Grassland News Group has purchased The Quad Town Forum, a Saskatchewan community newspaper, from owners Brad and Tracey Brown. The first edition under the new ownership structure was issued on Oct 1.
Grasslands News also publishes several community weeklies in the area, including: the Fort Qu’Appelle Times, Indian Head/Wolseley News, Kipling Clipper, Melville Advance and Whitewood/Grenfell Herald Sun.
Chris Ashfield, head of Grasslands, said there is a resurgence taking place in traditional media in Canada and the U.S., particularly for local community newspapers.
“Advertisers have also recognized that while they see there is a need for them to be on social media, they are also seeing social media is the bare minimum that they can use when it comes to reaching people,” he said.
“If they want to grow or be competitive, they can’t just rely on social media. That can only be a small part of their campaign. That’s why we are seeing businesses coming back to traditional media such as the community newspapers. Community newspapers remain as important and relevant today as they always have been. In many cases, they are the only record of history for many communities. Nowhere else, than in a newspaper, can you look back 10, 20, 50 or even 100 years and find out what was happening in a community.”
You can read more about some of the planned changes ahead here.
