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The Canadian has changed its way of doing things to protect the jobs of a few journalists
Maxime Truman
The Canadian has changed its way of doing things to protect the jobs of a few journalists
Credit: Often, the Web does not work in a chronological or 100% normal way. There is so much stock on the Web that often, certain things are uploaded to the web without real impact. It takes several weeks – sometimes even several months – for someone somewhere to realize that there is something relevant in a […]
Often, the Web does not work in a chronological or 100% normal way.

There is so much stock on the Web that often, certain things are uploaded to the web without real impact. It takes several weeks – sometimes even several months – for someone somewhere to realize that there is something relevant in a text, a podcast, or a TikTok video.

This happened over the weekend with an episode of Entre la poire et le fromage that Luc Gélinas participated in several weeks ago.

In short, Luc Gélinas tells us that the job of a beat reporter is less fun these days.

Why? Because the Canadiens broadcast everything live on their Twitter account.

It’s not me saying this, it’s Luc.

« Before, we were eight, nine traveling […] you eat with the boys, you have fun. You leave the restaurant, it’s 10:00 am, there’s music. Okay, you go back, there’s a small band. You have two, three beers. Now, we’re often just RDS and La Presse. » – Luc Gélinas

The Gazette has cut back on coverage; the Journal de Montréal and TVA Sports do not cover all the games, according to Luc Gélinas.

Renaud Lavoie and/or Anthony Martineau are often there, no? Whatever…

Gélinas admitted that the media are not doing well and that, as a result, sending journalists to follow the team on the road when the Canadiens put everything on their social networks (and they are the only team in the league to do so, according to Gélinas) is not always justifiable in the eyes of the bosses.

Until now, I am 100% in agreement with Luc Gélinas: in 2025, with technology and social networks, it is more difficult to justify the presence of journalists in California to go get audio clips that are available at the same time on Twitter/X.

Especially at a time when we are beginning to discourage the population from traveling by plane for nothing…

And I also agree with Gélinas on another point: damn it, the job of following the Canadiens’ activities on the road must be less exciting and enjoyable than it was ten or fifteen years ago.

Where I disagree with the reporter from RDS, however, is with his way of responding to the problematic situation.

Luc Gélinas and a few other reporters seem to have convinced Chantal Machabée not to broadcast the coach’s and players’ press conference live in the morning, in order to give people on the spot time to write or record their story. Chantal now waits an hour before broadcasting the recording of the morning press conference to the general public. Note that the post-game press conferences are sponsored, so they continue to be broadcast live.

In short, the guys on the beat were tired of seeing people on social networks and absent media on the road watching the press conference and relaying the information from it before them… and they came to an agreement with the VP of communications for the club.

1. I can understand a guy like Luc Gélinas wanting to protect his job and its usefulness. He is very good at what he does, and his work is appreciated and useful in the ecosystem.

2. On the other hand, the host claims that the Canadiens are doing well to delay the broadcast of press conferences by 60 minutes to protect the scoops of a guy like Eric Engels.

A) In my opinion, the CH should not make any effort to protect a scoop from a journalist.

B) Scoops do not come out in press conferences anyway. You should not confuse scoop and public information.

3. When something big/interesting/relevant is said by a player or the coach, there is always someone present on the spot who cannot resist tweeting it or publishing it on BlueSky.

So, the Canadiens delay the broadcast of morning press conferences to protect… less/non relevant information.

4. I think the fans don’t really care about the official press conferences; they know that there’s not much juice coming out of them. And if I’m wrong about this, well, I think we’re not respecting the fan by making them wait for their information… by delaying the broadcast of live content.

One day, a journalist on the beat told me that I was taking away his privileges by running a site like DansLesCoulisses.

I told him that maybe yes, maybe no… but that in the end, I was doing it for the fans, and not for his privileges (lost or not).

We never spoke again…

In conclusion, while I understand the position of Luc Gélinas and the other journalists on the beat who have already contacted colleagues to ask them to stop tweeting about the team’s press conferences, the fact remains that journalism is struggling – especially traditional sports journalism – and it’s not 60 minutes of delay on certain media dispos that will save it.

Unfortunately…

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