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About this directory... December 1977 This is the second edition of Sources, Content magazine's directory of contacts for editors and reporters in Canada. It's expanded, with 203 listings, including the 147 which appeared in the first edition. The format's improved. Listings now appear in alphabetical order by organization name. The Subject Guide has been expanded to be as comprehensive as possible. Users should consult the Subject Guide to find all listed information sources on a given subject. The contacts are listed here because it is part of their jobs to answer questions from the news media. They've paid to be in this directory, to help you reach them. The first edition of Sources was well received everywhere, although some people felt it wasn't nearly comprehensive enough. We're the first to agree. Only two of Canada's chartered banks were listed, for instance. What we failed to explain to readers of the first edition is that we must charge organizations to be listed. If the listings were free, anyone could provide a huge book at an awesome financial loss. We must charge for listings to provide this growing service. So as not to exclude smaller organizations, we have a democratic sliding scale rate structure. Listings cost as little as $19. The contacts in this book are listed because they want to be, because they're serious about their jobs, and because they believe a well-informed public is better for everyone. The other criticism we received about the first edition was that it was too Ottawa-Toronto centered. True again. Because Sources is a national publication, it tends to attract organizations with national operations rather than local ones. It's a fact that Toronto is home to more head offices than any other city in Canada. Ottawa is chock full of federal departments and agencies as well as a large number of national association headquarters. We can't change that. But we did inform more than 2,000 organizations from St. John's to Victoria to Yellowknife about Sources. This edition represents their response to date. We welcome your suggestions and criticisms. Especially where you feel some good contacts are absent, let us know. Better still, tell them you think they should be in Sources. Keep Sources handy. Over the weeks and months to come no matter where you live, it should prove useful. The next edition of Sources is scheduled to be mailed May 16, 1978. As usual, changes (such as the appointment of a new media relations person in a listed organization) will appear in the monthly editions of Content, under the heading "Sources Updates."
Ray Bendall Sources |