Back in the day, advertisers would pay for a spot in the weekly newspaper. But we live in a digital era now. Almost everything is online, including the news.
This means fewer people are sitting down with their morning coffee to read the local newspaper.
With the internet in the palm of their hands, people can access the news on the toilet, in a waiting room, or even on a plane.
But advertisers are animals driven by instinct. If a watering hole dries up, they move to a different location.
Newspaper readers were the ones keeping the watering hole filled. With more people getting their news online, this watering hole is now almost bone dry.
This makes digital news an oasis for thirsty advertisers. This is terrible news for newspaper publications, pun intended.
Fewer advertisers means less money. Money keeps the lights on. If a publication can’t do that, then it either has to shut down or merge with another newspaper publisher.
Newspapers publications that have survived are now fighting a losing battle against tech giants like Google and Facebook.
These companies are the biggest players in the digital news space. Nine major daily newspapers have already stopped printing and delivering their papers because of digital news.
Many of them include Alberta’s most popular newspapers like the Calgary Herald, Calgary Sun, Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, and The Province.
Possibly more important, though, are the small community papers. They cover the kinds of events and local politics that aren’t sexy enough to make the provincial news, but they’re so important to life in a smaller place.
These are papers like The Weekly Anchor in Yellowhead County. The Hinton Voice. The Drayton Valley and District Free Press. They’re still alive and kicking.
But papers like The Grande Cache Mountaineer didn’t fare so well. And it’s not as if we don’t need The Grande Cache Mountaineer. It’s just such a heroic effort to keep these small publications going.
As more of these newspapers struggle and shut down, the history written on their pages goes with them.
The countless stories of community captured in their pages are so easily lost.
