WESTERN PRODUCER — The newspaper business has been written off many times in the past century, first with the advent of radio, then television and then the internet.
But the business continues, especially in rural, agricultural communities, say news people on the Prairies.
From the Lac du Bonnet Clipper in Manitoba to the Moosomin World-Spectator in Saskatchewan to Alberta’s Fort Macleod Gazette, rural newspapers have always covered the comings and goings of people in their communities.
The papers are the glue that sticks together a hamlet, village, town and rural municipality by reporting on issues big and small, tragic and joyful.
The Fort Macleod Gazette is one of the oldest continuously run prairie newspapers. It rolled out its first edition in July 1882, published by former members of what was then known as the North West Mounted Police in what was then the Northwest Territories.
Current Gazette editor and owner Frank McTighe said the community has supported the publication because the paper has, does and will continue to cover the topics important to them.
“That’s really what it comes down to. We have a relationship with the community, the community sees our value and they continue to support us,” he said.
That means covering local topics like the local chamber of commerce citizen of the year award or an alumni hockey team doubling its charity fundraising total from the year before.
The paper prints a hardcopy edition, but McTighe said the business will adapt if its customers prefer a digital format.
“The work that we do does not change. We report on the Fort Macleod community and we are a local, consistent source of news for people. Whether we deliver it in print or online, really, the work doesn’t change,” said McTighe.
The feeling is shared by Kevin Weedmark, who runs the World-Spectator. News about a group of Moosomin residents who traveled to Tanzania to deliver handmade dresses made by a local volunteer group featured prominently in a recent edition.
Despite predictions about the demise of the newspaper business, Weedmark said readership is up for his publication; so much so that the paper has expanded to regional and agriculturally focused material.
“I bought the paper in 2002 and since that time the gross income of the company is five times what it was when I bought it. It continues to grow each year. Our subscriber base continues to grow,” he said.
The first edition of the World-Spectator dates to October 1884 when it covered local events including the North-West Rebellion.
And the paper will continue to publish news and events of interest for residents of southeastern Saskatchewan and Manitoba, said Weedmark.
“There is appetite for local news. We literally think of ourselves as a community service and a business second. We do whatever we can to serve the community, cover the news and not focus on the bottom line.
“Amazingly in our business, when you do that, you get more readers. When you get more readers, you have advertisers coming to you.”
The paper runs verbatim interviews with politicians who come through town, from federal Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre to Saskatchewan Green Party leader Naomi Hunter.
“(Hunter) was elected on a Sunday … and Monday morning at 9 o’clock, she was outside our front door in Moosomin to do an interview because she knew we would sit down and write word for word what she said,” said Weedmark. “We take as much space as we need to tell a story.”
That type of dedication to the news trade, along with the integrity necessary to cover local issues properly, makes smaller newspapers viable and helps communities survive in the face of population declines, said Mark Buss, president of Clipper Publishing.
The Beauséjour, Man.,-based business publishes the Lac du Bonnet Clipper and Clipper Weekly, which serve communities in the southeastern corner of the province.
Buss said no one else is willing to cover council and school board meetings.
“When it comes down to small town rural stuff – this development is going on this road, that sort of thing – where are you going to get that information? You are not going to get it from one of these other sources,” he said.
“It’s such an important part of being a community. I think if a community loses its newspaper, it loses a bit of itself in the end.”
Buss doesn’t buy the idea that the era of newspapers is coming to an end.
“There is a lot of things you can’t get on social media, like correct information,” he said. “It’s a bit of a poison to the cultural tonic … If people only get their news from Twitter or that sort of thing instead of a trusted, reliable and verified news source, it’s kind of a sad thing.”
As far as local news goes in Beauséjour, it doesn’t get much bigger than the Canadian Power Toboggan Championship, the oldest snowmobile race in the country.
Buss said the Clipper will provide full coverage of the event, reporting on the region’s mainstay celebration of snow machines held in Beauséjour since 1962.
