Jul 2000
LAND O'LAKES NewsWeb HomeContributors
History
Image Gallery
Municipal Government
On The Road
Contact Us
The Frontenac News Stays At HomeBy David BrisonThe North Frontenac News was born in the early 70's, out of the musings of five local residents who called themselves the Communications Group. The intention in those early days was to open up communication in the region, and in so doing, build better communities. The optimistic belief was that a consensus would develop from the clash of different viewpoints and, as a result, we would all be able to live in harmony. Marcel Giroux and Martin Walsh are two members of that original group who are still living in Sharbot Lake. Ron Gilbertson of Kingston is the only other original founder still living. Merv Rutherford and Don Morrow are both deceased. The News may have strayed from the heady course set out by its founders, but it has stayed at home for 29 years. Last week, the Board of the North Frontenac Community Services Corporation, chaired by Carmen Emery, decided that it was important that the paper continue to be owned and operated locally. In a gutsy move, they rejected an offer of more money from a publisher who operates a small chain of newspapers, and sold the paper to David Brison and Sara Carpenter who plan to maintain and nurture its local origins.
In the process of making their decision, the Board found out just how
much the paper means to the residents of the region. Board members were
deluged by phone calls from people who were concerned that the paper
would be sold to an outside publisher.
Lloyd Jones, a retired educator and author who now lives in Stirling, but was born in Crow Lake and has a cottage there, expressed the views of a number of residents in a letter to the Board: "The North Frontenac News, if sold to a chain, will probably lose all of its unique character, most of its local news and local viewpoint. There is a mountain of information available from other sources competing for readers' attention but the one thing they cannot provide is truly local information." Now that Sara Carpenter and I own The News, what do we plan to do? First, we will retain the local reporters' news of what is happening in their small communities. However, our first priority will be to add reporting of local events, profiles of people and businesses; and stories on municipal government. In other words, The News will have news and we will seek it out. We will cover all meetings of the North and Central Frontenac Councils. South Frontenac meetings are ably covered by Murray Hogben in the Whig-Standard). The Councils have had important responsibilities downloaded to them by the provincial government. They have been working hard in the face of a lot of grumbling from the public. However, they are operating in isolation. Municipal elections are coming up in the fall and we will cover them. The forthcoming Talk of the Townships section will be a place for comment on the important matters of local government. There will be more (and higher quality) pictures of people at work and play. A new section will be introduced called Life on Our Lakes. It will highlight the contributions of summer residents to the community. We believe that there is much to be proud of in our communities - and we would like to tell the world about it. Over time, we will seek out many of the "good news" stories in our region and share them with our readers. Readers should check out a new weekly column called Did You Know? for some of these "good news" stories. The News has a loyal group of advertisers. We will be in touch with them in the next few weeks. The goal will be to increase advertising so that we can regularly have 16-page papers and be able to have even more local content. The Frontenac News will work along with an online Internet paper, The Land O'Lakes NewsWeb, created by Jim MacPherson and myself in November of 1999. Sara Carpenter is an Internet developer and she will work on the links between The News and the NewsWeb. Ever since its inception, The News has been supported by the North Frontenac Community Services Corporation. Sara and I plan to take the paper into another not-for-profit corporation -- the newly formed Land O'Lakes Communications Network (LOLCN). The LOLCN, chaired by Joyce Bigelow and coordinated by Jim MacPherson, has a mandate to promote, encourage, coordinate and stimulate communication. Marcel Giroux was part of the original Communications Group and he is also a member of the LOLCN Board. Marcel thinks that the LOLCN is a good place for the paper to be in year 2000. "The paper will still be under the control of the community, and in addition can become part of new government initiatives in communications technology." Our hope is that we can create a new paper for a new millennium - a paper that has its roots firmly in the community.
