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Village Squire, 1978-02, Page 29PRESS The failure of entertainment coverage hurts readers, show business Last fall, with much ballyhoo, the London Free Press announced its new look. Under the new system the newspaper was to have a specialty section each day of the week: one for sports, one for food, etc. Oh all these things would have their regular coverage at other times, of course, but the one day of the week was supposed to be extra special issue. Friday was reserved for entertainment coverage. There was hope at the time that at long last the Free press was going to improve its rather dismal entertainment coverage. Unfortunately, that was too much to hope for. Today the regular entertainment coverage is as slim as ever, the Saturday coverage has been diminished and the new Friday section is mostly filled with wirecopy about what Farrah Fawcett Majors is doing in Hollywood these days. Not that the Free Press should be singled out for its entertainment coverage failures because it's just one of many papers that have left the field totally neglected. Entertainment pages if they appear at all are usually filled with Hollywood gossip columns and what the major U.S. television networks are up to lately. Canadian television, let alone Canadian theatre and live music events. might as well not be happening as far as most of the newspapers outside major centres like Toronto are concerned. There are a few exceptions, of course. The Stratford Beacon -Herald though it has no entertainment section to speak of, does keep it readers remarkably up to date about the happenings involving personalit- ies from the Stratford Festival. but then the Festival after all is about the largest industry in the city. When it comes to other entertainment events. however, the success rate is not so good. The paper's drama critic showed up at one of the other area professional theatres last year without any foreknowledge of the history of the theatre. of the kind of work done, of whether or not it was a professional company, of when the season opened or any of the other basic research that a journalist usually undertakes before going on an assignment. The Kitchener -Waterloo Record is more in the league of the Free Press in that at least it has a regular entertainment page, but aside from movie reviews, most of it too is wirecopy. The tragedy of the whole thing is that the talent is there to do the job. The Free Press, for instance. has the controversial but well-regarded Doug Bale as a theatre critic, one of the better critics in the country. They have the versatile Noel Callagher who has reviewed everything from theatre to movies to nightclub acts with skill. Mike Mulhern has recently given the paper another bright light and Judy Malone has also proven versatile. In addition there are others on staff who have shown they can contribute in such fields as classical music. Yet for all the talent, the results are mediocre at best from an overall viewpoint. Summer is probably the best time to get anything interesting in the Free Press because of the presence of four professional theatre companies in the area: Stratford, of course, Huron Country Playhouse at Grand Bend, Victoria Playhouse in Petrolia and Blyth Summer Festival. It means a busy theatre scene that has articles appearing on a regular basis. Winter, of course is not so busy on the local scene with only Theatre London and Centre Stage operating on a regular basis so it is natural that the theatre coverage can be expected to be down. To get the true picture, it would perhaps be best to compare entertainment coverage to another specialized area of the newspaper's sports coverage. There was a time when the Free Press had pretty abysmal sports coverage as well but recent years has shown an upswing in that area. brought on most apparently by an increase in budget for that section of the paper. When the recent Superbowl was held, The Free Press had a reporter there. The Grey Cup has coverage by Free Press staff. Even Saturday night hockey games in Toronto have staff coverage from the paper. None of these things have direct local ties, yet the Free Press considers them important enough to send staff thousands of miles to cover the events rather than rely on news service copy. Entertainment coverage is seldom likely to get farther from the London offices than 50 miles in any direction. Now and then there will be one of Mr. Bale's interesting round -ups on the Toronto theatre scene but no more than once a year. You're more likely to hear about the opening of a new play on Broadway than you are in Toronto. more apt to read an account of a rock concert in Los Angeles than at Maple Leaf Gardens; more likely to know the latest gossip of which movie star is going out with which in Hollywood than to read a feature story on the star of a new Canadian television series. In an interview this fall with Village Squire. Doug Bale defended his newspap- er's lack of coverage saying that the money isn't available. that when it becomes economically imperative for the daily newspapers to give better entertain- ment coverage, then it will happen. As a matter of economics, however, it makes more sense that entertainment should have good coverage than it does that sports get coverage. Actual advertising related to sports is minimal, yet pick up any paper the size of the Free Press or K -W Record and you'll find page after page of entertainment advertising nearly any day of the week. If the coverage of entertainment was related to the money derived from entertainment advertising it should seem to be a much higher proportion than most other sections of the newspaper. Yet most often those pages are filled with at least 80 per cent ads with a little bit of Hollywood gossip wirecopy filling in the rest of the page. _ _ The dirth of local and national entertainment news in Canadian newspap- ers is a reminder of what sad shape the business is in in this country. Coverage has really improved little in recent times over the years where there was no real Canadian entertainment business. Yet recent years have seen the emergence of a, genuine popular music industry complete with stars earning astronomic salaries. of a theatre scene that is among the most energetic on the continent, of a new age in television where the quality and quantity of Canadian shows is beginning to creep back to the golden years of the 1950's and early '60's. Yet without the kind of media coverage that puts the spotlight on the stars of the country, Canadians will continue to look south of the border for the vicarious star gazing they seem to need so badly. Until the day when the media catches up with the realities of the new burgeoning Canadian entertainment scene. Canadians will continue to be cheated into thinking nothing exciting ever happens in this country. Are you receiving more than one copy of Village Squire? As with all large subscription lists some duplications can arise. If you are. please send us the address label so that v. e can cancel it. Send to: Village Squire, RR 3, Blyth, Ont. NOM 1H0. VILLAGE SQUIRE/FEBRUARY 1978, 27.