Media giants Torstar and Postmedia announced Monday they were swapping more than 40 community newspapers and then promptly closing most of them.
This time, the shuttered papers are mostly in Ontario, but it’s part of a trend we’ve seen across the country, including here in B.C. It’s also the latest in a continuing bad news story about the struggles of traditional media, including community newspapers.
About 270 people will lose their jobs as a result of the deal.
But the communities impacted will also lose a valued piece of what helps define, reflect, challenge and celebrate those places.
Newspapers are businesses but they aren’t businesses like hamburger stands are businesses. They are essential to the functioning of democracy and to communities.
Much has been written about the demise of the “mainstream media” which finds itself struggling for air under a tsunami of digital alternatives.
But how many of those sources thrilled to share their opinions on Facebook have bothered to fact-check the information they are sharing? “Aggregator” sites may be happy to give you lists of “10 things” you should know before breakfast, but you won’t find many of them sitting through a public hearing for a tower planned for your neighbourhood, reading a detailed report on traffic congestion or finding out why your kid is going to school in a portable this year.
That’s the job of community newspapers, which neither the large daily papers nor many of the digital alternatives come close to replicating.
In the communities where papers have closed, there will be fewer voices heard, fewer stories told.
That’s a loss, collectively, for all of us, beyond the bottom line.
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