by Carl BR Johnson
So the old Herald building is coming down in Calgary to make way for a bigger and better building called the Herald Square – a 56 story building to boot. This new building will turn out to be Western Canada’s tallest – unseating The Bow from it’s short-lived fame as the current tallest after its completion in a few years. Because this landmark building is going to be turned into a giant dust cloud, the symbolism is definitely there and the question has been asked a thousand times; is print dead or dying? More on that a bit later.
The old Herald building on 7th ave and 1st St. SW.
Although The Calgary Herald has found new digs near Deerfoot Trail and Memorial Drive, and has been there for quite some time, many locals including some journalists and writers have reminisced about their old stomping grounds downtown.
Brian Brennan, an ex-Calgary Herald reporter, musician, broadcaster and best selling author of several biography and social history books including The Good Steward: The Ernest C. Manning Story (2008), How the West was Written: The Life and Times of James H. Gray (2006), Romancing the Rockies: Mountaineers, Missionaries, Marilyn & More (2005) and Scoundrels and Scallywags (2002), used to rip through town looking for stories for the Herald and called the downtown Herald building his office a few years ago.
He still calls Calgary home and he has seen the pending destruction of his old office and couldn’t help but get emotional.
“I got a lump in my throat when I saw the marble being stripped off and the building readied for demolition,” he said in an e-mail interview while touring-out-of-country.
Looking west towards the all-covered-up Herald building currently being prepared for destruction to make way for bigger and better things.
“That to me will always be the Herald building. The “new” building, as we continued to call it even 15 years after we moved in (the Memorial Drive and Deerfoot Trail location), never felt like anything more than temporary quarters. We used to fantasize that one day the bosses would come to their senses and return us to our rightful place downtown.”
Below is a short Qik video; documenting the last time we’ll see this old landmark.
Brennan recalled many fond memories of working downtown at The Herald building where he considered it to be the superior western newspaper.
“I worked in that building for seven years and have many happy memories. We worked hard, played hard, and put out what we considered one of the best newspapers in Western Canada. Most of us regarded it as a “destination” paper, not as a stepping stone to something better somewhere else,” said Brennan.
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Below is another short Qik video showing the back-side of the construction complex of the Herald building.
Despite seeing such an important Journalistic landmark being torn down, the symbolism is there that might remind many Journalism students that they are not getting into an easy industry.
Many students in my 2nd year Journalism class at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (SAIT), say that their fear of what lies ahead at the end of April when their final year of this program comes to a conclusion, is a constant distraction. Stories of The Herald, and now The Calgary Sun, laying off reporters sure doesn’t help them create optimism for the future. With the destruction of The Herald building downtown, the aforementioned symbolism is now firmly implanted in their minds and has wreaked havoc on the prospects of job searches.
Chris Stedile, a fellow student and good friend of mine, says that he isn’t going to foster the belief that “print is dead”; a rather vulgar term coined by Hollywood to describe the abolition of printed newspaper and magazine media versus online and digital Journalism.
Below is a short YouTube video I shot of Chris and edited with Final Cut Pro. This is inside the Burns Building at SAIT.
He does admit that eventually, online Journalism will cater to all the iPads and the many other really cool pad-like electronic devices out there.
Brennan weighed in and conceded that, although his livelihood is largely based upon print media, this industry may see a dramatic change in the future.
“I do think print’s days are numbered. When the bosses finally figure out the way to effectively monetize their presence on the Internet, there will no longer be any need to kill trees in order to deliver content to the consumers,” said Brennan.
The future of the Journalism industry will be the one to watch, as its upheaval thanks to the impending takeover of print media by online Journalism will displace many-a-writer. But hopefully, those scribblers will find their place outside of Journalistic pursuits, if that doesn’t pan out for them, like Brennan has.