- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor

When we opened our office downtown, we were very excited to be in the heart of Owen Sound. We installed clocks for every municipality whose news was appearing on the Hub pages, and laughed when a few ran slow. There was lots more room than we needed, so in collaboration with our landlord, we opened a Community Incubator in the space, just to “see what hatches”.

In February 2020, B.C. (Before Covid) we had an open house with cookies and people came and brought their ideas. A small business, a French conversation group, a live music jam, a craft group and some AA meetings were in the house and on the calendar. In the short time we have been able to be open, we've had the privilege of sharing our office and Hub pages with a co-op student from OSDSS, and we're looking forward to another next fall.

One day I came in to the office and read on the blackboard

“It's our kind of news if the reader says:

Huh...neat

I never thought of it like that.

We should do something about that.

That's my town – good for them

How can I help?”

I've never erased it, because I want us to live up to it.

Our mandate is to help build community and work with our neighbours to find solutions to our mutual concerns. We celebrate, we champion, we question and investigate.
We amplify the voices of our community – with particular attention to those who too often are not even passed the mic.

We always welcome your letters and your research; your tips, corrections and content. With you, so much more is possible at the Hub.

In my imagination, the Hub office is buzzing – people dropping in to pitch ideas for stories, to show us their photographs and videos, dressing our windows with things our whole community should see. People work together on ways to attract the money to pay Hub staff what they are worth, and to pay others for their contributions. We have time to invest in real solutions journalism. We even host Hub Live events for the community to learn, share and celebrate.

With you, OwenSoundHub.org can grow into a real community newspaper, more than living up to the promise of those who created it– locally owned, locally written, locally read.