadzala
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
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DURING the years Julie Wang-Morris owned the Town Criers she added a new edition and a sister paper in English and Chinese.
o o
Former Owner Julie Wang-Morris
A
fter 17 years Town Crier owners Ruth and Harry Goldhar decided it was time to move on and sold their newspapers to Julie WangMorris in 1996. She was no stranger to the Town Crier as she already owned the Beach edition of the newspaper. Wang-Morris declined to be interviewed for this special edition but Town Crier business manager Kathy Kerluke started with the company around the same time Wang-Morris came on board. Wang-Morris was ahead of her time in many ways, Kerluke says. She started the Markham Communicator in 1997, a half English, half Chi-
nese paper that at the time caused a bit of a stir in the community. “She had that idea that diversity publishing would become quite strong,” says Kerluke. “A couple of the things (she started) were just on the edge of becoming very big.” During her tenure Wang-Morris also added an Annex edition to the Town Crier roster of papers. Kerluke says Wang-Morris was always very involved in the community. In May of 1998 WangMorris won a YWCA Women of Distinction Award for her community commitment. “She was the kind of person who could walk down the street and talk to everyone,” says Kerluke. – Kelly Gadzala
Writing all night wasn’t uncommon Cont. from Page 10
paper to the printer. “Sometimes we’d drive over at 6 a.m., after working all night putting the paper together.” In 1985 McMillan quit and worked at a computer publication into the 1990s, but he took a piece of the Town Crier with him, purchasing the Crescen Town Crier from Goldhar. The paper was close to his heart: McMillan lived in Crescent Town and wanted to support it but by then the original paper had shrunk while the midtown papers had grown. “By that time it was small potatoes,” he says, and running it was basically charity work. Eventually he let the paper die a natural death while he continued to run a successful computer publication he co-founded called Toronto Computes!. But he came back.
Returning for round two in the early 1990s, McMillan applied all the technology he learned from the computer world to the Town Crier. By then he was associate publisher and played a crucial role in managing the transition to digital layout. After a decade-long break from 1994 to 2004, he came back one last time to the new title of managing editor. McMillan says he can’t get the Crier out of his blood because it’s always upheld highest standards in journalism and has always been connected with the community. Other community rags just didn’t impress him, he says. “Here I learned to make news,” he says. “Which is not the same thing as making up news.” – Kelly Gadzala
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Congratulations to the Town Crier on its 30th Anniversary! Working together to make our community stronger Please visit my constituency office: 803 St. Clair Avenue West Toronto, ON M6C 1B9 T: 416-656-0943 F: 416-656-0875
ehoskins.mpp.co@liberal.ola.org www.erichoskins.ca February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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The people behind the Crier then o o
The Town Crier team in 1997
This photo was taken after the paper moved into a new office on Yonge Street. At the time the company was publishing six monthly newspapers in both the Midtown and Beach areas of Toronto.
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
The people behind the Crier now o o
The Town Crier team in 2010
Today the company has grown to publish nine monthly papers and has added a thriving website www.mytowncrier.ca. Between the two photographs only Director of Corporate Sales Jennifer Gardiner and Business Manager Kathy Kerluke appear in both.
victor Aguilar/town crier
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The scoop on some of our stories o o
Hard-hitting, groundbreaking and sometimes kooky things we’ve printed over the years
T
hirty years of news making has yielded a more diverse crop of stories than you’d expect. From homegrown tales to hard news stories, from scandal to, yes, even sex, the Town Crier has covered, uncovered and investigated some great issues and stories over the years. It’s even done a bit of trailblazing.
Who says community news can’t be sexy?
M
any may think of community news as decidedly un-sexy. Think again. In fact the paper has been racy from its salad days. In the August 15, 1979 “Meet Your Neighbour” section of the Upper Yonge Villager, business owner Diana Crawford recommends 21-year old Bruce Schroeder as the “August Village Beau.” Accompanying the write up is a photo of a shirtless Schroeder pushing a wheelbarrow, and the text says that Schroeder “keeps in shape working in the backyard, weightlifting, waterskiing and discoing.” Over the years we’ve done some semi-raunchy stuff — not to be inflammatory, mind you, but rather because we’ve uncovered developments in your neighbourhood that we knew you’d want to hear about. City hall bureau chief Kris Scheur has written of illegal massage parlours for our MidTown edition in 2005, even accompanying police on a massage parlour bust. Meanwhile former city editor Sandie Benitah wrote a series in 2005 on private swinger clubs in the Midtown area, going undercover to several clubs to infiltrate swinger culture. Many readers were surprised to know that one, swinger clubs existed at all outside of the 1970s, and two, that they existed in their backyards.
B Oops!
loopers? Okay, they happen. Sometimes we make mistakes; sometimes we get hosed in the process. Take the Leaside paper for Oct 22, 1981. The headline reads, “Story Upsets Stores: Where Oh Where is Pedro?” The gist was that we wrote a story about a proposed widening of Bayview Ave., quoting a person identifying himself as Pedro Valchaashare of Bayview Hardware. Retailers from the Bayview Ave. strip wrote in after the story came out, saying there was no such person and no such store, and that they didn’t advocate the position Pedro said they did. Our apology: “We admit we were probably duped and apologize for any incon-
RACY CONTENT: The Town Crier has never been afraid to get a little saucy at times. In the paper’s early days we often ran “Village Beaus” or “Village Belles” as chosen by members of the community. In 2005 we exposed several private swingers clubs that made their home in the Midtown area.
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
Ghosts and grow-ops venience we may have caused.”
C
Development ommunity development projects have and will always be the bread and butter of Town Crier news coverage, says editor-inchief Eric McMillan. From 1979 well into the 1980s, the Upper Yonge Villager covered the fight over splitting the lot at 170 St. Clement’s Ave., a dispute that went all the way to the Supreme Court of Ontario. Sometimes development projects can go in the other direction. Remember the Bayview Ghost? We tracked the issue surrounding the Bayview Ave., eyesore from the early days, and even past its demolition. The front cover of the November 27, 1981 Leaside Villager features a photo of East York mayor Alan Redway striking the first wreaking ball blow to the building on October 30. In the same edition the mayor penned a column, “Our own ghost story”, about the battle that had surrounded the Bayview Ghost since 1953.
Homegrown community news
A
community paper wouldn’t be a community paper without heartfelt stories about people in the community. We’ve covered high school reunions and community events. We’ve had student columnists write about the issues affecting teens in their day. And let’s not forget the younger ones: In one of the first editions of the Leaside Villager in 1981, Rolph Road School students from room 28 sent in poems to commemorate World Poetry Day on Oct 15, which we featured on a full-page spread. In 2005 we did a year-long series of articles on Local Heroes in every edition of our newspaper, and we got you involved as you wrote in your com-
CHANGES IN THE COMMUNITY: The Town Crier has always covered the development issues near and dear to the hearts of our readers including the saga of the so-called Bayview Ghost. We’ve also reported on the marijuana grow-ops and drug labs that have set up in our midst.
February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
17
CONGRATULATIONS
TOWN CRIER ON ACHIEVING 30 YEARS
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
Getting our hands dirty ments and eventually voted on a winner in each newspaper area.
Hard news features
The news isn’t always pretty. The Town Crier doesn’t shy away from these stories, writing hard news features and stories on sometimes difficult subjects. Malcolm Kelly and Mark Bourrie’s series of articles on North Toronto raised serial killer Peter Woodcock — who was known as David Krueger in the mid-1990s when the article was written — included an interview with the convicted killer and also the stories of surviving relations of the victims. It was a Town Crier exclusive. In 1994 we wrote a full-page feature on the attempted murder of Ward 15 city councillor Kay Gardner, who was almost killed by a pipe bomb in her car. In recent years former crime reporter and current city editor Karolyn Coorsh has written numerous news stories on marijuana grow-ops and drug labs in homes in residential areas of the city. Because of her relationship with Toronto police she’s been able to give readers an inside look at one such grow-op after the owner was busted.
Leading community — heck — even mainstream journalism Okay, some of the stuff we’ve done has ticked you off, maybe rocked the boat a bit. But that’s when we know we’re doing our jobs well and asking the right questions. Take our 2005 and 2007 trash series, where we picked and went through garbage bags randomly from all of our coverage areas. We found 80 percent of what was found in those bags could have been diverted to the recycling bin. Many politicians agreed with our findings, though the city claimed its numbers showed higher rates of recycling than we reported. Numerous articles and columns followed from there. “Going Green” columnist Kris Scheuer tried to go garbage free; we wrote a story on a Forest Hill couple who went garbage-free for two weeks, and in her column, former city editor Sandie Benitah condemned the city for not raising enough awareness about recycling.
Though most readers who gave feedback were surprised, one wrote in response to Scheuer’s column, writing that the newspaper was full of “fatuous twaddle”. Another story we broke in recent years: how city councillors spend the donation portion of their budgets, which came as a result of our filing a Freedom of Information request. We looked at the budgets of 18 councillors in our coverage areas and published a detailed breakdown of they were spent. While we didn’t uncover illegal spending,
we did get a big reaction from the public and the politicians. The city eventually ended up coming down harder on councillor budget spending — indeed, the topic remains hot today — and even sent out a review of all 44 councillor’s spending to media outlets as a result of our investigation. Some media outlets claimed they had scooped the story based on this report, but the city acknowledged the report was a result of the FOI the Town Crier had filed. – Kelly Gadzala
Looking back o o
How we saw our history in 1992
Through individualized special education instruction, we enable each student with a learning disability to succeed.
Open House
Thursday February 18th 9:30am - 11:30am 5:00pm - 7:00pm
It may have been our 14th anniversary but that’s no reason why we couldn’t introduce the staff to our readers and tell the tale of how the Town Crier got its start.
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February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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The Toronto Prep School is a new, independent, co-educational, university preparatory, day school for discerning students and parents. The Toronto Prep School education experience includes: • a semestered, university preparatory curriculum • a structured environment with a maximum of 15 students per class • a MacBook Pro laptop with educational software • GoodLife Fitness membership (club is on the premises) • an extended after school study program • Saturday Club study program • extra-curricular clubs and athletic program • a dedicated, passionate and experienced faculty
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ENGAGING MINDSENGAGING MINDSENGAGING MINDSENGAGING MINDSENGAGING MINDSENGAGING MINDS
Tales of raccoons and sewer-wrecking trees E
ven though editor-in-chief Eric McMillan says the bread and the butter of Town Crier editorial coverage has always been stories on development projects in the community, there are many other topics he’s covered over the years that really stand out for him. Take the raccoon issue, for instance. In the mid 1980s Leaside residents started complaining over raccoons destroying their properties. The paper ran numerous articles exploring both sides of the issue. “These wasn’t earth shattering news,” McMillan says. “These are not major world events, but people would write in and offer tips. “We acted as a forum for the exchange of information in the community.” Another story McMillan remembers was about a woman who had a maple tree in her yard that was damaging her sewer system and property. East York city council wouldn’t allow the tree to be taken down, so after interviewing her McMillan took a photo of the woman beside the tree brandishing an hatchet. She was later quoted jokingly saying that she’d have a beer party and
get rid of the tree herself. Council eventually axed its prior decision and gave her permission to fell the tree. One last story McMillan says is a mystery to this day was about a mausoleum in the Mount Pleasant Cemetery dedicated to a Captain Fluke. He couldn’t uncover
any information about Captain Fluke so he ran a story about it and asked readers to write in if they knew anything. Many letters came in, he says, but the mystery was never solved. Twenty-some years after writing that story, Captain Fluke still haunts him, he says.
We all face it: our final preparations and we all avoid thinking about it. By doing something today you will be saving yourself and your family 8% on the new Harmonized Sales Tax (HST). CONGRATULATIONS ON YOUR 30TH ANNIVERSARY
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
Twists and turns
o o
The story that saved Leaside drivers
F
ormer Town Crier reporter and editor Malcolm Kelly has many memories about articles he wrote over the years. But when asked about a piece that the Crier did that influenced the community, Kelly says that without a doubt, it was the Leaside traffic plan story. It was the late 1980s and East York city council was 100 percent behind a proposed traffic plan that would have changed many streets in Leaside to one-way thoroughfares. The city sent the paper of a map of the proposed plan and the area it would affect.
In response, Harry Goldhar, the Town Crier’s founder and the editor, had Kelly choose five public places and map out the routes that locals would be forced to take under the council’s oneway plan. Kelly says the new map, which ran on the front page of the Leaside paper, showed that people would have to drive hither, thither and yon before arriving at a destination that was only a few minutes away. “And that,” says Kelly, “was the end of the Leaside traffic plan.” – Kelly Gadzala
February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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Business partners
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The Town Crier has attracted and kept many long-standing advertisers
o
I
francis crescia/town crier
HAPPY CUSTOMERS: Lynda Thompson of the ADD Centre (at top) and Derek LaMarche of Just Kitchen and Bathroom Renovations have both found that running ads in the Town Crier has been good for their businesses.
t’s no secret: advertisers play a vital role in the survival of any newspaper, especially free papers like the Town Crier. But quality editorial gives value to advertisers. Ontario readership studies have shown that people tend to read community newspapers cover to cover and keep them longer than a daily newspaper — meaning advertisers get a bigger bang for their buck. And for the independent business person with a limited marketing budget, ad payback is the name of the game. Just ask Lynda Thompson, executive director of the ADD Centre in Toronto. The first time she saw the paper was on a friend’s coffee table. “They hung onto it longer,” she says of the paper. An advertiser with the Town Crier for about 14 of the 16 years she’s been in business, Thompson says the paper has value others lack. “The Town Crier is the best of its
type that I’ve ever seen.” Though her clients come from around the globe to experience the facility’s non-drug approach to Attention Deficit Disorder and other syndromes, Thompson says the local connection is vital. “People say they saw (us) in the Town Crier.” Derek LaMarche can relate; in fact he could be a poster child for the success of community newspaper advertising. Owner of Just Kitchen and Bathrooms Renovations and a Leaside resident, LaMarche says his very first ad in the Town Crier 20 years ago changed his life — and his business. “I got a call from a client, quit my job … and built a million dollar business.” He still advertises today and his ads generate quality leads, he says. “Everybody knows who the Town Crier is.” Trusting the sales people and advertising in several Town Crier edi-
Leaside
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Mon - Wed: 10 am - 6 pm • Thurs - Fir : 10 pm - 8 pm Saturday: 10 am - 5 pm • Sunday: 12 am - 5 pm
Come visit our showroom
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
Internet ads won’t replace the paper tions every month was something he says he didn’t initially believe in. “I was a naive business man,” he says of his salad days. “I thought I could just throw one business ad in.” But it all paid off. “It turned out the way they said.” He says he’s wasted thousands and thousands of dollars advertising with other papers that didn’t help to generate client leads. “Honest to God, the Town Crier is one of the soundest business decisions I ever made.” Aside from a roster of educational facilities that advertise with the Crier, along with service providers like LaMarche, retailers like Barbara and Alec Van Rijk of Van Rijk Jewellers on Eglinton Ave. East know the value of consistent community advertising. They’ve been placing business cards ads with several Town Crier editions for most of their 24 years in business — and according to them even previous owner advertised with the paper. “The Town Crier has been an amazing tool for us,” says Barbara. “People come in and say, ‘We saw that little ad in the paper.’” That sort of payback is vital, she adds, as the store is a destination shop that doesn’t rely on street traffic. “I always wanted to advertise with the Town Crier when I started my business 24 years ago,” Alec says.
Though they advertise with daily newspapers, Alec says it’s important to have a constant presence in the community through local advertising. “I want the recognition out there.” He’s seeing success from radio and Internet ads, but Alec says he won’t consider leaving the Town Crier anytime soon as there is always an audience who will want to know about his services. “I don’t think I’d ever stop.” Patrick Rocca has been on page three of the Leaside-Rosedale newspaper for about 16 years. The wellknown broker with Bosley Real Estate caters to the Leaside market, and for him, that community connection is vital. “It was always the paper that stood out for me,” he says of his reasons for going with the Crier instead of other community publications. “When you think local papers, you think the Town Crier.” A Leasider himself, Rocca says the value of the advertising is all about supporting and being visible in the community. And the community, he says, reads the Town Crier. “People read the local paper as they want to know what’s going on with the community,” he says. “In my opinion you are the Leaside paper.” – Kelly Gadzala
“(The Town Crier) was always the paper that stood out for me.”
francis crescia/town crier
LOCAL STORE OWNERS like Alec and Barbara Van Rijk say that even small ads in the Town Crier can pay dividends, while Leaside realtor Patrick Rocca uses the paper to keep up his profile in the community he serves.
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February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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Ages 1.5years - 14years.
o o
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
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When the Town Crier first hit the street it was a black and white publication printed magazine style.
The One & Only
Lobster Trap Restaurant Serving the best seafood inToronto for over 40 years!
Thank you for voting us the RESTAURANT Best Seafood • Live Lobsters flown in fresh from the Restaurant in Town! Maritimes
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Our front page in 2009
Today’s Town Crier features a full colour front and is printed to a standard tabloid size.
Be
• Casual & lively atmosphere • Menu also includes other High Quality Seafood Filet Mignon & Rack of Lamb 1962 Avenue Road
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Snowhawks Raven offers many programs at ski and snowboard school Fresh air, physical activity, friends and enjoying the sport of a lifetime…that’s what Snowhawks Raven is all about. We offer a choice of ski and snowboard programs for ages 6 to 18 as well as adults. What makes Snowhawks Raven special is our caring staff, our focus on supervision and instruction and, of course, the amount of fun our members are treated to. Programs include Christmas and Spring Break Camps as well as our Mid-Winter Saturday or Sunday excursions. Packages include transportation,
instruction with our very own pros, lift tickets, a detailed progress report and special event days to ensure all members are both challenged and kept hopping. Adults are not forgotten as our Mid-Week Adult Program travels to all the private clubs. We carefully direct every aspect of the program from the morning pick-up until we return with your tired and happy skiers and boarders at the end of the day. Call 416-487-5271.or visit www.snowhawks.com
ng For Accepti r 2010
1
ster: S st seme
e
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Congratulations Town Crier from all of us at Metro Prep!
February 2010 Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition
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30 Years of Covering
Toronto’s Greatest Communities 1992
1994
2005
2001
Linden girls live on the
EdGE. We are all part of a global community, and we have a responsibility to the world we live in. At The Linden School, girls not only gain an awareness of the global issues we face, but also work to effect social change through clubs like EdGE (Education for Girls Everywhere), which helps girls all over the world gain fair access to education.
Because that’s how girls learn best.
2008
Visit us at our upcoming
Open House:
April 16, 2010 9:00 AM - 12:00 PM Learn more about how girls learn best at
(Co-Principals will present @ 9:30 AM)
www.lindenschool.ca 26
Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
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A quarter century of cheering Our annual high school Athlete of the Year Awards
M
alcolm Kelly sits at his desk poring over his article that started the Town Crier’s Athlete of the Year about 24 years ago. He names off the nominees like they were old friends: Winner Shelley Whelpton; Peter Fonseca, MPP and Labour Minister; and Dave Sapunjis, former Calgary Stampeder. Alex Roach, Kim Cassar, Trevor Farrow, Cathy Gannon, Jan Wojnicki, Craig Leon, Susan Beard, Heather Hutchinson, John Karkalotos, Kim Taylor, Martin Parr and Jennifer Strasberg are named too. “It’d be very interesting to know what all these people are doing now,” he says. But for the former sports editor, with the Town Crier from 1985 to ’95, creating the award ceremony honouring Toronto high schoolers was his proudest and fondest memory of being at the paper. When he approached Harry Goldhar with the idea, the publisher praised the notion, but threw Kelly a curveball of his own. “Harry says, ‘Great idea, and you know what else we should do? We should have a breakfast’.” Of course, everybody knows kids need to eat, thus setting up the tradition of a morning meal with some of the city’s most talented high school athletes. One of the first restaurants to host the event for many years was Peter Oliver’s Old Fashioned Bakery on Yonge Street just north of Eglinton Avenue. “Peter Oliver was just fabulous to us,” Kelly recalls. “It got a little big for him after a while, but he was just terrific.” Along with the venue, Kelly remembers the list of local celebrities who came to pass on their sporting knowledge to students.
“We had great speakers over the years,” he says. “Every time I asked somebody, they’d never say no.” Bill Watters was on hand for the first few years, and even gave the award to his son Brad without knowing that the junior Watters had won until the proud poppa opened the envelope. Blue Jays announcer Jerry Howarth and national basketball player Leo Rautins also charmed audiences too. The only catch is that the speakers, like the athletes had to have ties to the Town Crier’s communities. “That’s one of the things that made the paper so great is that people knew that when we said local, we meant local,” Kelly says. “That didn’t mean I couldn’t go out and find Olympians who were from that area and do stories on them.” But high school was where the action was happening in Midtown Toronto. “After a few years (schools) not only got onto it, but they started to look forward to it,” Kelly says. “And if I would phone and say their athlete is our Town Crier Athlete of the Year, they’d really be into it.” Out of all his blood, sweat and tears through a decade of Athlete of the Year, Kelly’s crowning achievement was his self-designed point system used to determine an annual winner. “It wasn’t just me deciding. I cooked up a point system — a really complicated point system,” he recalls. Five points were allotted for every team a student played on, in addition to championships and qualifying for OFSAA. If it was an individual sport, more points were given and a whopping 25 were given to high academic standing. “The whole thing was completely objective and it had to be that way,” Kelly says. “I would sit down three days before and I would point it all out.” Kelly jokes the time leading to it was full of audibles adapting to the obstacles leading up to the first annual awards. “I swear to God we were making the thing up as we went along.” – Brian Baker
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Town Crier 30th Anniversary Edition February 2010
Francis Crescia/ town crier
FROM our first awards in 1986 the Town Crier continues to show our commitment to high school athletics.
GO Canada! Let The Games Begin!!!
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W
ith a large smile and hands delicately balancing a three-tiered trophy, Shelley Whelpton held aloft the first ever Town Crier Athlete of the Year trophy almost 24 years ago. Toronto Maple Leaf commentator, Bill Watters, presented the North Toronto student with her award as she beat out 14 others for the accolade including Peter Fonseca who went on to be Ontario’s Minister of Labour and Dave Sapunjis who later played for seven seasons with the Calgary Stampeders. But it was Whelpton’s full immersion into sports as a Norsewomen that won her top honours back in June 1986. She qualified for OFSAA with the basketball team as well as track and field in discus and shot put. She made it to the city finals in soccer. She also thirsted for swimming, achieving the team’s MVP and served that up with sides of tennis and volleyball. To this day, she’s kept up with athletics, as the Town Crier chatted with her over the phone from Washington, D.C. where she works as a senior associate with the Sheridan Group. But the thrill of sports is as fresh in her soul as it was when she was 19. She just has to balance it with her two boys and her partner. “When you get three or four hours of exercise in high school, when you’re doing all these sports then as an adult to sit at a computer for 10-12 hours a day
it’s unnatural,” she says. “I’m only really productive if I have a lot of physical exercise during the day.” While she’s coaching her son in soccer and basketball, she’ll also be training for her biggest challenge yet: a half-Iron Man in June. “Triathlons are a great way to keep physically active, do different sports, but when you’ve got kids and a family it’s hard to play volleyball or do some of these things on a structured schedule.” Her need to compete even translated into volunteering on Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, where she helped out with security at the Democratic Convention. “It’s been really a thrill to be up close during the last year and a half,” she says. “Now doing this work, there’s a lot of optimism about policy change and really addressing some of the pressing social problems (in the U.S.)” Social change is no big jump, as Whelpton advocated for equal time for girls and boys in North Toronto gyms. With such a small space to play in for the girls, Whelpton and a friend went around to schools in the city, snapping photos and presenting their gender inequity discoveries to the school board. “That actually led to a policy change where there was a mandated equal access to the girls and boys athletic facilities,” she recalls. “I’m most proud about that.” Back to when she won the Athlete of the Year, Whelpton told Town Crier reporter Malcolm Kelly, “None of my goals are unachievable.” One of those goals was to be holding political office. Looks as though Whelpton isn’t far from reaching that goal. – Brian Baker
ANKS SHEst. 1948 Plu
mbing & D
photo courtesy shelley whelpton
STILL ACTIVE: Our first Athlete of the Year remains committed to sport while balancing family and work in Washington D.C.
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