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340
Communities
have lost local news providers since 2008 and the trend isn’t relenting.
The cutbacks, shutdowns and general hollowing out have reached the point where the only thing left in some places is a “ghost paper” — a familiar masthead but little or no local news in the local product.
– The Public Policy Forum
526
LOCAL NEWS OUTLETS
since 2008 have closed. The majority were community newspapers.
In the same period, 402 new outlets opened, but only 274 of those survived.
– Local News Research Project, Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism
Let’s Make Some
Memories Together
“Local newspapers hold communities’ collective memories. No one else records their history week by week, in words and images.
Local papers are the diary of their community.”
–Lisa Sygutek, publisher of the Crowsnest Pass Herald in southwestern Alberta, a family-owned business since 1930.
We Work for You
We Work for You
You hear so much about journalism being the lifeblood of democracy, and we honestly don’t know if that’s necessarily accurate these days, but we do know what it feels like to not have news about Cumberland that is published beyond a press release.
In order to deliver a free paper to every door in Cumberland, we will be sponsored by local ads, and proudly so. I mean sometimes new deals and services are just as fun to learn about as pothole problems!
But we sure would appreciate it, dear reader, if you find our inky crinkly pages worth your time, to drop us a dime.
People in communities who have lost a newspaper, tend to retreat into
partisan
CORNERS
The vacuum created by missing reliable local information is filled by national news, which is typically more divisive, as well as social media, where truth and falsehood compete on equal terms.
“
More local news is a little bit of an antidote to that.
– IPSOS Report co-author Andrew Phillips, Toronto Star columnist and former editor-in-chief of the Montreal Gazette and the Victoria Times Colonist
TRUST IS WAY DOWN
IN 2018
57%
IN 2024
37%
OVERALL TRUST SCORE
– Reuters Institute, Digital News Report, 2024
BUT NOT FOR LOCAL
The 2025 Ipsos online survey reported that the most trusted sources of news were:
85% Local Newspapers
85% Local Radio
71% National Newspapers
“
When you look at trust in English Canadian regional or community newspapers, it’s 65 percent. Canadians may not love “the media“ but they often love their local newspaper.
–Paul Deegan, CEO of News Media Canada speaking about that now famous Reuters study
INDEPENDENCE
As many of you are aware, the government in Canada funds most journalist’s salaries from 35 to 50 percent through the Journalism Tax Credit and other initiatives.
We strongly value
(and the research shows that you do too! )
Canadians trust in media by main funding source:
Canadians trust in media
by main funding source:
BY GOVERNMENT
42%
BY READERS
61%
“We’re pretty close, by my estimation, to a 50 percent wage subsidy on journalist salaries up to $85,000 per year”
–Rudyard Griffiths, Chair of the Munk Debates, Munk School of Global and Public Policy