Revamped Maclean's revives current affairs format
A redesigned Maclean's magazine will begin arriving in mailboxes and hitting newsstands Monday.
The weekly magazine, scheduled to celebrate its 100th anniversary Tuesday, is undergoing what editors call its most significant redesign and repositioning since it became a newsweekly in 1978.
Publisher and editor-in-chief Ken Whyte is promising a return to a current affairs emphasis and a significantly thicker magazine with more to read. The tagline, "Canada's weekly newsmagazine," has been dropped and the first issue is 80 pages.
The cover story of the redesigned magazine is a "special investigation" of the way data brokers, most of them in the U.S., are accumulating private and personal information about Canadian citizens.
To prove the vulnerability of Canadians' private information, national correspondent Jonathon Gatehouse bought the phone records of Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart.
This is a foretaste of the new style – breaking stories instead of following them – that Whyte hopes will make the venerable magazine more relevant to readers.
"People often say that the 24/7 news environment makes weeklies a dinosaur in the field of current affairs. I frankly disagree entirely," he said in an interview with CBC News.
"I think the more the world goes to instant headlines and minute-to-minute updates, the more need there is for a weekly like us to stand apart and look at what's really important out there and what isn't."
The redesigned cover features a full-page photo of Stoddart, looking startled, and five throw boxes pointing to stories inside. In the future, cover photos will be "candid," Whyte says. Also, a maple leaf has replaced the apostrophe in Maclean's.
These are tough times for generalist magazines that focus on news and Maclean's has seen both ad revenue and circulation slip over the past decade.
"There was a danger that the old model wasn't working and if we didn't make substantial change, we were just going to drive it into the ground," Whyte said .
Whyte, who took over the magazine six months ago, is promising more original reporting and an increase in investigative stories. Both national and international reporting will be expanded, with reestablishment of foreign bureaus in Washington, Europe and the Middle East.
He aims to make the magazine "more provocative" and has promised regular columns from Barbara Amiel, Joseph Boyden who writes on Canadian affairs, Linda Frum, Paul Wells, Scott Feschuk and Kate Fillion.
Stories in the current issue include "Here comes another nasty election campaign" and "Why France is worse than it looks."
The arts and culture pages have a new look with a major piece planned for each issue, a double-page spread on people, and the writing of Brian Johnson, who has long been the magazine's senior entertainment writer and film critic.
Whyte, who helped launch the National Post in 1998, credited his predecessors with beginning a turnaround at the magazine. He has tried different tactics, including trying to attract more readers by following the successful model of entertainment weeklies, like People and Us.
"I thought we should test and just see what would happen when we threw a couple of celebrities on the cover – what kind of response we'd get – and they bombed," he says.
Maclean's now is promising personalities "covered for their newsworthiness, rather than their celebrity status."
"This is not the end of the story," Whyte says. "The magazine will continue to evolve significantly over the next several months as we continue to refine our pages as well as make further announcements about new staff at Maclean's."
ABC Says Good Night to 'Stalker'
ABC is turning out the lights on its freshman series "Night Stalker," pulling the plug after six episodes that struggled to find audiences up against TV's top-rated series, "CSI."
Show creator Frank Spotnitz ("The X-Files") announced the cancellation on his blog (Biglight.com/blog) Sunday (Nov. 13), and ABC confirmed Monday that the show was being pulled, effective this week. An expanded edition of "Primetime" will fill its 9 p.m. Thursday spot this week, with previously scheduled movies set for the two Thursdays after that.
"While I'm disappointed the series has come to an end, I am enormously grateful for the experience and the opportunity given me by the network and Touchstone Television," Spotnitz writes. After thanking the show's cast and crew, he adds, "It was a blast."
The news doesn't come as a big surprise -- "Night Stalker" was one of many series that have struggled on ABC's Thursday schedule in recent years. In its six weeks on the air it averaged just 5.2 million viewers and also struggled in the key adults 18-49 demographic.
Any show facing CBS' "CSI," which draws 28 million viewers each week, is fighting an uphill battle. But "Night Stalker," an update of the 1970s series that stars Stuart Townsend as ghoul-hunting reporter Carl Kolchak and Gabrielle Union as his skeptical colleague, couldn't break free from the pack behind NBC's "The Apprentice." Last week, it finished in a virtual tie with FOX's "Reunion" and only beat The WB's "Everwood" by a couple hundred thousand viewers.
Nine episodes of "Night Stalker" were filmed. At the moment, ABC has no plans to air the three that haven't been seen yet.
...Outkast's 'Idlewild' Bumped To Next Year
Originally planned for release earlier this year and then bumped to December, the soundtrack to the OutKast film "Idlewild" has now been removed from LaFace/Jive's 2005 schedule. Group member Big Boi said over the weekend at the Vibe Awards that it would appear sometime during the first quarter of 2006, but a label spokesperson says there is no confirmed date.
"We're trying to pick the single right now. It's all about a gut instinct," Big Boi said at the Vibe Awards.
The change in the soundtrack's release date has apparently had a corresponding affect on the roll-out of the movie, which HBO Films was eyeing for early January. A company spokesperson says a new date has yet to be nailed down.
"Idlewild" is set in the 1930s, and Big Boi says that period in history has rubbed off on some of the music. "In our own little way," he told Billboard.com earlier this summer. "Just with the Ragtime feel. It's hip-hop. It's OutKast. It is what we've been doing for years. Some songs have a little more piano or whatever, but the whole project was a natural progression from a double CD. It was like, where do we go from here?"
Big Boi stressed, "This is an OutKast album. It isn't like a soundtrack where we go get this person or that person."
The Boss in all his glory days
Bruce Springsteen fans will have a tough time deciding what to do first with the Born to Run 30th Anniversary Edition box set: Play the remastered CD or slip in one of the set's two revealing DVDs.
The three-disc set out today (Sony, $40) is a treasure-trove about the 1975 classic album that vaulted Springsteen and the E Street Band into superstardom:
• The set has a booklet with a written introduction by Springsteen and dozens of photos unpublished until now.
• Then-and-now studio footage of Springsteen appears in Wings for Wheels: The Making of Born to Run, a 90-minute documentary that features interviews with current and past E Street Band members. Also included are three songs recorded live in Los Angeles in 1973, Spirit in the Night, Wild Billy's Circus Story and Thundercrack.
• The set's crowning jewel is a Nov. 18, 1975, performance at London's Hammersmith Odeon. The two-hour, 10-minute performance, restored and remixed in surround sound, is the only full-length concert film released from the band's first 25 years.
NEW CD RELEASES FOR NOVEMBER 15, 2005
Askeleton (Happy) Album (Goodnight)
Autolect Every Mans Universe (City Hall)
Backyard Tire Fire Barroom Semantics (O.I.E.)
Big $ Rich Comin' to Your City (Warner Bros.)
Bolt Thrower Those Once Loyal (Metal Blade)
Bonnie "Prince" Billy Summer in the Southeast (live album) (Sea Note)
Bound Stems The Logic of Building the Body Plan (Flameshovel/Southern)
Bowling for Soup Goes to the Movies! (includes covers of TV themes and original songs that appeared on various soundtracks; w/cover of Britney Spears' "Baby One More Time") (Jive)
Bright Eyes Motion Sickness: Live Recordings (Team Love/Saddle Creek)
Jimmy Buffett Live at Fenway Park (two CDs w/bonus DVD) (Mailboat)
Caliban Shadow Hearts (Lifeforce)
Calico System They Live (Eulogy)
Mariah Carey The Emancipation of Mimi - Platinum Deluxe Edition (CD/DVD combo) (Def Jam)
The Crimson Jazz Trio The King Crimson Songbook Volume One (Voiceprint)
Dave's True Story Simple Twist of Fate EP (Bob Dylan covers) (BePop)
DJ Irene Live (two CDs) (Moist)
Ghislain Poririer Breakupdown (Chocolate Industries/Southern)
Ginuwine Back II Da Basics (DualDisc same day) (Epic)
GoGoGo Airheart Rats! Sing! Sing! (Gold Standard Labs)
Gravity Propulsion System Get Destroy (Ascetic)
Green Day Bullet in a Bible (CD/DVD combo; UMD same day; live 2005 London performance w/interviews and behind-the-scenes footage) (Reprise)
The Gris Gris For the Season (Birdman)
Guttermouth Beyond Warped (DualDisc) (Immergent)
Ham1 (members of Olivia Tremor Control) Ham1 (Team Clermont)
Hawnay Troof Community EP (Retard Disco)
Honeybrowne Something to Believe in (Compadre)
ILS Soul Trader (DualDisc) (Immergent)
Infected Mushroom IM the Supervisor (Hypnotic)
The Jai-Alai Savant Thunderstatement EP (Gold Standard Labs)
Elton John Peachtree Road (Collectors' Edition) (CD/DVD combo) (Universal)
Andreas Kapsalis Trio Andreas Kapsalis Trio (O.I.E.)
Kem Album II (DualDisc) (Universal Motown)
Cast King Saw Mill Man (Locust 74)
Mike Ladd Presents Father Divine (ROIR)
Lady Sovereign Vertically Challenged (w/bonus DVD) (Chocolate Industries/Southern)
The Lone Catalysts Good Music (guests Masta Ace, Wordsworth and more) (BUKA Entertainment)
Lords of Altamont Lords Have Mercy (Gearhead)
Machine Men Elegies (Magick)
Madonna Confessions on a Dancefloor (Warner Bros.)
Hilken Mancini & Chris Colbourn (of Buffalo Tom) Hilken Mancini & Chris Colbourn (guest J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr.) (Kimchee)
Jesse McCartney Live - The Beautiful Soul Tour (Hollywood)
Moody Blues Lovely to See You, Live (two CDs; 2005 performance at Los Angeles' Greek Theatre) (Image)
Odyssey Band with James Blood Ulmer Back in Time (Pi)
P.O.D. The Warriors EP, Vol. 2 (Atlantic)
Pitbull M.I. Still A.M.I. (Money Is Still a Major Issue) (CD/DVD combo; compilation of remixes, guest appearances and previously unreleased tracks) (TVT)
Kelley Polar Love Songs of the Hanging Gardens (Environ)
Puerto Muerto Songs of Muerto County (Fire)
The Reavers (w/members of Cannibal Ox, Killarmy and more) Terror Firma (Nature Sounds/Green Streets Entertainment)
Roma 79 The Great Dying (Ascetic)
The Roots Home Grown! Beginner's Guide to Understanding Vol. 1 and Vol. 2 (Geffen)
Martin Sexton Camp Holiday (Christmas album) (Kitchen Table)
Isaiah Sharkey & the Family Tree Skyliner (O.I.E.)
Shiny Toy Guns We Are Pilots (SideCho)
Snapper and Mad Glock Click No Warning Shots (PR)
Soltero Hell Train (Three Ring)
SpongeBob Squarepants The Yellow Album (BMG Heritage)
Rod Stewart The Great American Songbook (box set; includes all four volumes of series) (J Records)
The Syn (members of Yes) Syndestructible (Umbrello/ADA)
Totally Radd!! Shark Attack Day Camp (Retard Disco/Southern)
The Trio Real (Concord)
Catherine Tuttle What They Will Find (Candid/Zone 7/City Hall)
Carrie Underwood (2005 American Idol winner) Some Hearts (Arista Nashville)
Unearth Our Days of Eulogy (Eulogy)
Upper Class Trash Favoring Blurred Lines (School Night/Undecided)
Vaz The Lie That Matches the Furniture (Narnack)
VonFrickle Mission 4.9 (O.I.E.)
Wilco Kicking Television - Live in Chicago (CD/DVD combo) (Nonesuch)
A Wilhelm Scream Benefits of Thinking Out Loud (Jump Start)
Bill Wyman & His Rhythm Kings Live (Fuel)
Yellow Note We Love Everybody... You're Next!!!! (DualDisc) (Myutopia)
VA A Different Shade of Green: A Green Day Tribute (2003 album) (Skunk-Ape)
VA Hipowermusic.com II (Thump)
VA Le Pop 3: Les Chansons de la Nouvelle Scéne Française (French pop compilation) (Le Pop Musik/Groove Attack)
VA MySpace Records Vol. 1 (Interscope)
VA Taste of Christmas (Warcon)
VA XXL Raps Volume 1 (w/50 Cent, Eminem, Lloyd Banks, Fat Joe and more) (Razor & Tie)
OST Aeon Flux (live-action adaptation of animated series w/Charlize Theron) (Lakeshore)
OST Cry Wolf (w/songs from Bloc Party, Cake, Low, Sage Francis and more) (Lakeshore)
OST Destroy All Humans (w/Junkie XL, Timo Maas, Meat Beat Manifesto and more) (Lakeshore)
OST Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (Warner Bros.)
OST I Walk the Line (Johnny Cash biopic starring Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon) (Wind-Up)
OST In the Mix (romantic comedy starring Usher; w/songs by Usher, Anthony Hamilton, Christina Milian and more) (J Records)
OST Pride and Prejudice (new update of Jane Austen novel) (Decca)
OST Screaming Masterpiece (documentary on the Icelandic music scene; w/songs by Björk, Sigur Rós, Múm and more) (One Little Indian)
OST Stargate: Atlantis (score by Joel Goldsmith) (Varèse Sarabande)
OST Sueño (John Leguizamo film) (Lakeshore)
OST The Ice Harvest (John Cusack/Billy Bob Thornton film) (Lakeshore)
OST The O.C. Mix 5 (songs from the Fox TV show; w/songs by Kaiser Chiefs, LCD Soundsystem, Gorillaz and a new version of Phantom Planet's theme song) (Warner Bros.)
DVD All Access DVD Magazine: The Remix Edition Volume One (performances, interviews and behind-the-scenes footage w/Jay-Z, Fat Joe, the Diplomats and more) (Music Video Distributors)
DVD Hip Hop 411 (interviews w/Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, Ice-T, Pharrell and more) (Music Video Distributors)
DVD Slip N Slide Memorial Weekend - Volume 1 (Miami Beach parties w/Trick Daddy, Trina, Ja Rule and more) (Music Video Distributors)
DVD Armor for Sleep A Comprehensive Guide to Touring (Equal Vision)
DVD Caravan 35th Anniversary Concert (two DVDs; 2003 London concert) (Music Video Distributors/Chrome Dreams)
DVD Embrace A Glorious Day (Eagle Rock)
DVD Brian Eno 14 Video Paintings (Rykodisc)
DVD Peter Gabriel Still Growing Up: Live and Unwrapped (two DVDs; includes material from 2003's "Growing Up Live," plus many other previously unreleased tracks and documentary) (Rhino)
DVD Guided by Voices The Electrifying Conclusion: The Final Concert, New Year's Eve 2004 (band's final show in Chicago) (Plexifilm)
DVD Happy Mondays Live in Barcelona (2004 concert w/exclusive interviews) (Music Video Distributors)
DVD Santana A&E Live by Request (Arista)
DVD Sugarcult Back to the Disaster - A Film About (documentary w/live performances, music videos and behind-the-scenes footage; includes bonus CD, "Live at the Starland Ballroom") (Artemis)
DVD U2 Vertigo// 2005: Live from Chicago (deluxe edition available same day; from four-night stand in spring, 2005) (Interscope)
DVD Zao The Lesser Lights of Heaven (two DVDs; documentary on the band's career plus three live concerts) (Ferret)
DVD VA AMP Magazine: Video Archive for the Ages - Volume 2 (w/Avail, Horrorpops, the Black Dahlia Murder and more) (Music Video Distributors)
Actress Brooke Burns Hospitalized
LOS ANGELES - Actress Brooke Burns was hospitalized after diving into her backyard pool and hitting her head, her agent said Monday.
Burns broke a bone in her neck and required "minor surgery," said Paradigm spokeswoman Jennifer Glassman.
The former "Baywatch" star and host of "Dog Eat Dog" has been hospitalized since Friday, Glassman said. She is expected to be released Tuesday.
"There's no permanent damage," Glassman said. "She will begin work as scheduled in January."
Burns will co-star with Rebecca Romijn in the new WB television series, "Pepper Dennis."