Community papers mostly defy the demise of print media

By John Dance

Two years ago, the Glebe Report (Glebe Report, January 2022) published a special report on the state of the 12 community papers in central Ottawa. Since then, the for-profit newspaper world continued to decline, so the author John Dance checked back with local editors, including the Glebe Report, to see how their not-for-profit community papers are doing.

This article was first published in The Mainstreeter and is reproduced here with consent of the author.

In September, Metroland Media Group announced the end of the print editions of 70 community papers resulting in the loss of 605 jobs and a key source of local news for many communities in Ontario. Although none of these papers served central Ottawa, the Kemptville Advance, the Renfrew Mercury and the Perth Courier all lost their print editions.

“When a community paper dies, it’s like if you shut a light in a room in a home and never opened it again,” says Christian Marcoux, editor of Perspectives Vanier. “The house is still there but somehow it’s not as welcoming at night as it once was.”

And Alayne McGregor, managing editor of the Centretown BUZZ, notes: “We’ve lost so many community papers in the last few years, and what they covered isn’t necessarily being replaced by the few remaining commercial news outlets. CTV Ottawa, which has always had a big local news presence, is now threatened with major cuts; we recently lost a local radio station as well. This means news is being missed – and in particular, local councils and boards aren’t being held to account.

“While the remaining local community papers do their best to cover our parts of Ottawa, publishing once a month or once every two months, with limited space, doesn’t allow us to cover everything in a timely manner,” she concludes.

But despite their limitations and challenges, the not-for-profit community papers of central Ottawa continue to flourish with one sad exception. The Overbrook ConneXions published its last issue in the summer of 2022. “We hung on by our fingernails through COVID but could not grow to the point of hiring staff, and our volunteers could not sustain it,” reports Heather Amys, past president of the Overbrook Community Association.

Others, though, are doing well. “We’re thriving,” says Liz McKeen, editor of the Glebe Report. “Our board is recruiting new members and is quite active. Our advertising is robust.”

Similarly, OSCAR editor Brendan McCoy reports: “Ad revenues are down a little from 2018, maybe 10 per cent, but they are not bad and are holding up pretty well. In the community there seems to be continuing support for the paper, lots of articles, lots of volunteers to deliver the paper, that sort of thing.” In the case of Perspectives Vanier, the last two years have been the paper’s two best years revenue-wise, and the paper has expanded from 16 to 20 pages.

The Mainstreeter has also had a strong year with expanded content and advertising activity reported, according to editor Lorne Abugov. “Our advertisers are very loyal, and new ones seem eager to get into the paper, and our volunteer base of writers, editors and delivery distributors has never been stronger. Some of our newer community initiatives, like our annual outdoor art tour and our community calendar, have boosted community engagement and provided us with an important new fundraising source.”

“We just spent an enjoyable hour catching up via the New Edinburgh News,” John Morris recently wrote to the paper. “It’s truly remarkable that your local, dedicated, volunteer group can deliver much more entertaining and relevant info than our horribly over-priced and underwhelming national-chain local newspaper. Incidentally, your latest edition weighed more than theirs. Keep up the good work!!”

The pandemic caused many difficulties for community papers: for instance, less advertising, difficulty of getting volunteers and delivering the papers and curtailed community activity. Several papers temporarily suspended their print editions but resumed after a few months.

Although the for-profit print media is being overwhelmed by online social media, particularly as Facebook and other sites have drained advertising from them, the not-for-profit community papers seem to survive primarily through print. “We have no intention of abandoning print now or in the foreseeable future,” says McKeen. “It’s one of the more appreciated aspects of the paper, with young and old readers alike.” As Marcoux succinctly puts it, “We print on paper and that’s that.”

Meta/Facebook’s blocking of Canadian news media has had little impact on the community papers – primarily because they focus on print and don’t rely on an online presence.

Although most of the central papers generate sufficient advertising revenue, The Riverview Park Review has had to work very hard to achieve this. “Most businesses in our area are either corporate or with head offices across the country,” says Carole Moult, the Review’s editor. “They have absolutely no interest in the community where they are located, nor are they allowed to advertise.” She also says, “Pre-COVID, we had a lot of restaurant advertising. Not so now. We have had to broaden our advertising basw. Our advertising revenues remain about the same, however, we must continually work very hard to achieve this.”

In the face of static or declining advertising revenues, some papers have solicited donations from readers and, in a few cases, support is provided by community associations. Interestingly, a number of papers have advertising from the City of Ottawa and other levels of government while others have none.

One problem that Wes Smiderle, editor of the Manor Park Chronicle, raises is that “our printer just recently increased charges for delivering our print edition by quite a bit. The increase was enough to get us to look around for alternatives but there don’t seem to be many.” Indeed, McGregor wonders “if it would be worth meeting in person early next year or setting up a mailing list to talk about common issues, like city advertising or printer quality.” Also, as Moult notes, “Within the past five years, two of the printing companies we used folded, and the cost went up four times.”

Although the advantage of Facebook and other social media advertising is that it can be specifically targeted, the advantage of the community papers is that they go to everybody in a particular community so, in a sense, hit the target of all of those within 15-minute communities, the catchment areas for each paper.

The last words go first to Marcoux: “I feel very lucky, and I am aware how fragile a community paper can be in these times. . .Long live The Mainstreeter and Perspectives Vanier.” And then Moult: “We continually hear that people ‘love’ community papers.”

John Dance is an active member of the Old Ottawa East Community Association, a keen observer of municipal affairs and a regular contributor to The Mainstreeter and the Glebe Report.