Village Squire, 1976-06, Page 18THE UPSTARTS
New newspapers in 3 towns fight trend to
consolidation
HILDSPEISIMMT
HOMt'Y}WN PAPER
Cx, 156
Volume 2 ISS,,ie 21
y May
,'4 'aqe�
Complex costs tabled
52.000 taken at Windstar Hotel
shes
ittee
Seniors interestea
-,,,,,,11 • •
Another attempt le '' • ♦
II
Nelson St. Apa t' A. th f •
'.' s • • ;
# ♦ ♦ M i •• • 11 r R • •/= ° f f $
Request, t# ♦a+4•r••0/I .•t■ is ,,S/�+�►
•
rt* a w#/ • •0
#'! wall
-• •'t I.o
go if l •l , a " ! ,w
w
4
•
0•R
After more than a year of operation the Kincardine
Editor -publisher Eric Howald stresses local coverage
16, VILLAGE SQUIRE/ JUNE 1976
Independent seems firmly
..irrd
established.
For most people, the fiction of newspaper-
ing is more real than the reality. General
knowledge of the business is supplied, for the
.most part, by those old movies about intrepid
reporters who kept the bottle in the bottom
drawer of their desk, battled mean, crusty
city editors and prayed for a "scoop" to be
delivered their way.
There was more myth than fact in the
image, and with every passing day the myth
becomes larger and the fact smaller. The
scoop, for instance, is becoming less and Tess
frequent. For one thing, television and radio
can break news faster so newspapers have
adopted the role of doing indepth detailing of
stories. For another, the "scoop" was part of
the days when there was vicious competition
between newspapers. Today in most cities
and towns in North America, there is no
competition, or very little. The giant city of
New York has only three newspapers left out
of more than a dozen. Many smaller cities
have only one. In the small towns too, it is a
rarity for more than one newspaper to
survive. Half a century ago nearly every town
of more than 2000 population had two
newspapers. Their rivalry, usually based
more on strong political alliances than on
competition for news, was often intense. The
old newspaper files of a two -newspaper town
provide fascinating reading.
Gradually, however, as populations deelin-
ed and costs rose, the two -newspaper town
disappeared in this part of the country. Later
in the late 1960's and early 1970's the
consolidation trend continued as small chains
of newspapers were set up to make best use
of expensive new equipment.
But surprisingly there was a sudden turn in
the middle of this decade, at least in this part
of the country. Last year in three towns in
Western Ontario rebellious second newspap-
ers started up. The results have been
interesting.
The tradition of one newspaper in a town is
well established to the point where there can
be hard feelings when a second newspaper ,
comes along. Competition can spur that kind
of feeling in any business, but there's a
difference. If you run a shoe store and don't
get along with your competitor you're
unlikely to have to confront him very often, at
least not in the course of business. In
newspapers, where there are meetings to be
covered, pictures to be taken, you're rubbing
shoulders with the opposition quite often.
Getting along with the opposition may be
necessary, however, because it begins to look
like the towns involved may have two