Back To Basics

9 Replies to “Back To Basics”

1. So this newspaper is relying on centenarians to keep it alive. Well that is exactly the problem, Print newspaper circulation is dying as the last generation of print readers is also dying.
   Secondly, rural Saskatchewan continues to depopulate as farms get larger and support services scale up. Government services (including law enforcement) continue to thin out and become centralized in larger centres. So as paid circulation declines so does paid advertising.

   And new readers are addicted to their phones and not only wont buy a print newspaper, they don’t even know what it is or even how or where to buy one.

   Just because a newspaper says it is not for profit doesn’t mean it still doesn’t need to cover its cost to pay for newsprint, ink, sales and admin costs, distribution cost, power, computers, other overhead.

   This newspaper will end its print edition. It may be one of the later ones but it will end.

   1. “So this newspaper is relying on centenarians to keep it alive …”

      Well, that’s appropriate, it’s produced and published by a retired couple as a hobby.

2. Yes, it’s a nice local story but doesn’t really live up to the billing.

3. Shellbrook Chronicle would have been a much better example that actually fits the headline.

4. I’ve got a buddy who owns a real estate business in a small community (pop 2500). He’s quit advertising in the local newspaper opting instead for FB.

   Social media is where everybody under 50 gets their news. I subscribe to the NP digital version. The NP as a newspaper probably wont survive much longer. Not sure what might be left of the news business in the next 5-10 years. Not much I’m thinking.

   WaPo and the NYT are apparently doing well behind a firewall. Maybe the G&M is as well. That’s the future.

5. When news papers like our Cowichan Valley Citizen (Vancouver Island) print out and out lies that they know lies there is no reason for their existance.

6. I like reading news papers. Sitting back in my chair and enjoying to some quiet time reading about the world. It’s too bad the content over the last decade and a half has been force fed leftist garbage I won’t in good conscious pay any money for.

   1. Morroco Mole:

      My NDP friends get upset when I write these words, however it seems that people who are addicted to insanity love to read drivel. And that’s not just newspapers. CTV and CBC are doing the same on the mainstream media. Just today I was watching some of the reactions to the assassination of Bagdad-Daddy. Lets face it, it was a swift and successful operation. The CTV and CBC however were quick to go and search out some loser who identifies himself or herself as a ”professor of political science.” Of course they always find some broken record that talks for 10 minutes, bashes the story line and in the end says nothing. The funny part is when they (CTV etc.) question the guest and don’t get the answer they expected. Suddenly, the voice goes off, and they say; ”Gee, sorry, we’re having technical problems.” But not anywhere as funny as referring to a leftist as ”a professor of political science.” If you drove down the road at 75MPH, threw an apple out the window and into the ditch and tried to calculate were it was going to land, your science would probably be more accurate than ”political science.” What a joke!!

7. There are several newspapers in SW Saskatchewan that are alive and well.

   Off the top of my head.

   Assiniboia Times, Gravelbourg Tribune, Shaunavon Standard, Herbert Herald, Maple Creek News, Maple Creek and Southwest Advance Times, Swift Current Southwest Booster, Swift Current Prairie Post. Rosetown Eagle.

   My favorite was the Wood River Free Press that came out of Gravelbourg. It was printed every two weeks, had a circulation of about 10,000 in it’s heyday. They published a 3-4 page historical feature on a large array of topics.
   It shut down in 2014, owner moved to USA.

   This is a list of Saskatchewan Weekly papers.

   https://swna.com/newspapers/