The Hub asked Jake Doherty, former publisher of The Owen Sound Sun Times, Kingston Whig Standard and the Hamilton Spectator, about the changes in newspapers over his career. Here is Part 1 of his reply.
By John (Jake) Doherty
To be frank, my love affair with newspapers, particularly The Sun Times is over, well almost over. I'm still a subscriber as I still enjoy a high fiber fix with my morning coffee, but when I walk through now deserted press and composing rooms I am saddened that the production jobs have gone somewhere else and the newsroom has only a few reporters and editors.
The Sun Times, of course, is not alone as most newspapers have either shrunk or ceased publication as both readers and advertisers have drifted away to television and the internet. When I finished high school in 1954, total newspaper circulation across Canada equaled about 110 per cent of households across the nation. Many readers then wantedboth morning and afternoon editions. But 1954 was also the year when CBC TV went national and communications habits were radically changed, not all at once but Canada's newspaper readership began to shift away. Now many, if not most of us, access news on newspapers' own electronic versions. Just this week, La Presse of Montreal announced it would offer only one print edition, its big Saturday paper,
To be fair, I think the Sun Times has been much improved since Post Media in Ottawa has taken over, putting aside the knee-jerk subservience to the far right demands of its previous owner, Sun Media. I was beginning to sense that the Conrad Blacks of the world were interpreting our Bill of Rights to suit themselves, that "those who owned the press owned the freedom."
When I was publisher of The Spec, Mr. Black in many ways was my ultimate boss and took me to task for not supporting Mike Harris and The Conservative Provincial Government in the 1995 provincial election. I knew there were mine fields when Black's Hollinger took control. In consultation with our editorial page editor, I decided, prudently I thought, not to endorse any party. That ploy didn't work as several months I later I was fired and my late wife and I eventually chose to retire back to the Owen Sound. I quickly became a Liberal and Mr. Black went to prison in Florida but that of course is another story which might suggest there is still redemptive social justice. And no, I did not buy his latest book. This may be churlish on my part, but I did not attend his recent lecture at the Meaford Library. I am a mystery writer myself now and very much in control of my own plots and sense of right and wrong.
My own fascination with newspapers began very early in life when I was responsible for bringing the Saint John Evening Times Globe in from our entry. There it was in its glory, eight columns wide then and I could follow World War II before I could even hold the paper aloft sitting in a chair. Instead, I spread it out on our living room rug with my nose following the war maps on its pages. Yes, Yes, of course, I had a nose for news from the start. Bad pun. Quite soon though, I graduated to the Hardy Boys mysteries from the small library in our church basement. (Part Two tomorrow.)<
