Editorial

Love the Bulletin?

Last year, the Bulletin asked for help to get through the fall. 

The idea was a ‘symbolic subscription’ drive. Readers were invited to buy a symbolic subscription, yet continue receiving the paper in their PubliSac as usual. This was a way for readers to register their support financially, at the cost of a usual subscription, all the while not changing the financial burden of the paper by adding new delivery and printing costs. 

The response helped the paper pay urgent bills and continue publishing – and we are not making this request again this year! The Bulletin team thanks Aylmer for your support, and we know, from the experience last year, that readers are there to help when needed.

Now it is the team over at LeDroit and the rest of the Groupe Capitales Média newspapers that need help. It comes to no one’s surprise that newspapers are walking a fine line, with over two hundred Canadian newspapers having closed in 2018. Since the bankruptcy protection announcement by Groupe Capitales Média, August 19, a flurry of ideas are circulating about how Quebec and how Canada can ensure a viable journalism profession. 

Everyone points to government and private ads going to the big social media corporations outside of Canada. The lost advertising dollars, and lost   taxes on those ads are devastating to Canada. And worse, access to real information for Canadians has plummeted. Big social media outlets re-share original news content from newspapers at no profit to the newspapers or journalists. That’s content paid for and produced by small and larger outlets such as the Groupe Capitales Médias publications and five weekly newspapers in West Quebec (The Low Down to Hull and Back News, The West Quebec Post, The Shawville Equity, The Pontiac Journal and the Bulletin d’Aylmer). 

What can anyone reading the Bulletin do about all this? Use your voice and your dollars, is the easiest answer. Buy with advertisers! Mention to advertisers that you saw their ad in the paper, or that you read an interesting article in the Bulletin. 

The federal election campaign is a gift to the newspaper industry. It is the time to talk shop, talk policy and impart to candidates what is important for Aylmer. Help to journalism in Canada from the federal government has been a big topic for publishers. Questions to ask candidates include: Will they push for continued and even improved support to newspaper publishers? Will they insist their government ministries advertise in minority language newspapers? Will they ask for the social media giants to pay tax on the ads they book? Will their government put teeth behind a modernized Official Languages Act? Will tax exemptions for newspapers be more inclusive for the small newspapers across the country?

And the list goes on. Isn’t it wonderful that there are so many ways for both readers, and federal leaders to help places like Aylmer have a vibrant local newspaper?