'A community loses its voice': What the shuttering of the Times-Herald could mean for Moose Jaw

When the Moose Jaw Times-Herald prints its final issue next month, people in the Saskatchewan city will be losing more than their city'spaperthey'll be losing a crucial democratic service, says Steve Nixon.

"Having people focus on a particular community and watching the store, so to speak, keeping an eye on the elected officials, things like thatI always think it's quite dangerous when you lose that capacity," said Nixon, who is the executive director of the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspaper Association.

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Star News Publishing Inc., the company that owns the city's only daily newspaper, announced earlier this week that after more than a century of publishing,the Moose Jaw Times-Herald will printits last issue on Dec. 7.

Of the many weekly papers affiliated with the SWNA,Nixon says some are doing better than others but many arefacing pressure from the drying up of main streets in smaller communities.

Though the world of print media has taken a beating, Nixon feels the printed daily itself is far less important than what's on its pages.

"What's important is the journalism," said Nixon. "The medium it's printed on, or displayed on, is secondary."

Nixon said that a big concern for himis that many people in smaller communities can't access the news reliably onlineand will not be able to get their local news any other way.

"It could be where they're living, it could be age based, and I think that's a problem," said Nixon."It's always sad when a community loses its voice."

He pointed to the provincial government making announcements on social media Premier Brad Wall's retirement announcement, for example, which was made on Facebook and said thatdenies people who rely on non-digital mediaaccess to the news.

He worries about the effect the growing trend of politicians using social media to make announcements could have on citizens in the province.

Nixon says that approach can be seen as an attempt to be fiscally responsiblesomething he agrees with. What he does not agree with is "sacrificing information to the general public," he said.

The future of print journalism

University of Regina school of journalismprofessor Mitch Diamantopoulosfeels that people have taken journalism for granted for some time, and hopes thatthe shuttering of another paper will make people reassesstheir views on journalism.

"We've heard this incessantparade of announcements of cuts. The industry has been dying a death of a thousand cuts and we've become numb, the public has become numb," saidDiamantopoulos.

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He said that the decline of journalismis a public issue and should be treated as such, going so far as to say that news media should be treated as a public utility.Reportingon civic, provincial and federal politicsis a crucial elementof a local paper, he said.

"It's becomeclichto talk about how the business model of journalism is broken, but the policy model is also broken. So we need to find new ways to reinvest in quality journalism," he said.

Diamantopoulospointed to models in other parts of the world, such as press subsidies in Scandinavian countries that assist publications. But within Canada he points to the origins of the CBC and the National Film Board, which came out of the Great Depression.

"There is a history in this country of communities pulling together to help improve our cultural sovereignty, to improve our democracyto build a better country," he said.

"Perhaps we need to change our gaze from radio and film, a half-century later, to looking at how that would work in this period of transition."

Diamantopoulosalsostated that the loss of newspaperscould affect the democratic ability of the city and its citizens, adding the presence of journalism in any community is to check on leaders and serve as a way to prevent important decisions being made behind closed doors.

"When you don't have journalists on the scene to hold the powerful to account, it's kind of giving a gift to the corrupt and the deceitful."