Small-town community papers take big hit after Metroland files for bankruptcy

Some eastern Ontario residents have been left with fewer ways to consume the news after Metroland Media Group announced it was ending print publications of community newspapers across the province.

On Friday, the Toronto Star's sister company announced it had sought bankruptcy protection and was laying off 600 people, including 68 journalists.

Metroland said 70 of its community papers would now only publish online, with only six maintaining print editions: the Hamilton Spectator, the Peterborough Examiner, the St. Catharines Standard, the Niagara Falls Review, the Welland Tribune and the Waterloo Region Record.

In the Ottawa area, community papers that will no longer have physical publications include the Kemptville Advance, the Renfrew Mercury, and the Perth Courier.

Those local papers are among the country's oldest. The Metroland website for the Perth Courier, for example, lists its first publication date as 1834.

• Toronto Star owner cutting 600 jobs at regional papers, seeking bankruptcy protection for unit
• The Glengarry News closes its doors after 130 years 

Another blow to local news came earlier this week when the independent Glengarry News printed its last edition on Wednesday after over 130 years.

The local paper, which is not published by Metroland, was delivered to residents across eastern Ontario, including Anne Thevenot, who lives in Alexandria, Ont.

"We had no idea," she said. "Like, just shock."

It's about access

Unlike the Metroland papers, the Glengarry News is also ceasing its online publication.

Thevenot got the paper in her mailbox every week. It kept her in the know about what's happening in the townships of North and South Glengarry, she said, as well as all the villages.

Internet access is often spotty or completely lacking in rural communities like Alexandria, she said, making the general online shift a real problem for older residents.

"It's a big deal, I think," Thevenot said. "Seniors, you know, a lot of them, they don't look at Facebook, they don't have the internet. They're not connected."

For Judy Brown, the mayor of Perth, Ont., the loss of her local print newspaper isn't that big of a blow.

"So much of our world is digital now," said Brown, who worked at a pair of local papers — including the Perth Courier — before getting into politics.

Brown says her concern about going online only is the lack of local connection.

"I found as it played out over the years, they don't have the same local focus, local presence as the print papers," Brown said. "The reporters were local [before]. It's just not the same."

From a journalistic perspective, the overall loss of these weeklies isn't as dire as it seems, said Dwayne Winseck, a professor at Carleton University's school of journalism and communication and the director of the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project.

"How many of these weekly newspapers are putting out strong publications with the big news in them?" Winseck said.

"I don't think that they've been really substantial papers ever."

They often share community events and spotlight pieces, he said, which are now largely posted on online social media platforms like Facebook.

"We are not losing 70 major newspapers across the country," Winseck said. "We're losing a whole bunch of weeklies [that are] going to go to digital-only platforms."

Metroland is likely axing the weekly print publications so it can concentrate on the remaining six core newspapers, he added.