Make that 13 Sun Media newspapers shuttered since last fall.
The
Crowsnest Pass Promoter in Alberta is toast as of today.
The latest Sun Media
casualtity is said to be a victim of a dispute between the local mayor
and the newspaper.
Monday, 26 August 2013
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Are there two newspapers in Crowsnest Pass, the other one locally owned? Maybe they'll be closing some papers that have competition with smaller population areas?
ReplyDeleteThere's the Crowsnest Herald (independently owned) and an advertising flier thing plus a radio station in the same small market, all competing for dwindling ad revenue in an economically depressed area.
ReplyDeleteWow, and I see there are a lot of smaller circulation alberta weeklies that have competition against sun media with lower or same circulation, maybe they will end up closing down a lot of the paper with lower circulation, less than 5000 that also have a competing paper? any thoughts?
ReplyDeleteIt's difficult to tell the difference between the Sun's community newspapers' online websites these days. They used to have their own individual flavour with a focus on community news and events. Now, it looks as if they are essentially the same with some very minor adjustments to each one, and probably fewer local stories than in years past. The cookie-cutter approach didn't work. It's opened doors for creative people to compete with the Sun papers. Other news companies also appear to have better, more modern news and information websites.
ReplyDeleteI agree they are cookie-cutter websites and papers now. But I respectfully disagree that the competition has better and more modern news and information websites. As one of those hardworking community editors I work hard to ensure the paper, website, and social media are hyper local. The competition's website gets an "F" compared with ours. If community editors strive to put up a lot of local stories, the national stories from wherever they pop up on the website, are icing on the cake. In no way am I defending SMC, but rather us hard working editors and journalists who take pride in our work and still like to kick the competition's behind - and do a damn good job at it too. Yes SMC powers that be suck. But that doesn't mean we have to.
DeleteJust heard her that a new newspaper is opening in Petrolia (southwest ontario) to compete with the Sun Media Petrolia Topic. Haven't lived in Lambton County for years but I know my mother sure is happy to see another newspaper in her town. Guess she won't need to renew her Topic again, this is a free paper to every household in Petrolia and area. Anyone hear more about who is running the paper? I would guess former Sun Media folks, there certainly are a few in the neck of the woods.
ReplyDeleteThere is a new newspaper in Huron County, which is founded by a Sun Media castaway. Check out The Paper on Facebook (The Huron County Paper).
ReplyDeleteWow that is amazing how many newspapers are starting up where Sun Media closed papers. Right on! Does this not show them that they really made huge mistakes in closing and downsizing so many papers? I doubt it. Granted the global economic downturn was tough, but maybe they used that as an excuse to slash and burn. But basically they have only hurt themselves because some experts in the U.S. (don't ask me which ones as I don't have that handy) say that the future of journalism is in the community papers. They will never die. Duh wake up sun media. But actually it is probably a good thing they are too asinine to see that. And you know what that means don't you? They lose the market in their area and the number of papers it owns. That is a good thing for readers and the rest of us! I wonder how the shareholders like pkp now haha
ReplyDeleteThomas C. Terry, Community Journalism Provides Model for Future, from Newspaper Research Journal • Vol. 32, No. 1 • Winter 2011:
ReplyDeleteIn order to survive, let alone prosper, a community newspaper must bur- row into its community, whether that community is Cambridge, Mass., with more than 105,000 citizens within greater Boston, or Cambridge, Ill., with just more than 2,100 residents in the rural Midwest or an online community of con- stantly changing population. In the past, larger, urban daily newspapers may have been able to be detached, even isolated, from their audiences and com- munities in ways that community newspapers simply could not get away with and still flourish. It is a lesson those larger newspapers are painfully learning now. Declining circulation numbers and ad revenue at large daily newspapers demonstrate there is a need for journalism of different sort at the metro level and that things are proceeding in the right direction at the community level, assuming a sustainable financial model can be put in place. More than a method or a theory, community journalism is an attitude that journalists of any stripe can adopt. The future and the present are hyperlocal and hyperlinked. And, finally, as Burd argued, “Local journalism grows out of the community and is not imposed on it.” It lives in the “grassroots,” where it has been for parts of four centuries.
You get it Rob, thanks for the perspective.
Delete