We’re sorry to learn that an unaffiliated newspaper in Ontario of the same name, The Community Press of Stirling, has printed its final edition. It has been shuttered by Postmedia, the latest entry in the corporation’s long list of harmful closures; some might call them failures.
In the sort of corporate language usually reserved for announcing that everything is going terribly, Postmedia described eliminating the paper and roughly 250 flyer-distribution jobs as positioning itself for “growth and sustainable long-term performance.”
That’s an interesting definition of growth.
Albertans have seen this routine before. Postmedia killed the 112-year-old Camrose Canadian in 2018, then ended the printed Hanna Herald and 11 other Alberta community editions in 2023. In both instances, no attempt was even made to shop the titles to other interested buyers or publishers (ahem!). Little is known about the fate of the physical archives of those longstanding publications. Legacy and an entire community’s documented history snuffed in the name of unimaginative corporate posturing.
Every closure is presented as a bold step toward the future. Yet, the future somehow always contains fewer journalists, fewer readers, fewer truths, and less actual journalism. But don’t forget the record profits!
Corporate media has made one thing abundantly clear: they don’t know how to run successful newspapers, and they don’t actually want to be in the newspaper business.
The problem is, the stink of that utter disdain for their own product gets onto everyone else’s. Dramatic and dire stories of the state of the newspaper business caused by corporate mismanagement thus becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It becomes in vogue to spread tales of a medium in peril, so advertisers naturally look elsewhere. Ad buyers want to appear hip, not old-fashioned. And other corporate media, unable to resist the low hanging fruit, joins in the hacking and slashing, making print options more sparse. That’s why it has become so important that newspapers stick together, and most importantly, stand up for themselves. Because, done right, numerous studies show that people of all ages read newspaper content, and find advertising VERY effective and by far the most trustworthy.
For important clarity, Alberta’s independently owned The Community Press is alive, well, and still arriving in print every week – 118 years running. Thankfully, we share only a name with the former publication. Our private, independent ownership is dedicated to serving our coverage area and delivering a product you can be proud to receive WELL into the future.
In all seriousness, we wish the staff there all the best. We’ve exchanged plenty of emails with them over the years as occasionally a customer would email the “wrong” Community Press by mistake. This was something both parties shared amusement in, creating a little bond between us.
Eric Anderson
