Member News: Grieving my newspaper babies

BY MANSOOR LADHA, FOR THE CALGARY HERALD
MARCH 20, 2009

Friday the 13th indeed proved ominous. Last week, I received a phone call that a newspaper I had published for 25 years, had printed its last edition. Splashed on almost half of its front page in big, bold letters, the headline delivered the grim news: “Sorry, We’re CLOSED!”
The two suburban weeklies on the outskirts of Edmonton, the Morinville Mirror and the Redwater Tribune, which I had purchased as one-year-old “babies” and nurtured into maturity, attractive enough to be bought by Sun Media, Canada’s second-largest publishing group, had suddenly folded.
Now, my labour of sweat, hope and love has died –another victim of the current global economic recession.
Sun Media took over the papers in May 2004 and renamed the papers the Morinville Redwater Town and Country Examiner. Announcing the closure to the stunned community, the papers said: “With the Canadian economy continuing to swoon, media chains across the country are continuing to cut back on operations. In somewhat of a surprise move, Sun Media announced last week that the Morinville Redwater Town and Country Examiner would cease to operate immediately.
“The current March 11 edition of the Examiner will be the final issue of the long-running publication.
“The parent company of numerous weekly publications throughout Alberta, Manitoba and Ontario, Sun Media blamed the cutback on “increasing economic challenges in the newspaper industry, shrinking advertising revenues and rising costs.”
The carnage of newspapers started a few months ago. In Canada, every major newspaper company has announced significant layoffs and the Halifax Daily News was one of the first to shut down.
In the U. S., the Rocky Mountain News, Denver’s second newspaper, closed abruptly in February and Seattle’s Post-Intelligencer ceased print publication on March 17, converting to an online-only news service.
As well, there are other U. S. newspapers on shaky ground.
Whatever people may say about the death of newspapers in our society, the discussion often obscures the fact that as a popular commodity, newspapers hold a special place in peoples’ hearts and play a vital role in society, especially in a small communities like Morinville and Redwater. In a city, one has alternative media such as television to cover the news, but in smaller towns, it is the community newspaper only which is there to cover the local happenings.
The weekly newspaper reporter, usually fresh from university doing his first job, is hard at work covering town councils, school boards, chamber of commerce and municipal district meetings, most of which are ignored by our friends in the dailies unless there is something controversial happening. The sports reporter covers hockey and other sporting events so that local teams can get coverage in the papers and our up-and-coming sporting heroes can get a boost in their careers so they can go to the next level.
Even as a publisher, I was summoned at home, many times on weekends or in the evenings, to come and take a picture of the president of the local Lions Club, for example, since he forgot to inform us about the plaque that was to be presented by the district governor to one of his members. You just can’t say no as one could in a city. That’s what community journalism is all about. The publisher of a weekly is on duty 24 hours a day, seven days week. The contribution of a local newspaper to the community is enormous.
Even in good times, advertising is hard to come by in smaller communities as residents in those towns somehow have to be educated about the benefits of advertising. Many of them believe that because they are located on Main Street Alberta, they do not have to advertise. The argument being that everyone passes by the Main Street and sees the store, so there is no need to advertise, yet the hockey teams and the Scouts would expect the newspaper not only to give free coverage, but also donate towards cups and trophies for their tournaments.
One of the most difficult things I found as publisher of a community newspaper was making a buck to survive. I know newspapers are facing dwindling advertising dollars today, but if you ask me, publishers in community newspapers have been facing meagre ad revenue for years and that’s why some of us had to come up with creative ideas. In our particular case, we had to change our strategy to include neighbouring cities of St. Albert and Edmonton within our service areas. That meant that our ad sales people started selling advertising in those communities and not just relying on Morinville and Redwater businesses. That worked well, though not without some resentment from local merchants.
After running the two weeklies for 25 years, my wife and I had run out of steam, but we had left the papers in excellent economic shape. As one of the few independent weekly newspaper publishers left in Alberta, we did our best to produce an award-winning, quality product with few resources at our disposal in one of the most competitive markets. We realize times have changed now and even corporate ownership and paternalism couldn’t save the papers.
I lament the demise of these community newspapers, which have fallen victim to the tough economic environment, whether it’s because of dwindling ad dollars or poor readership. The community has lost its best friend, one who always stood by its side, and shared their happiness and sadness.
To my loyal friend, I say, so long, au revoir from the Ladhas! We grieve your passing.
Mansoor Ladha is a freelance journalist based in Calgary. He was publisher of the Morinville Mirror and the Red-Water Tribune from 1979 to 2005.
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