Another week and more reports of newspapers closing their doors.
Last week alone saw the closure of the Guelph Mercury and Nanaimo Daily News, community institutions that had been publishing since Confederation. This was preceded by the loss of 90 positions in the newsrooms of Postmedia in a number of major Canadian centres, including Vancouver, Calgary and Ottawa.
A lot of the attention has been focused on newspapers, but the slashing and burning has left its mark on magazines, radio and television across the country.
Although it may appear that an entire industry is collapsing, what many do not realize is that the majority of these wounds are self-inflicted. Publishers and editors who lose sight of why people pick up their newspapers are destined to join the ranks of those that have not survived.
The fundamentals of good journalism have not changed, nor the importance to the communities they serve. Community news is about recording the history of the places where we live. The Outlook and its sister papers, along with others across the country, are differentiated from the dailies of large cities, for example, by the term “community newspaper” – with the word community being critical.
From the routine to the extraordinary, the Outlook and similar publications set out to tell the stories and capture the images of daily life within our communities.
At the root of this is the professional journalist. A good reporter is more than their education, more than someone simply scribbling down observations. Reporters are passionate and invested in their community.
They not only need to uphold the standards of their industry and employer, but are held accountable by their readers and quite often an entire community. Unable to hide behind a pen name, a web page or online profile, every word they print is made available for scrutiny. They provide the context and detail needed to make an informed decision; they allow you to make your informed opinion.
Some media organizations are failing their readers and their communities. Gutting newsrooms to help improve dividends or increase the bottom line is shortsighted. Newsroom obituaries in the form of a press release often quote the economy and the move to digital or declining readership as factors in a newspaper’s demise.
These may all be true, but they are a side effect, not a root cause. If you take shortcuts and choose to run content that is not relevant to your audience, you should and will pay the price. Readers, listeners and viewers are not fooled by filler content and wire copy whose sole purpose is to fill a hole.
Community newspapers are uniquely positioned to stay relevant. We cover our communities like no one else.
It’s always exciting when TV cameras and microphones show up from the Big City, but we all know they leave as quickly as they arrive. We are here for the floods and the fires, but we are also there for the public hearings, the quilt show, the fundraiser or the high school team’s run to a championship.
A blog or a Facebook group can evaporate as soon as its purpose or resources are exhausted, while we are reliable and constant in our coverage of the news.
We employ staff that live, work and play in the Bow Valley. This is our home. We are excited and optimistic about the industry in which we make a living. As in any business, those that serve their customers well will survive, those that cut corners will be challenged.
We have no plans on going anywhere.
