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Home My WebLink AboutThe Lucknow Sentinel, 1980-09-03, Page 6ENTINEL "The Sepoy" Town?' On the liOron-Brace Boundary Established 1873 tiablistied-Wednisday •'$ SHARON ,I, DIETZ - Editor. ANTHONY N. JOHNS1'ONE - Advertising and General.. Manager .1),VINGSTDN,-. Office Manager MERLE ELLIOTT Typesetter MARY McMURRAY - Ad, Composition C3 ,vimow Sentinel September 3 -1980 T • A UrrOW eitk _ Business and Editorial Office Telephone•528-2822 Mailing' Address P.O. Box '400, LucknoW, NOG 2H0 Second class mail registration number -0847 Subscription rate, $12 per year In 'advance Senior. Citizens rate, S10 per year. in advance U.S.A„ and Foreign, $21.S0 per year In advance Sr. Cit. U.S.N. and Foreign, $19,50 per year hi advance '.4F•41.6.. • • sad-..passing: Daily newspaper competition is healthy, and in fact necessary, as a .safeguard in preserving objective editorial content and , .reasonable advertising rates, But' last week, two daily newspaper, publishers, who own newspaper chains in this, country, decided to work in concert to eliminate each other's competition in two cities. Thomson Newspapers 'Ltd. an- nounced it was closing the Ottawa,. Journal and Southarn Inc. folded the Winnipeg Tribune. This leaves the Ottavva Citizen owned by Southarn and Thomson's Winni- peg Free Press Without competition in the two cities. Only Calgary;---Edmonton, Toronto and St. John's, Nflil-are left with daily English language newspaperS pub- lished by opposing interests. - The competition between the two pub: lishers began only seven months ago when Thomson-acquired control of FP Publica- tions Ltd. And the Tribune and Journal are not the first. In the past year, four major dailies have ceased publication - the. Montreal Star, the Calgary Albertan, and 'the twot shut down last ivea— It's alarming to say the least, when two publishers who are only interested in their , financial interests, get together to carve up the 'country. Neither of the companies expressed any anguish about the loss of service to their readers and advertisers, Only the cries of heavy financial loss: They do not care about what is in their news, papers for their readers; only what is in them for their own financial gain. Aninvestigation is being launched by the federal combines investigation branch of the federal cabinet's priorities and planning committee to discover 'Whether there was any criminal activity in the closings. Minister of state for multicul- turalism, Jim Fleming said the investiga- tion will, probe whether the two newspap- er chains_acted irresponsibly and whether their actions in eliminating. competition is - not in the public interest. The committee Will also-seek to determine whether the federal competition laws need readjusting to prevent 'any possible similar merger-?: closing deals. The investigation will , alio_ look at whether - the national trend to one-newspaper, no-competition communit- ies can be reversed, And indeed, an investigation is neces- sary. Competition stimulates diversity and diversity is valuable in a free press. "The more separate voices we have Melling us what's going on, telling us how. we're doing, the more effectively we can govern ,ourselVes" _reported the. Special Senate Committee on the Mass Media which studied media concentration ,more than a decade ago. • Their report added: "The big trouble is.Tithat-ithappens tote hi flat della-tree Of economics." A newspaper is more. than economics. It is people, ideas, diversity and a commun- ity. We must start thinking of the news as a public resource, as suggested by the senate report. It warned that it is possible, although not inevitable, that media concen- tration could lead to a situation in which the news could be manipulated' by a Small group of individuals or corporations. The lack of competition will mean a great loss to readers. Competition creates challenge and prevents a lazy attitude. Readers will cease to be' provoked, excited or okillenged-- by- What they read in, the daily newspaper now that the competition-1 is gone. While many ,Canadians get their news frOm radio and television, these media Cannot provide the in depth research and background detail provided--by.the - print media. NeWspapers remain the backbone Of Canadian journalism. It is sad when a newspaper closes. "A little bit of the- lifeblood of a community dies when a newspaper dieS," commented the-minister of multiculturalism. If the trend is' permitted to continue, we will all he the losers. 4Ie ACV. Altd tryBw, TIOilei Eid.W., Rd 11,1,910t 6,313 It certainly takes a lot of money to banks and trust companies $31,000 in get into — and remain in —farming interest charges, IntOreSt, of course, these days is a big factor in beef' farming 4,$.0m0;:astounding fignres-eanie.gnit ._because_ the farTner_rieAcia_a_lat-of.., :.of recent studyby, a couple of money to buy replaCement stock and. University of Guelph people, the 34th the banks have to carry him until his annual revert compiled on farm crop is mature and sold: management , -Ontario.* The But:it was the hog farmers in the • statistics '-were drawn froni Can- survey who took the biggest beating. farm, 2 ,cornputeriiecl record: 3 Although only 10 were in'the survey; ir2n!760.4Aindicp.tiri of yvbat.is ' 0.s dairy MOS came happendig inThe-hiig business'. They off• looking better . than most other - showed an aVerage net loss of: More sectors of the farming community. than $9,800 in labor and, no return on. What strikes me as .the most, investment although. they had an -significant fact is how much it costs average of $220,600 in assets. to be a farmer! Only seven farmers were included Of 123 dairy farms -- and the in the cash-crop survey. They had an compilers readily admit that the average gross income of $164,324 saMpling comes from above . and expenses of $145,887 for a net average farms average assets income of $18,437 ,and a return on totalled $423,700- Now, that 'is one their investment of 3.63„ eh? local businessmen have that much per cent. . tremendous investment. Bow many Not much of areturn, It just goes to show that farming a precarious industry, Most of those money invested.in their businesses? The investments included $225,800 in the survey could have made More, for land and buildings, $90,500 in actual cash by investing in hundreds machinery and equipment, 'almost of other areas even in these $70,909 in livestock and more than recession days. $20,000 in feed, crops and SuPplies. Farmers are a hardy lot; They are' Liabilities averaged almost fiercely independent. They .are',on $95,000. Which, is quite a sizeable the land, most of them, because they debt to worry about. Those farmers, love it and, not for the big bucks they though, had an average. income of 'make. $31,833 which • sounds great to . Granted, the survey: includes only somebody making less than $15,060 a a small portion of farmers:and some year. But how many people have an of the., figures .may be,. a little investment of more than $423,000? misleading becauSe of the small The net-incarne reflects-a return— - samPle .taken, But they:are certainly-. on the investment of only 6.07' per cloSe enough to 'prOve that, farmers cent. If the farmer could liquidate; are not living off the fat of the land; he would make more money by just Sortie urbanites have the mistaken leaving his cash sitting in the bank. idea that farmers trip over subsidy It. really does not represent much of cheques every day: when they walk a return for all the hard work and to their rural mail boxes. City then s s,-- - ------------ , .dWellerS also-,seem -to think, that Beef feedlot farmers have a `farmers get every break in the books tougher picture. They had a groSs when it conies to income taxes. income of $540,898 with expenses and However, another survey taken a depreciation of more than $510,000, a couple of years ago indicated that net income of $37,188 and a return on small businessmen, especially their investment of 6.57 pern cent -retailers, get -far-better tax. breaks — However, the coming year will be than fariners. tough with replacement stocks Certainly, the figures prove to me costing more and not much of an that Canadians are fortunate to have increase in finished prices. - so many men, and women still Beef farming, too, is big'buSiness. willing to slug their hearts out on the The average operatOr sperit-$340,1160 farm to supply Canadians and some for cattle, more than $33,400 for feed, - other people across the .world with $15,000 on fertilizer and paid the enough food. First steps