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With all the gloomy news, and up-to-the second "tweets" on the demise of old (or mainstream) media, it is with great relief and joy that I read Globe & Mail television critic John Doyle's column: We Still Watch TV.

It begins with two of the best sentences of clarification I've heard in a long time:

"Let's get something straight: The television industry is not in crisis.

The economy is in crisis. Simultaneously, the news industry is in a state of flux."

As a freelance journalist looking for television work and writing assignments, the daily hyperbolic reminders (based on a misunderstanding of the facts) that mainstream media is dying are a little too much to handle. It's all I can do some days to not ask myself, why did I choose this or why bother trying? Add to that all the twittering about how new media and social media are taking over and you've got a recipe for some very high levels of anxiety for a good deal of people still working in "old media."

Now I'm not saying things won't change, aren't changing or shouldn't change. I think they should, in fact they'll have to. They'll have to change to accommodate a new demographic that doesn't consume mainstream media, or at least in the traditional way. But I also don't think it's changing as fast as the twittering public seems to think. It can only change at the rate that the people running the old business models can figure out how to update them.

And like Doyle says, people are still watching TV in large numbers. He also says:

"... there's one thing I can't figure out – that is why local TV stations are suddenly not viable. In the case of CanWest Global's E! channels, I can see some reason for the current circumstance. Those channels, once resolutely local, were turned into absurd, unworkable hybrids that offered a little bit of local content, a little bit of prime-time drama and comedy, and a lot of celebrity-centric garbage reality TV."

I watched this happen to my alma mater, Chum Television when it was bought out by BellGlobemedia who slowly but surely cut out most time-honoured in-house productions, and veteran management and  staff. But even prior to that, when Chum bought Craig in an attempt to broaden its national reach. At that time, local entertainment news was replaced by a national entertainment segment, broadcast out of Toronto. Back then I was working at Citytv Vancouver and felt saddened that a city like that, that has a thriving local arts community, lost one of its only venues for reflecting that community to itself. Too bad. After that the 6 and 11 newscast were cut. Even worse.

So much has been lost in Canadian television by media concentration - it doesn't look too bad in Toronto, maybe here we barely notice it. But in the smaller cities, it's truly devastating, and not only because talented journalists lose their jobs. All that stuff predates this recession, and I believe it's something the CRTC should have had its eye on. Now it seems just fine to sweep it all under the recession rug causing and spreading misinformation and therefore more panic (and panicked decisions) than necessary.

I really think everyone should just calm down.

Please?

I've made no secret of the fact that I, like many of my journalism colleauges, am having a hard time finding work and getting story assignments. It's tough out there.

So, what to do with the free time in between applying for tv jobs and sending out story pitches to newspapers and magazines?

What else? Start a new blog.

Bound to Write is my new literary blog, a venue for book news, reviews, author profiles, Q & As and all things to do with books and reading. Basically it's a place for me to talk about the creative art I love the most, Literature. And help promote wonderful writers - well established and brand new.

I'm just getting started and I hope you'll join me there.

Very happy to see that Globe Life has added a new bi-weekly relationships column from a man's point of view. It's called it The Other Half, which is funny when you consider that was usually the domain said to be occupied by women say, back in the Mad Men days. Hard to tell if the title is ironic or not. If not, then my goodness, haven't we come a long way?

So much so that it's now ok to let "the other half" speak again.

In any case, it's a step in the right direction of re-integrating men into the dialogue. God knows I get tired of hearing women endlessly twittering about their issues, as unpopular as it is for a woman to say such a thing! And anything is better than the embittered divorce column that outlived its usefulness at least a year ago.

Give it a go:

The Other Half: She's Hot When I'm Cold

With all the grim economic news out there it's a relief to know that book sales are up in Canada.

YEAR-OVER-YEAR GROWTH IN CANADIAN BOOK SALES SIGNIFICANT SO FAR IN 2009, BookNet Canada

Phew!

There's been a lot of news about Kindle lately, an e-book device. As well as Chapter's/Indigo Shortcovers, downloadable software and applications for iPhone and laptops that lets you read books one chapter at a time. Now I love tech toys as much as the next guy and I know that the whole wide world is changing because of a few generations of people being brought up against the backdrop of a tech playground. However,  I will never forsake my life-long practice and habit of buying books, borrowing library books and the tactical pleasure of turning actual pages of a real live, bound, carefully designed book.

That's it!

Here's my Globe & Mail review of Lisa Genova's first novel, Still Alice.

A few pages from the end of Still Alice, the main character, a 50-year-old Harvard professor struggling to retain as much of her life as possible in the face of Alzheimer's disease, sits with the man she can't recognize as her husband and reads a book that she declares after a few minutes to be familiar. He tells her that's because she had written the book with him.

After a few moments of consideration, the confused muddle of neurons in her brain allows her to remember him, the book and herself.

"I miss myself," she then says.

"I miss you too," is his response.  read more