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Serving to Better-Connect Communities in New Brunswick’s Upper St. John River Valley Volume 1 Issue 1
RIVER VALLEY SUN February 15 to March 15, 2019
FREE ONLINE @ www.rivervalleysun.ca
CELEBRATING OUR DEEP NEWSPAPER ROOTS By Jim Dumville
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n an era of 24-hour cable news, corporateowned media empires, and ubiquitous social media, the role of locallyowned community newspapers is not as clear as it once was. In launching the River Valley Sun, I wanted to begin our journey by picking the brains of those who were at the heart of community newspapers during what was arguably the industry’s heyday in the second half of the 20th century. Five people who were at the forefront of the industry in the Upper St. John River Valley gathered at the L.P. Fisher Public Library in Woodstock on a cold January afternoon to reminisce about years gone by and share their unique expectations for the future. David Henley is a former owner of Henley Pub-
lishing, whose small chain of local papers included the Bugle in Woodstock. Don Calhoun is a former operations manager of the Bugle and began his career as a teenager in the press room. He eventually worked his way through the system to become a valuable righthand man to Henley in the operation of the paper. Carleton MLA Stewart Fairgrieve’s family owned and operated the Observer in Hartland for several decades. Woodstock’s Wayne McCallum worked for the former Woodstock Sentinel. He joined the paper right out of vocational school in 1945 and worked his way up to be an editor before it closed in the 1960s. Beth MacFarlane’s father, Jim Morrison, and her uncle, Bob Morrison, were media pioneers in
Woodstock, starting radio station CJ109 and the Bugle. All agreed the newspaper industry underwent remarkable journalistic and technological changes during their era, and not always for the better. After a career in national media, Henley ventured into community newspapers in 1976. “I ask why every day,” he joked, before explaining what brought him to Woodstock where he still resides. Henley said he started with the CBC in Halifax before moving to Toronto where he worked for several publications, including Time Magazine. A friend who owned community newspapers convinced him to get involved. “I picked Woodstock, which if I was going to do it, was a pretty good deci-
Passion for Print: (l to r) David Henley, Wayne McCallum, Don Calhoun, Beth MacFarlane, and Stewart Fairgrieve reminisce about the newspaper business. (Theresa Blackburn photo.)
sion,” Henley said. Calhoun was already working at the Bugle in 1976 when Henley bought the paper. “I went to work at the Bugle right out of high school in 1973,” he said. At the time, Calhoun said the paper’s main office was on Main Street, with the press room located down over the hill near the river. “They hired me to
catch papers off the press,” he said. “I think within three months they put me in charge of the press and it kind of took off from there.” Fairgrieve’s introduction to community news began as a child when his father Gordon purchased the Observer in 1966. He worked there with his dad before heading off to university. The paper’s roots date back to 1905.
Fairgrieve said he started full time with the paper after getting married in 1983 and remained until the paper was sold to a Dartmouth-based company in 2000. The company then sold it to Irvingowned Brunswick News Inc.(BNI) and soon after merged with the Bugle when BNI bought the paper from Henley in 2001. Continued on page 2
NEW NEWSPAPER, NEW VISION
INTRODUCING THE RIVER VALLEY SUN: LOCALLY FOCUSED, COMMUNITY DRIVEN By Theresa Blackburn
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RVS Managing Editor Jim Dumville (left) with publishers Stephen Chisholm and Theresa Blackburn. (Photo by Ashley Marie Photograpy.)
elcome to the River Valley Sun – an ultra-local community newspaper serving the Upper St. John River Valley. Our philosophy is simple: to connect communities and share interesting stories while providing a cost-effective communication platform for not-forprofit organizations. While the future of
traditional newspapers seems bleak, our future is bright because we take a non-traditional approach. The River Valley Sun is a free publication, in print and online. With few wanting to pay for information, and some unable to afford a newspaper subscription, the River Valley Sun’s business model fills our region’s information gap. Operating as a nonprofit, the River Valley
Sun will rely on our readers for stories, ideas, and event information. Our core focus is community, not our bottom line, and we believe this will be the key to our success. We get to see our dream become a reality because generous advertisers trust and support our vision. Providing non-profit organizations with an affordable fundraising tool is at the heart of the River
Valley Sun’s mandate. Eligible non-profits can use the paper as a fundraising tool, helping us sell ads that will accompany their campaign or event story. Half of all ad money collected for their page will be donated to the cause (minus the sales tax). The initiative is our way of saying thank you to the communities who continue to support our local publications. The pro-
motion also gives us the chance to directly help the neighbours and causes we care about. The River Valley Sun is passionate about reader engagement, providing a variety of viewpoints, and informing and connecting the wonderful people who live here. We love what we do, and we think it shows. Our motto is caring through sharing, because that’s what good neighbours do.
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