Earlier this month, The Equity, a community newspaper based in Shawville, QC, celebrated its 140th anniversary.
The first issue of The Equity was published on June 7, 1883. To celebrate the anniversary, staff at the newspaper assembled a special 140th anniversary supplement which chronicles some of the changes in terms of where, how and by whom the newspaper has been put together over the years.
Said an editorial that accompanied the special supplement:
“As with anything that has been around for longer than we can remember, it is easy to take a newspaper for granted. To assume it will continue to be there in your mailbox each week, linger on your kitchen table until the next one shows up, and be part of your life indefinitely into the future. But it would be foolhardy not to take heed of what has become the fate of hundreds of newspapers, large and small, across North America within recent years.
Ask any community that has lost its paper. You’re likely to hear something akin to the Joni Mitchell refrain, that you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone.
Yet, somehow, we are still here. This has had something to do with the succession of people producing this paper, come hail and high water, over the past 14 decades. But it has had everything to do with you, the people who believe in it, who read it, who subscribe to it. People who advertise everything from a cord of wood for sale to a special on at the store. Who share the paper with friends and neighbours, who write letters to the editor whether to compliment or complain, who stop by our booth at the Fair to say you love to read THE EQUITY.
This is what keeps it going. And it is all that is needed to keep it going for as long as you want. As long as you continue to invest in your local paper, it will continue to reflect your community in its pages.”
