Toronto Mike'd: The Official Toronto Mike Podcast - Toronto Mike'd #12

Episode Date: November 5, 2012

Toronto Mike tells a funny story about his daughter on LinkedIn and there's a vibrant discussion about paying for news online.

what up Rosie hello Mike episode 12 who'da thunk we'd make 12 episodes awesome What up, Rosie? Hello, Mike. Episode 12, Who'da Thunk We'd Make 12 Episodes. Awesome. And there's no doubt who number 12 is for. It's for Roberto Alomar. I loved him. He was so cute. You didn't get with him, did you?

Because every Torontonian is two degrees, one degree of separation maybe from someone who has been with Mr. Alomar. No. That's funny. I had very strict parents. I wondered if you would touch on that. Well, he lived in the Sky Dome for the five years he was here and

rumor has it allegedly after every game, there could be lineups, potentially, from what I understand. I had a girlfriend who was in love with him. She just thought he was gorgeous. He was pretty cute. Those were the good old days of the Blue Jays. I miss those days.

Two World Series. It doesn't get much better than that. I will say this. In his five seasons as a Toronto Blue Jay, as positional players go, he is the greatest Blue Jay of all time. In my opinion, without a doubt. Yeah. Statistically? Clutch hitting.

I'm not just talking the Alomar home run. Clutch hitting, batting average, power when he needed it, the glove, the range he had at second, best second baseman ever to play in this city. So who would people say, though, was the very best Blue Jay ever? Well, it's a great debate, but I think he is the best. I would say, I'm going to remove the caveat.

Andrew, returning for episode number 12, who, Andrew, I'm guessing you've been to maybe several thousand Blue Jay games? What? Oh, there we go. Hey, one, two. Don't mess up the sound with the sound guy here. The pressure's too much.

I told you it was going to go like this. Our guest, Andrew, is a professional audio person, so there's a lot of pressure on our producer here. I have pits. I totally have pits. He's freaking out. Andrew, how many Blue Jay games, considering you're there for every single home game,

in your guess, a round number, give me a guess, how many games you've been to? I haven't missed a game in four seasons. When I took over the main mixing position, I haven't missed a game since the 2008 season. And before that that you were a fan no interesting no i'm asking the wrong guy so no i followed it but i'm i wasn't a fan i'd say

alomar was the best positional player i think you could argue dave steve's the best pitcher they've ever had this was my way back uh dave I agree with you. I agree with you 100%. But there was a moment just before Roy Halladay left that I felt like he had just surpassed Dave Steeb. This is one man's opinion, but I had Steeb as the greatest Blue Jay pitcher of all time, and then Halladay just caught him near the end of his tour duty with the team. It's a great debate holiday versus steve

yeah you know i i'm not i'm no longer a sports fan because i'm so involved i wonder why yeah you know like i used to work on on i worked on hockey night for 14 years uh as an audio assistant and um not a mixer but just the assistant, to my mentor, a guy named Howard Bagley, who I have learned more than I could ever imagine. His name is very respected in the industry. Yes, yeah. He's done every Stanley Cup final for the past 10 years. Wow.

And he's done more than that. Anyway, yeah. So you're no longer a fan. No, all I care about is getting out at a reasonable time because normally we've got a flight to Gatchit. You know, like this, everyone says, you know, TV's the glamorous business. Well, that's great from what you're watching at home,

but I've been, you know, if the game's at 7 o'clock, I've been there since 8 or 9 in the morning, and I won't get out of there until 12 or 1 o'clock in the morning. And then I've got to get up, fly to the next venue, and do it all over again. And the playoffs are a long stretch. It's eight weeks of doing that. At least the first round, you work every day for two weeks. Do you grow a playoff beard when you're working?

I can't grow a beard at all. Me neither. I got a little bit today, but this is just neglect, but it doesn't get much better. I'm follicly challenged, I guess, is the longest. Bald spots. Now that I look at the men in this room, there is a bit of a sad display of facial hair. Is my facial hair bad? I would not endorse this as a look.

What's wrong with it? I like a clean shashaven mask. Oh, so you're biased against all beards. I prefer... I don't mind... Some men can do the mustache, and I don't mind that, but my personal taste is clean-shaven.

If you're going to do it, do it. Own it. Like Dave Bish, that gentleman who's helping out around here. You saw him earlier. He's got the biggest beard. Well, exactly. If you're going to do it, just own it. I saw Cornflake

in there from like 1979. But I prefer personally the clean shaven look. Yeah, I can't. You guys were talking last episode about age and carded, and I'm actually two years older than you guys. I just had my 40th

and I get carded all the time. Well, you look young too. and it annoys the living you know what out of me. It must be a man thing

because girls love it. We love it. It's because for women, beauty is equated with youth. For men, you guys get old

and you can get 20 year old chicks and it's fine. I have to open a wallet. I have to take out a card. I mean, I don't need to look young. I've based my life on this great sense of humor and intelligence, not my good looks.

So I think we're okay there. But this is, I digress. This is number 12 for Robbie Alomar. That was the longest segue on the episode number. I got to do the shout-outs quick before we go any deeper. I want to give a shout out to commenter Lyle Landley. I believe Lyle Landley

the name would come from the monorail episode of The Simpsons where the guy comes in and sells him a monorail. Does anybody in Springfield? Monorail. What if the train goes off the tracks? That's hilarious. You don't know that episode?

Homer opens the tracks? That's hilarious. Anyway, that's a great episode. You don't know that episode? That's a classic. Where Homer opens the door and he's the whole family possums and he goes, I called the big one bitey. Yeah. Oh, you know what? There's so many quotes.

That's so funny. That is one of the greatest episodes. And yeah, the guy from Star Trek. I'm not nerdy enough to remember. Spock is in that episode, right? Yeah. Leonard Nimoy.

Yes. Yeah. Anyway, what a fantastic episode. And I want to give a shout out to my brother Steve, who I mentioned a couple episodes ago I was going to Canada's Wonderland for the Heart and Stroke Foundation

CPR Undeading Night. So, that was a crazy awesome night. Everybody was there. My brother was there. It turned out my kids and my fiance and my sister-in-law were all too chicken for most of the rides. So Steve and I went on, like, everything in sight. We were, like, two kids at Canada's Wonderland. We went on everything, Leviathan, everything we could find.

And we had a great time. That's awesome because you probably didn't have to wait in any lines. And that's the punishing part about Wonderland. I love going and I love the rides. But the lines are brutal. in any lines and that's the punishing part about wonderland i love going and i love the rides but the the lines are brutal so to not to be able to not have to wait in a lot of lines that would be i don't think i'd been since i honestly don't think i've been to canada's wonderland since the 80s that's not a joke and i only went because of this they were free tickets and it was that

special event and yeah i just saw something i wanted to go on we waited two to five minutes five minutes was the most for leviathan and we just did everything i i did things like i did the uh wild beast which i i did that in the back car i can't remember now uh the wildebeest is my favorite i couldn't i couldn't that's what you call it but they took the e off like when i like they they used to have it spelled medieval style. It had an accent, agave or something on the top. I think they changed it to Wild Beast.

Both my brothers, I had three brothers and two worked there for years. Nice. So yeah, we used to go after hours and they would go on. But the back card,

the Wildebeest, because you'd go down the first hill and it would rattle. Oh, it all rattles. That's the best. Yeah. And we would bump into each other. Did you go on,

the one I love, I think it's the old, the rickety, the Mind Buster. Mind Buster goes on the 400. The great Canadian Mind Buster. That one's my favorite one I love I think it's the old the rickety the mind buster the great Canadian mind buster that one's my favorite I love that one

I haven't been in over 10 years if not longer I always like the funnel cakes you know what the flannel cakes we did it

we bought two funnel cakes guess what it cost for two funnel cakes probably like $20 it was $24 $12 each I know but it's like

you're there and you do it. I have an eight-year-old, and I've just done Disney, Disney World twice in the last two years. And I hadn't been to Disney since 1977 when I was five, and it was just the Magic Kingdom, and we were camping at Fort Wilderness. And I had, I mean, I didn't want to go. My wife said, you've got to go. And I was like, I didn't want to go right my wife said you've got to go and I was like I don't want to go I'd been on the road and I had literally had eight days off and I flew home packed went back to

the airport went to Disney for seven days came home did laundry packed and got back on and left and you know we had a great time and my son didn't complain. I have to ask you guys, because you have kids that are a little older than my little guy. I'm going for the first time in two weeks to Great Wolf Lodge. I've never been. Yeah, I won't go there. My kids have been there several times. Have you been?

We go right there, because we get a special Niagara rate, right? Of course. Yeah, we've been before. Are you going during the week or the weekend? We're going on a Friday. Is it going to just blow his mind? Because he loves water. How old is he? He's two and a half.

Oh, he'll love it. At that age, it'll be great. Okay, perfect. Because you won't have to wait. But on the weekends... It's punishing. It's like sitting in an arena watching every hockey parent that you want to smack. Not only that, but the whole... Why don't you like to go, Mike?

Just curious. No, it actually looks, it could be horrible. Like, it just looks like it'd be hell for a parent to go to a Great Wolf Lodge. Well, not only that, but if you actually have to put even a toe into that urine, fecal matter infested water. Somebody said to my husband at work, make sure he's got sandals on. And Scott's like, well, why? Oh, make sure he has, like, water shoes. And he's like, why? He's like, how filthy is it there? Make sure he drinks Pure sandals on. And Scott's like, well, why? Oh, make sure he has like water shoes. And he's like, why?

He's like, how filthy is it there? Make sure he drinks Purell. Yeah, no, I mean, my kids always have a great time, but it's always my ex who takes them. I won't go. Like, I just won't go. Just, yeah. You hate fun.

Yeah, I hate that fun. Andrew, you mentioned you have an eight-year-old. Yes. So I have an eight-year-old. And real quick story about my eight-year-old daughter, Michelle, who got an email from her grandma asking her to sign up for linkedin so i guess my my mom so that's my mom my mom got an email from her friend about linkedin like one of those automatically from linkedin type emails and my mom thinking it's her friend writing this personal email does what she's told

like and then somehow it went into her address book and sent an email to everyone in her gmail contact saying join me on linkedin or whatever it's one of the linkedin things we need elvis here to tell us what this happens they all do they all have that but most people are too savvy to actually click it so my mom did that and so my my daughter is on has a gmail account uh my eight-year-old and she got the email from and it's from her grandma saying connect with me on linkedin so my my daughter does what she's told she clicks through and fills in all the fields and it asks for an email and stuff next thing you know my daughter so the bizarre part of this there's two parts that make me laugh one is one day i get an email saying i'm now connected to

michelle on linkedin and i click through and see it's her email address. So I'm like, I go, Michelle, did you sign up for LinkedIn? And she goes, yeah, grandma asked me to do it and I did it. And I guess she automatically was connected to me now. So now I'm connected to my eight-year-old on LinkedIn. But the best part is I'm talking to Michelle about, so what do you think of being on LinkedIn? And she goes, she tells me, this is a couple days ago, she got a job offer to do a surfing job

in Hawaii. And my eight-year-old's... That's hilarious. I know. My eight-year-old's telling me the job offer she got to work, yeah,

some surfing job in Hawaii because she's on LinkedIn. And she's telling me this whole story and I'm thinking, this is an amazing story. Does she even have a social insurance number?

She's getting job offers through connections on LinkedIn. She's eight years old. LinkedIn must really work. No, it doesn't. I've been on it for years. Just as a business thing, I've never had one single inquiry about a gig whatsoever.

Well, I think you're doing the wrong business. Like, yeah, maybe because you're in media, but I think there's value. Oh, because Elvis would be mad at me if I don't tell you. There's probably value if you're like more of a pencil pusher middle management white collar guy my wife

it's she gets more headhunting yeah well I got a job not by the job two jobs ago I got through yeah

really so it worked for you you got a job well recruiters search for keywords like for me they're looking at PPC SEO and all this stuff

and then boom I'm coming up with a keyword search and then they're seeing I'm in Toronto they look at what I do and next thing you, they're looking at PPC, SEO and all this stuff and then boom, I'm coming up with a keyword search and then they're seeing I'm in Toronto and they look at what I do and next thing you know they're reaching out to you.

Toronto Mike, can you explain what you do, your real job? Sorry, not that Toronto Mike isn't real. You don't think

hosting Toronto Mike to the podcast is my real job? It's very real. I didn't mean it like that. Or moderating the Toronto Mike forums? Okay. Your full time job because I always get, you start, I i'll be honest with you i've asked you before and you've told

me and then i stopped after a few minutes i stopped listening because it's all it's it's confusing all right but i actually am interested i'm going to tell you very briefly because this will be really boring but uh basically let's say you're a software company and you sell these widgets i would basically build you the web site and the web infrastructure and i would target the keywords that your potential clients are searching in google for to get them to the site and then the website that i built you is optimized to transform that visitor into a lead by having them fill in a form for maybe a white paper or an auto demo or a webinar or something. And then once they submit this form,

in the back end, I would take that info and it would go into like a CRM and be assigned to somebody with a lead process. So there'll be a rule set down there for assignments and processing, et cetera. So essentially, I attract your target audience to your website and then I convert them into a lead. And then you,

so basically your, your sales reps have leads generated via digital channels. So, um, there's a lot more than that, but I don't want to go, you know, do a whole hour.

So marketing then is a, yeah, it's a digital marketing. So, yeah. And I've been doing it for like nine years or something at this point. So I actually have a pretty good, like,

you know, you know what you're doing? Because you know what's funny? When we were at U of T, Rosie, they didn't have any good e-marketing courses. It makes me laugh because Mike's so, I mean, he's so obviously clever. And over the years, whenever I've had any sort of technical issue,

Mike's always been my go-to friend for that. And he built my website, which is so awesome. And we went to school together. We took all the same stuff. And I'm like, how 10 years later do you know all this stuff? It's pretty impressive. Well, you know, I said the worst thing I've ever done is bought my father a computer. Because now I'm 24.

And I'm not. I mean, I know. I can figure my way around, but, you know, when he calls, and my dad was actually able to erase the BIOS from a laptop. Now, do you know how hard that is to do if you don't know what you're doing? Yeah.

So. Well, we talked about that before. That was episode one, the first topic we discussed. Our mother's on the internet. But your dad's deleting uh bios and i can't get my mom to copy and paste yeah so my mom's actually regressed she's actually regressed which is now not even using the email anymore my mom can't figure out how to listen to this podcast uh my brother played her the first two episodes she's so she's only heard the first

two my own mom okay i wonder what's what's going on here and the fact is i made it i kept thinking as i made it accessible that i was making it mom proof because even if you don't know how to subscribe in itunes or you don't know how to download or you don't know any of these xml things any of this stuff you should be able to see the universal symbol for play like you'd have in a vcr for example sideways triangle right the sideways triangle the dorito yeah and you should be able to click that and then you would hear it so that was like my mom proofing all she has to do is click play as long as she knows how to turn the volume up on the speaker well that's where we lose her i think i'm

not sure what's going on i have to troubleshoot but yeah so uh that's uh that was my uh one of my surfing job in hawaii for my eight-year-old well let's get i mean it's funny because you mentioned that when i was at raihai from 91 to 93 in our second year we got this magical creation called the internet yeah i was in second yeah you know you're going yeah i remember that i was a beta tester for this product called Netscape. And honestly, at the time, I thought, who the fuck is going to use this? I mean, really, you thought, why would you ever email I could understand? But back then, you go, why would I want to use that? Apparently, I wasn't smart enough.

Isn't it fascinating that we can all remember the first time we used the internet? That's something our kids will not, it's just part of their... Because we were already in university. We all saw it, right? We all saw it for the first time in university. The first email I sent, sitting in Robarts library, well it was, I think Steph and I, we had a

Homer Simpson list of and it was a forward. That was the first thing I ever sent was a forward. Quotes? A list of Homer Simpson quotes. And foreword. That was the first thing I ever sent was a foreword. Quotes? A list of Homer Simpson quotes. And you still don't know the monorail episode? I actually don't remember that one. But I do remember quite a few.

Shelbyville's got one. Yes. But isn't it funny? Brockville and... What was the other... Yeah. We need a monorail too. You missed...

Oh, yeah. I wixed and stepped out for the monorail chat. That's Rosie. But I remember the first email I ever sent to Robart's library. What happened to our utoronto.ca email addresses? Can I tell you? Because I used it all through

university and I got a Yahoo address. Mike Boone at yahoo.com, which still exists by the way. I have a Yahoo. Yeah, and I use it for Flickr. Hinnickguy. H-N-I-C guy at yahoo.ca. So I got this yahoo.com thing, like I use it for Flickr. I use it for Flickr. Yeah, okay. H-N-I-C guy, that Yahoo.ca. That's funny. So I got this Yahoo.com thing, like I'm going to say 96, I'm going to say.

And I started using that instead of my uToronto.ca one, because my uToronto.ca was text only. Do you remember it was text only? It was, and I think, because I went to Ryerson after U of T, so I moved from, I had a Ryerson email which I never used we didn't even use it because I was in radio and tv um production and we just didn't we didn't have the they didn't are you an RTA grad yeah yeah I did RTA the post I did the advanced standing the two-year program um so when do we graduate from 97 97 so 90 99 99 that's I didn't know I didn't know you

Took that course I was on the board of directors At the RTA program That approved that Two year program Twilight Zone Really Yeah

And it's gone now I think they got rid of it Because it's a four year program now I didn't know that That's why But what happened To the email address So it just

It disappeared They have it still Am I still getting emails Over there No You still write me there The reason I know That it's gone Is because I'm not, I think I did forward that Homer.

Probably. I remember we were emailing each other. If you go to torontomike.com slash homer.html, I have the longest list of Homer quotes that no one knows about it because I don't link to it anywhere. I bet you. I emailed it to you in 1994. Possibly. But yeah, I just wondered where my email's gone.

No, it expired. It expires because I had the Ryerson one, and then right after Ryerson, I went to the Weather Network, and it's gone. The U of T email's gone. It expires after two years after you graduate or something like that. This is a good segue as we talk about sort of our digital beginnings where email shows up and internet

and discussions on when Roger... I think you announced that you're doing a segue. It's no longer a segue, Mike. Is that true? Did you learn that at RTA? Have you got the t-shirt made yet? Segway King? Are those getting produced?

It's like falling out a window. Recently, the Globe and Mail announced... Well, they actually started it. They're paywall for online articles. So if you subscribe to their newspaper, you can have access to this. But otherwise, you only get, I think, a certain number of free articles a month. You get 10. And then it's 20 bucks a month.

Is that correct? Which I was surprised at the price tag. $20 a month to have complete access to globeandmail.com. $20 a month to have complete access to globomail.com The Toronto Star this week has recently announced that they are going to basically do the same thing in 2013

we don't have the details yet we don't have the details like how much and everything but they're going to introduce a paywall as well I want to hear what you guys think I wrote a bit about this on torontomic.com but I'm dying to know your thoughts on whether you think people will pay for news content online. What about podcasts?

Would you pay for podcasts online? Definitely not. Okay. Except this one. Didn't the New York Times try that and it failed miserably? I noticed they did try it, but maybe that... But their app went brilliantly. Yeah.

As soon as they put their app out there for all the time. As long as you don't have a Blackberry. But no one has one anymore. Well, that's true. So it's not really a factor. It's less of a factor. But that's a good point. You mentioned the apps.

Because I think the time is... It's a different conversation now than even a couple of years ago. Because of the proliferation of apps and everything is apps now. Whether it's on Rosie's iPad or my Android device. Okay, here's the thing. I don't think anyone... You know, it's funny. When you go on... After the Global Mail launched the...

Or the Toronto Star said they were going to have a paywall. You go on the site and you look at all the comments in the forums and people are like, goodbye. Why would I read this? I can go somewhere else. I can go somewhere else. Well, eventually you're not going to be able to go somewhere else. I don't know if you've ever seen the documentary Page One inside the New York Times. I have not. Absolutely fascinating because it talks

just so much about, you know, the New York Times. Here's an institution of journalism and it's faltering. No one ever thought that the New York Times could falter. So you're saying if they all do it, there's hope for this model. Well, this is the thing. Eventually, and when I heard that Toronto Star was going to do it, I was like, okay, so you know what? It could work. Because eventually we need to get our content from somewhere. David Carr, one of the writers

for the New York Times, he's brilliant. You should follow him on Twitter because it'll just blow your mind. They had a big seminar and he held up, you know, there's so many, you know, you've got the Gawker that are just aggregates. And he held up a big poster with, you know, all the aggregates. And without the newspapers doing, putting the money into the reporting and the deep research, you don't have any of the sites. You don't have a Gawker. There's another one that was huge.

I can't remember it right now. Reddit. Reddit's my go-to aggregator. I find Reddit so annoying. Number one source for news. I love Reddit. I spend a lot of time on Reddit. Well, I love the Star.

I'm on the Star online all the time. But I have to admit, would I... So you'll pay for it? I don't know. I think on the star online all the time. But I have to admit, would I... So you'll pay for it? I don't know. I think eventually, if there's nothing else, yes, I would. Because I'm willing to pay for good content. Because the Toronto Sun's not going to go this way because their readers aren't going to pay for online content.

No, they're just going to go away. But there's barely any... They've been around a long time. It's the content. I think, you know, right now, the people that'll pay for it are the people that, you know, if you're really attached to a particular, you know, if there a particular writer specific to... Okay, but if you're already subscribed to the paper version,

you're going to get this login for free. Sure. So the diehards already have a subscription. But is the paper subscription more than the online? Oh, I hope so. If you're getting the Globe daily... In order to get access free online, you have to be a five, six day...

It's not just a weekend subscriber. You have to subscribe during the week. And that's certainly more than $20 a month. And then you can opt out of your print paper. You can opt out of getting that? Well, you're still paying the $20 if you... Yeah, but I just don't want the paper showing up if I don't need it.

No, yeah. It's just online only, I think, for the $20. The one point that came up when you were talking about all this source for news is I think about the subway papers, the transit papers. They will not go away because they generate a huge amount of revenue to that audience. Impressions, yeah. Yeah. So I think that no matter what happens, those print guys are going to exist. They're just going to find other ways to get us and where to get us, where we're sitting still.

Airplanes, trains, planes, and automobiles. Well, maybe not automobiles, but planes and trains and that sort of thing. I do think the way people read newspapers is obviously different. And I think apps is huge. I personally do not like the Toronto Star app. the Toronto Star app. Because for me, the newspaper,

the way things are lined up on the page to tell you what the big story is, that's important to me. I actually like the print newspapers. But don't they have a home... The app has a home page.

It has a home page. I haven't used it. It's garbage. I'm a CBC guy. It's awful. But you know, I have problems with the CBC. Also a terrible app.

It's a terrible app. It's also a terrible place to work. But anyway, that's a whole other kettle of awful. But you know, I have problems with the CB. Don't throw things at me. Also a terrible app. It's a terrible app. I like the CB. It's also a terrible place to work. But anyway, that's a whole other kettle of fish. But I think the way these newspapers have their apps is going to be huge too because I think the Globe and Mail app is actually really good because I can get a sense of what the top, I like knowing what the top stories are. I like seeing what the breaking stuff is. And I find with the Toronto Star app, I have no idea.

It's like, okay, Holt Renfrew's launching a new mid-range price. Well, really, that's the top story right now? I don't think so. You know where I found that first? On Twitter. Of course. And that's a huge issue. You have all these reporters who work for the Globe, who work for the Star, who work for the Post, who work for the Sun, and they're

leaking, and they're basically giving their own news away for free on Twitter. I'll get new followers if I leak this on my boss. And they're expected to. I have a really close girlfriend that works for 680 News and it is part of her contract that she tweets. It's part of her job. If she does not tweet what is happening, where she is, she's not doing her job.

And that's harder. Ye shall tweet. Tweet shall she. I don't think anyone speaks for that eloquently at her job. Andrew, what's your news source of choice? I know you probably have more than one, but what would be your favorite news source right now? Is it Twitter? I'm a big Twitter guy.

I wasn't one until this summer. And my friend Sean Matthew, who is a huge reader of your site, and he's one of my, he says hello, by the way, Rosie. He's one of my audio assistants, who's a great kid, and he does a lot of my- And talented.

Are you shouting him out? Yeah, you know what, I'll give a little shout out to SMJ. He sounds really intelligent. He is intelligent. Anyway, he finally convinced me to get onto Twitter this summer. And I thank him for that because you know what?

I am a news junkie. I worked at BNN for seven years, a report on business television. If you're a news junkie, Twitter is fantastic. But they have to link to someone. They only have 140 characters. So usually they'll give you a little taste. Sometimes, yeah. But if I get the headline, that's fine. But they have to link to someone. They only have 140 characters, so usually they'll give you a little taste. Sometimes, yeah. But if I get the headline, that's fine.

I can get that. And if I want to read an in-depth story, I can go by the newspaper. I think the newspapers have themselves to blame because they gave it away for free first. Instead of coming out and saying, here, we're going to start a site, but it's going to cost you a dollar a week, and you can get access to it. They just said, here it is all for free. So you're saying Pandora's box. I think that's what my entry was saying, that the Pandora, they're trying to put Pandora back.

They thought they were going to make money on ads, right? Yeah. And then the ads went, pfft. Well, their ad sales departments say, I don't understand that. Can't I just give it to them as a bonus? Yeah. So, I mean, the model didn't work. No.

I have never, to this day, ever clicked on a link on any web page, website, web form, ever. Not even torontomike.com with the ads I run? No, I don't. What about if you heard an ad on this podcast? Would you then be more... If you heard an ad for a website that we thought was good for you and you thought it was good, would you be more apt to go to that than to click on a

web banner? Yeah, I would never click on a web banner. But if I am listening to something that people are hosting who have like mind, who I enjoy, and take their viewpoint seriously or would think that this would be really great to check out yeah absolutely well andrew let me tell you about a little show called super fail all stars it's available on itunes right now there's

three episodes and three new episodes coming it's foul and funny what's that name again super fail all stars thanks for asking Mike Describe it It's a comedy show with my buddy Kaz and I And he is ridiculous Just as some highlights, his grandma was a hooker We talk about it I've been on an episode

No one's grandma is a hooker Even if you were a hooker, once you're a grandma That disappears from your history I can't believe it It's a very High very highly sought after audience. I'm sure she has a very defined clientele. I would think if she was still active. See, that's funny.

You know what? That's totally funny. I want to listen. And then on the first episode, we found out about how Kaz had an accident in his pants on the way to work on his birthday and how he dealt with that. And most recently, we had a discussion about his excessive, excessive, excessive drinking and what that gets him into on a weekly basis.

Dead? Yeah. Well, yeah. People buy him drinks. He's highly lovable. Super Phil All-Stars. Thanks for the ad. You think you might follow up on that?

I might check that out. Hey! I'm sending you an invoice. Yeah. What else is new? No, no, no. This is podcasts. This is podcasts. This is podcasts.

So now you've got to figure out a Contra deal. Yeah, let's do a little Contra. Well, don't worry. All right. No one actually has any money in radio or podcasting. They just give each other. They just give each other. That's what radio is.

I'll give you 10 ads. I need a dishwasher to give away. There you go. When I say give it away, I mean put in my cottage. Sorry. Yeah. I need a new roof. We're going to give three roofs away, but I need a dishwasher to give away. When I say give it away, I mean put it in my cottage. I need a new roof. We're going to give three roofs away, but I need my cottage. That's right. So, back to this newspaper thing real quick, just to close it up.

I used to read forever, or I had this subscription I had a subscription for the Toronto Star, and I used to come to my home every day for decades, and then at some point I decided I was getting all my news online, I didn't need to give the Toronto Star any more money and that's where I am today I have a number of sources I actually like the CBC News app on my phone I go to CBC News I listen to the World Report and the CBC News on 99.1 via the web so it's like almost like a

little mini podcast all the time I like CBC News but I'll also check out the Toronto Star, the Globe and Mail, and whatever anyone's linking to on Twitter. But I don't see myself paying $20 to access this online news, and that concerns me for my friends in the newspaper business because I actually care about the news. I actually want to read the news. Most people I don't think would read anything, to be honest. The aggregators are just going to start to send you to links where you have to have a subscription? No, the aggregators will ban the subscription.

Reddit, for example, I can see the subreddit now will have a rule, no linking to the Globe and Mail. Same with Fark. Fark.com will do it. Right. So essentially, and what's going to happen, I believe, will be sites like Wikipedia or TorontoMike.com will become places people go where maybe somebody has a subscription and surmises it and maybe even does a little excerpt

or something. But Mike, this doesn't make sense. When you write about the new development on King West, the condo towers going up, when you write about the debate over whether we should have casinos in Toronto, where are you getting your information from?

You're getting it from the Toronto Star. I'm not getting it from the Toronto Star. This is what I think is happening here. The aggregators are going to be the winners here because somebody made a joke, like there's a thing, there's a forum called H&F Board or something for hockey fans.

What's going to happen is, and I can tell you exactly what's going to happen is, an interesting article about Geoffrey Lupul on the Leafs, somebody's going to have a subscription, going to copy the whole thing, paste it down into this HNF Boards website, and people are going to read it all in its entirety, basically almost real time there.

They're just not going to go to the TorontoStar.com. People will get the same content elsewhere. If I weren't such a nice guy, I'll start copying and pasting the TorontoStar.com. People will get the same content elsewhere. If I weren't such a nice guy, I'll start copying and pasting the entire Star.com on TorontoMike.com. Everybody come to my

site for my page views and my links and stuff and get all that content instead of giving me 20 bucks. I'm not doing it. That's awesome. Where do I get to

that on your site? I'm not doing that. My point is people will work around this. People won't pay. They'll find a way around this. We'll is, people will work around this. People won't pay. They'll find a way around this. We'll see.

We will see. Next week, we have Ill Vibe, not the composer of this song, which is Lowest of the Low. They're the week after. I wish. I've got to work on that. But we have Ill Vibe, who composed the opening theme. He's coming in next week. That should be fun.

Oh, so much fun having you, Andrew. Thanks. This was great. Thank you, Andrew. I appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks for having me. And thanks everyone for listening. Thank you.