Happy National Newspaper Week!
Wait, you didn’t know it was National Newspaper Week?
For shame!
Just kidding; unless you are in the industry, you likely haven’t heard of this.
The annual celebration and recognition of news media runs from Oct. 1 to Oct. 7 this year.
“There has never been a more critical time to celebrate the role of newspapers in our communities and reinforce the importance of homegrown news and the real people behind the press,” reads the website for News Media Canada, which represents Canada’s print and digital media industry.
With Meta blocking news on Facebook and Instagram, the last few months have been—er—tricky for news outlets across this country.
As Meta pulls back on news in other areas around the world, it seems this situation could be permanent.
Editors have been scrambling to ensure their readers and viewers know to go back to viewing news directly from the source.
In the midst of this shifting situation with Bill C 18, there was the bad news that Ontario’s Metroland Media Group ceased print publications of 70 weekly community newspapers, suddenly letting go of 600 employees.
This rocked all media watchers and outlets from coast to coast but does not reflect the Squamish situation.
Glacier Media is our parent publication, which also owns Pique Newsmagazine in Whistler.
We are solid in the Sea to Sky.
Our stories at The Squamish Chief continue to be read hundreds of thousands of times monthly.
Put another way, our stories are read more now than they were in the modern heyday of newspapers in the 1970s and 80s.
But we need community support to ensure that continues.
News is a business, yes. It always has been.
And printing the news is increasingly expensive.
Just as libraries receive taxpayer support to survive, media needs funds to produce news and keep the lights on. Both libraries and news outlets provide a valuable service to the community.
We both ensure stories are told, heard, and kept for future generations. Both help locals understand history, themselves, and current events.
They are safe spaces to debate and exchange ideas.
And both need community support.
As many communities are discovering, social media rumours run rampant without accredited local media; facts are not checked, civil discourse is abandoned, and mistakes are not corrected.
The best way to support The Squamish Chief is to read us in print, visit our site directly at squamishchief.com, and sign up for our newsletter at squamishchief.com/account/mailinglist.
And, again, Happy Newspaper Week!
