Comment
Chipping away at transparency
The Wellington Times turns 20 next month. It also marks seven years since my wife Kathleen and I have owned and operated this newspaper in this wonderful community.
One of the most rewarding and truly unexpected aspects of being part of such a public enterprise is the encouragement we get daily and weekly from you, our readers. You have also been quick to nudge us when we have been seen to stray. But scarcely a day goes by that someone doesn’t stop one of us on the street or in a store or an arena to tell us how much they appreciate The Times and what it means to their lives. In this respect it is, by far, the best job I have ever had.
I suspect publishing a community newspaper is much like being the pastor in a small town—one must never be confused that it is one’s own church. The Times doesn’t belong to me— it is your newspaper and we put it together each week knowing it belongs to you, our readers. Our job is to serve you— with the latest news, insight and background information that we can find or uncover.
But now we need your help. The Times is under attack. When Sophiasburgh Councillor Kevin Gale was reelected last fall he vowed he would see municipal advertising taken away from The Times.
Kevin Gale doesn’t like The Times. He prefers a time when local newspapers printed news releases and statements rather than asked questions or attended committee meetings. Our newspaper didn’t support him in the last election and now he is looking for revenge.
Under the guise of seeking cost savings—Gale slipped a request to review municipal advertising into the agenda of last Tuesday’s budget deliberations. He has asked staff to prepare a report to look at limiting municipal advertising to just one newspaper. He will to try to disqualify newspapers unless they are distributed to every household. The Times doesn’t do that. Nor will we.
We don’t throw our newspaper at the end of your driveway— to get piled up in the snow and the muck. Everyone who wants a copy of The Times must go and retrieve a copy from one of our nearly 50 newsboxes and many more retail locations across this County, from Black River to Carrying Place, and every place in between. Our newspaper gets handed around among family and friends and gets read over and over again.
It is a distinction both our advertisers and readers respect. We don’t print more than our readers want. Have you ever considered how many driveway newspapers end up going directly to the recycling box—never opened? How many trees were wasted in this way? How many plastic bags end up in the landfill or on our shores?
Gale will likely also try to convince council that The Times isn’t a County newspaper because “Wellington” is in our name. But had Gale been in a town hall meeting last week in Ameliasburgh he would have learned that folks in that community and in every corner of the County, and particularly those interested in local affairs and municipal business, turn to The Times each week for a window into the workings of local government.
More to the point—the only paper that has the word “County” in its name belongs to chain of newspapers, each indistinguishable from the other, owned by Montreal based media conglomerate Quebecor. Acorporation so insensitive to this community it fired its editor last fall as a cost-cutting measure—its editorials now supplied by syndicated columnists from who knows where. Management jobs, production jobs, printing jobs and editorial jobs have all been shipped out of the County and are no longer done locally.
Some will tell you this is the future of community newspapers. They are wrong.
A community newspaper must have a strong relationship with its readers—it can’t be managed by remote control from a head office interested only in adverstising dollars. Nor should it be beholden to council or the municipal administration. The success of The Times and the dramatic growth in our readership is but one bit of evidence that the future for a true community paper remains strong.
And at the end of the day, only one newspaper in the County is owned and operated by folks who live and raise their families here. That is The Times.
But Kevin Gale doesn’t like what we write. He doesn’t seem to like County business conducted out in the open. Perhaps he preferred it when the council operated more like a private club—making decisions on our behalf without the scrutiny.
He belongs to an era of politicians who believe democracy arrives only once every four years—at all other times the people who elect them should keep their noses out of municipal decision-making.
The Times changed all that. We did not accept the pat answers or the less-than-polite demands that we stop asking questions and challenging decisions with which we disagree. We helped bring you into the County’s business—explaining, illustrating and reporting the choices and policies being made on your behalf. And you responded with enthusiasm and encouragement. We now enjoy a very lively public debate on a wide variety of issues that have a direct impact on our daily lives.
For this we have been rewarded by an ever-expanding readership that now reaches well beyond the borders of the County. The sum of local municipal advertising dollars to Quebecor is small potatoes—but to a small, community-based newspaper like The Times the loss of this advertising revenue would certainly impair our ability to thrive.
A plan to favour one chain newspaper would damage two others including The Times. It would, more importantly, move council toward less transparency and accountibility to its electorate. Gale is using his elected seat to forward a personal grudge. It is yet another example of how he misunderstands his role and duties as a public representative.
Don’t let him get away with it.
rick@wellingtontimes.ca
When I first arrived in the County, almost 20 years ago, the only local paper I knew was the Picton Gazette. There was a midweek issue you had to pay $1.50 for and a “free” weekend addition delivered with lots and lots of flyers. I rarely bought the paid for issue – got most of the news (and the best gossip) through the staff (born in the County) who worked for my husband’s retail business in Picton. Then came the County Weekly News – free and actually had news, not just ads. That changed the way the Gazette did business. I am not sure when I became aware of the Wellington Times, but always had a hard time getting my hands on one. Once they installed their box beside Bloomfield Post Office, rarely a week went by that I get didn’t get my copy by Thursday. Rick could probably print more and still there would be people who can’t find one.
If they cut advertising to one paper – it should be done to all.
I don’t even bother to read the CWN anymore – other than one reporter who writes all the articles about council and another who writes about the local sports, they don’t report “the news”; it’s just magazine type articles – fuzzy feel good stuff. A few weeks back, an article by one of their new writers, was so full of vehemence, it turned me off the whole paper. It goes straight to the blue box now. During the winter, it usually ended up sopping wet or buried by the snow plow since they always dumped it at the end of the driveway – sometimes half way on the road – and they never tied the bag closed. Their online edition is the poorest of the 3 papers for delivering information.
The Gazette does a good job of their website and I usually read it on-line since I can often do that before the paper is delivered to my door. The lad that delivers the Gazette, takes the time to ride into my driveway, weather permitting, and actually places the paper in the front porch, and always ties the end closed if there is any precipitation and he is tossing it down the driveway. (He’s got a good arm too)
But the best read is always the Wellington Times. I noticed a while back that they were the only one of the 3 to print the letter to the public from the Provincial Energy Minister. I’m guessing that the other two didn’t bother because there was no money in it for them.
If council wishes to cut advertising down to one paper, I vote for the TImes!
And I for one, would be willing to pay for it to be delivered to my door.
Lori Smith
P. S. Rick – please use the lad that delivers the Gazette!
My friend Tony is I think, mistaken in his belief that “County” advertizing will be taken away from only the Wellington Times He would probably think that after having read your rant, Mr Editor/Publisher etc. Casting the blame for your imminent economic demise on one particular Councillor,
leads me to believe that you don’t understand Democracy. Unless procedures have changed at Shire Hall following the election of ” a smart new council” (your words, I think), it takes a MAJORITY of Council to pass a motion that is moved by one member, seconded by another member, discussed and
voted on.
Therefore I assume the MAJORIITY of those present saw fit to ask for a report on the possibility of advertizing in one weekly newspaper in an effort to save money for the taxpayers, which is the goal of this council,
Apparently saving taxpayer’s money is a good thing, unless it hits a little to close to home?.Hmmm.
To take away municipal advertising from one newapaper only is descriminatory. To do this as a personal vendetta against the Time is both reprehensible and unbecoming of the position of councillor. Mr. Gale must be reminded that he was elected to do the bidding of the majority of the County people, not use this position to grind personal axes. If he cannot accept this simple priciple,, then he would do us a favour by resigning..
The Times musr prevail because it is the only paper that gives us an insight into what is really going on in Shire Hall.