You can’t read REM in Saskatoon anymore.
The Saskatoon Real Estate Board will no longer distribute REM to real estate offices, because when we use the terms Realtor or MLS in our editorial copy (the stories and articles), we do not use the ® symbol with them.
Why don’t we? Because REM is a newspaper. We follow Canadian Press style in our editorial, just like every other newspaper in Canada. Any newspaper worth its salt and integrity follows CP editorial style so that no article or news item can be compromised by any advertiser, corporation, board or association. If this style were ever to be compromised by any newspaper, then it would cease to be a credible newspaper. It would become an advertising flyer or an association trade magazine or a company publication written and directed by that company. It would no longer be for the readers.
Another reason why newspapers don’t use copyright marks and all-caps names, for Realtor or Re/Max or any other company or organization, is for readability. As Patti Tasko, senior supervising editor for The Canadian Press, told REM: “Editors are under increasing pressure to replicate logos, not to write words…we are not replicating your logo. We are writing about it and we want the words to be clear and follow the traditional conventions of English writing.”
REM respects trademarks and registered names and titles, and we cover these issues and challenges extensively in our stories. But we can’t compromise our editorial style and start using trademark symbols and invite open season on corporate marks, as well as full corporate names and titles. If we did, REM would no longer be readable.
REM is an independent newspaper. It is not owned by any major corporation or real estate company or trade association or real estate board. It is, however, dependent on real estate boards all across Canada. REM cannot exist without them.
Each real estate board in Canada receives REM free of charge and distributes it as a service for its members. Most boards distribute one copy of REM per member but there are some variations. A couple of boards in Quebec do not distribute REM at all because it is written in English only. We certainly respect that.
Regardless of how many copies each board distributes, we are grateful and we ship as many copies as the brokers, sales representatives and associate members want, free of charge. And we are grateful to every single real estate professional who is a reader.
Since we’ve earned this privilege from the country’s real estate boards, for almost 18 years we have worked to provide the best news and information about the industry that we can. Our job is to make the news in REM objective and honest, and to provide a forum for real estate professionals across the county to express their opinions about what’s happening in their industry. We try to produce information that cannot be found anywhere else. And it is for real estate professionals only.
REM also sells advertising, which is distinctly different from editorial. Advertising sales pay for reporters, freelance stories, graphics, clerical staff, editors, printing and all other costs that relate to publishing a newspaper.
If you don’t like what a newspaper prints, you have the right to contact it and tell it so. You have the right to stop buying or receiving that newspaper. You have the right to stop reading that newspaper. But you do not have the right to forbid others from reading it.
Realtors, brokers, sales representatives and associate members will no longer be allowed to see REM in Saskatoon because it will no longer be delivered by the board unless REM is written and printed the way they tell us. I respect the decision by the Board of Directors to not read REM. But it isn’t fair to forbid all brokers and sales representatives in Saskatoon from reading it.
Heino Molls is publisher of REM. Email [email protected]
