Former-Canadian newspaper magnate (and author of a very well-reviewed biography on FDR) Conrad Black has resigned as CEO of his own company. Something about $32-million in unauthorized payments to he and his co-executivess…

(When Hollinger sold its Canadian newspapers to CanWest a few years ago, many journalists saw the Asper’s — perhaps too optimistically — as saviours from Lord Black’s bombastic style.)

Another Canadian journalism icon, Maclean’s, is also having troubles. Three journalists were laid-off last week, and the publishing schedule was slightly shortened.

One advantage of Parliament be prorogued is the death of the copyright extension bill (unfortunately, it died with its siblings that were due to decriminalize marijuana, legalize same-sex marriages, allow stem cell research, and create new ethics rules for Parliament.) As a result, unpublished works from Stephen Leacock, Sir Robert Borden and Louis Riel’s defence attorneys will be in the public domain in January.

The 2003 OJA’s were announced over the weekend, and the CBC SARS’ coverage won for the best affiliated service piece. Incidentally, one of the sites I screened and was very impressed with — Boston.com’s for its coverage of a priest abuse scandal — won as well.

Automated news pages, like Google’s news service, could be the next big playground for reformed portals. Microsoft is testing its own version, dubbed Newsbot, in MSN’s British edition.