Proudly serving our communities since 1884
October 4, 2023, 9:20 am
Kevin Weedmark
If you pay close attention to the little numbers on the top of the front page, you will notice this week’s issue of the World-Spectator is Volume 140, Number 1. We are starting our 140th year of serving our communities, since the first issue of Moosomin’s newspaper was published on October 2, 1884.
We still have, in our office, the printing plate for the front page of Volume 1, Number 1 of Moosomin’s newspaper from October 2, 1884, and the printing plate from the first issue from the daily edition that came out during the Northwest Rebellion in 1885.
We have covered a lot of news in that time. Early newspapers are full of reports of new immigrants coming from around the world to our little corner of the world.
During the 1900s and 1910s there were two competing newspapers, the conservative World and the liberal Spectator (Have you ever wondered why the World is blue and the Spectator is red in our logo? Well, now you know!)
There was a little bit of bias that showed through the reporting in those days. I remember reading one article in the World that reported on an election forum with the Conservative and Liberal candidates. The article went on at length about everything the Conservative candidate said, and then reported “The Liberal candidate also spoke, but said nothing of note.”
During the First World War the pages of the newspaper were full of reports of local soldiers heading to the front, being injured, and becoming casualties of war.
During the 1920s the papers were large and packed with ads and news, during the 1930s you could see the impact of the Great Depression both in the way the paper shrank and the fact that the publisher was willing to take eggs and chickens in trade for subscriptions.
During the Second World War the pages were again full of reports from the front and reports of soldiers returning with an injury, or not returning at all.
In the 1950s and 1960s there were a lot of stories about growth and development, and in the late 1960s the paper was filled with articles about the development of potash as the Esterhazy and Rocanville potash mines were first developed.
Through the 1970s and 1980s there were stories about massive changes in rural communities and the closure of schools and hospitals in smaller communities, then in the last 20 years, there have been a lot of articles about the changing face of our rural communities both as major new developments like potash expansions have helped our communities develop and grow, and as immigration has changed the face of our rural communities.
We have been happy to be there to report on the good times and the bad times, the expansions and the contractions, the births and the deaths, the local issues and the national issues that affect local people.
But the World-Spectator has always been something other than a typical local newspaper. During the Northwest Rebellion in 1885, one of the original partners headed off to the frontlines in the Northwest Rebellion to report from there.
And more than a hundred years later, I have had the opportunity to report on Canadian development projects in Afghanistan, the Philippines, and Vietnam, and we have sent reporters to Mozambique and Kenya to report on Canadian Food-grains Bank projects, so local farmers who support Foodgrains Bank projects can see where their donations make a difference.
And our reporting makes a difference. We have seen that in case after case. In the spring, we were at an event in Wawota where we learned that newcomers from Ukraine were being charged international student fees by Saskatchewan’s universities rather than the lower tuition for Canadians.
Three days after talking to a young woman named Viktoriia who wanted to study dentistry at the U of S but couldn’t because of the international fees, we were speaking with the provincial minister of advanced education, who promised to find a solution quickly.
Two weeks later, we and Viktoriia were at the Legislature in Regina as the minister announced a new program that would allow Viktoriia and others like her to pay Canadian tuition rates, making her dream of becoming a dentist possible.
Two weeks after that, Canada’s Prime Minister was addressing the Ukrainian Parliament, and used Viktoriia’s story as an example of Ukrainians being welcomed to Canada, and quoting from our story.
That was a small victory for the Ukrainian students, but we see that kind of impact from news stories both from our newspaper and from newspapers across the country. From ensuring that my interpreter from Afghanistan and his family made it safely to Canada to covering the Santos family’s fight to stay in Canada, which was ultimately successful, to getting the provincial government’s attention on the need for a CT scanner for our region, we fight for our communities and our region.
There is one thing in our office even older than the first printing plate, and that is the prospectus used when first selling shares in the World-Spectator. “It will be a fixed policy, whatever political party may be in power, to have a regard only for the country and the minds of its inhabitants. In short, it will ever be ready to advocate for the cause of right and justice without fear or favor.” A high-minded goal that we try to live up to.
And while living up to those goals we continue to grow a successful business. While some media outlets complain about a business model that doesn’t work, our business is bigger than ever and continues to grow. In the 1920s, people said radio would put newspapers out of business. In the 1950s people said television would put newspapers out of business. Thirty years ago people said the internet would put newspapers out of business. Ten years ago they said facebook would put newspapers out of business. But our little newspaper has gone through all of that, and has grown every year, and in recent years we started two new publications, Plain and Valley and Ag News that are also strong and growing.
The World-Spectator’s anniversary happens to coincide with National Newspaper Week.
To celebrate National Newspaper Week 2023, News Media Canada has launched an illustrated book, Champions, honouring notable people from the Canadian news media industry.
The Champions book is a collection of 24 inspirational stories featuring notable Canadians from the news media industry. Actually, there are 23 inspirational stories, plus one about me that somehow got in there.
The champions featured in the book (23 of them, anyway), are an integral part of what keeps our democracy thriving through vibrant, independent local news media. The book celebrates these individuals for their tremendous contributions to the industry, their communities and Canada at large.
Copies of the Champions book are available at championsofthetruth.ca. All proceeds from the sale of Champions will be donated to First Book Canada.
We try hard to serve our communities each and every week, and as we begin our 140th year, let us know how we’re doing and how we can serve you even better in future!
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