Sir: My heartiest congratulations to The Chatham Voice. You have done something I never thought you could do. You started a newspaper in the 21st century!
And you competed with the “big boys” in the newspaper world. Because that’s all there is nowadays.
I used to enjoy working for a small family-owned company years ago. Then it sold out to Southam Newspapers, and then Conrad Black’s Hollinger swept in, and I believe it is now part of the Metroland nest, which owns three daily and 113 weekly community newspapers in Southern Ontario. My little newspaper is in a group officially known as Hamilton Community News.
It’s getting so confusing I’m not even sure who owns what or what owns whom! Not long ago, Quebecor, which used to own Sun Media, sold its 175 Sun Media newspapers to Postmedia Network for $316-million. Postmedia recently announced major operational changes, cutting 90 jobs across the country and merging newsrooms from multiple newspapers into one each in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa. Postmedia boss is Paul Godfrey, once president of The Toronto Sun and CEO of the Toronto Blue Jays.
Quebecor had started in 1950 with a small neighbourhood newspaper and has now become the vast communications empire we all know.
When Metroland’s Guelph Mercury ceased publishing on Jan. 26, putting 26 people out of work, publisher Donna Luelo said ending the newspaper was “the only viable option” given changes to the media landscape.
“The decision was not made lightly, but the decline of classified and national advertising in recent years has made it impossible for the printed copy of the daily newspaper to remain profitable,” she said.
That’s why I think it’s so wonderful that The Chatham Voice is still publishing. I’m sure it operates on a bare-bones budget but it is still publishing.
That doesn’t mean I dislike the Postmedia newspapers in this area. I love all newspapers. I love the feel of newsprint. I love the smell of a newspaper just off the presses. I have no use for digital newspapers or e-books.
But I admire The Chatham Voice because it has probably got more challenges than the Guelph Mercury but it takes them on and solves them.
I have always admired the late Maggie Thatcher of the United Kingdom. Speaking of success, she said, “It is a mixture of having a flair for the thing you are doing. Knowing it isn’t enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose.”
Stephen J. Beecroft
Chatham
