The alt-weekly that dares not speak its nameAs of today, the ghost-ship HMS Now still sails
online... with a few noticeable new oddities. For starters, the "NOW" name, logo, and brand identity have been recently removed. In the place of the NOW logo and name is nothing whatsoever. What could this possibly mean? Did the receiver sell that stuff off as intellectual property assets, but somehow the "nowtoronto.com" URL directs to a no-name generic content site? This is getting weirder, even though the curtain has basically come down.
And who is piloting the ghost ship? The online masthead lists a staff that has baled, including Beverlee East (gone to Torstar), Rad Simonpillai (freelancing elsewhere), Daniel de Souza (quit noisilly a few months ago), and even a "Human Resources Manager." That would be a sweet gig, when there are no humans to manage. Must leave a lot of time for personal job-searching.