|
My wife and I were walking down the crowded streets of Gimli on a recent Sunday afternoon, the annual antique car show all around us, when it hit me.
No, not one of the vintage vehicles, thankfully. And I’m not even referring to the hundreds/thousands/millions/trillions of fish flies which were in the air, although I did take plenty of those to the face.
No, I’m talking about the realization it was exactly 30 years ago that I was enjoying one of the best summers of my life in that very beachside town.
Advertisement
I was 19, fresh off finishing my first year of Creative Communications studies at Red River college. I was staying in a lovely cottage at nearby Winnipeg Beach, courtesy of some family friends who weren’t going to be using it due to some health-related issues. And I was learning on the fly at my first journalism job, a nine-week placement at the Interlake Spectator newspaper under the tutelage of the great Roger Newman.
What a blast that was, a two-month stint that truly ignited a passion for print which carried over into my second and final year of school, which was followed by immediate full-time employment at the Winnipeg Sun (1995-1997) followed by my shift to the Free Press in 1997.
And what a learning experience, too, as I covered everything from town council meetings and police blotters to festivals and regattas.
I take this little trip down memory lane today because another thing struck me that day in Gimli. You can file this under “not exactly breaking news,” but boy have times changed.
The building that once housed the little weekly newspaper that I’d say punched well above its weight has long been sold, with the Spectator officially going dark in 2020.
It’s a sad sign of the times in my industry, with so many papers (small and big) now a thing of the past, and so many valuable learning opportunities for young journalists gone as well.
I recognize how fortunate I am to still be standing, and at one of the finest media outlets in the country, to boot. Not unlike the way the Spectator viewed the community at the time, we at the Free Press have always made a concerted effort to cover our (much larger) community like a blanket. In some ways, that feels more important than ever.
In the sports department, where I’ve been since 2016, that means going beyond simply covering the dynamic big-league duo – the Jets and Blue Bombers – to give important time and space to athletes and events which would otherwise largely be ignored.
A few recent examples:
• There I was yesterday at Selkirk Golf & Country club, watching Rhonda Orr win an incredible ninth straight women’s Senior Championship and chatting up a tearful Brad Moore after he’d just held off the great Todd Fanning to win his first. There was no other local media there covering it, but I’m sure glad we were.
• Same goes for last week as Braxton Kuntz made provincial sports history in winning the Manitoba Amateur for a fourth straight time. These tournaments are steeped in history and a part of our local sporting DNA. They deserve our attention.
• We have feet on the ground in Paris, with colleague Danielle Da Silva doing a wonderful job documenting the seven Manitoba athletes currently competing in the Summer Olympics. Their stories are worth telling, and I’ve loved reading every word coming out of France.
• In the past week alone our (holiday-depleted) sports team has attended the Manitoba Sports Hall of Fame induction announcement, the Manitoba Junior Baseball League championship, Baseball Manitoba provincials, Winnipeg Goldeyes games and Winnipeg Sea Bears games. We’ve also had pieces on university athletics, a talented teen golfer, a championship youth ball hockey team, a 63-year-old runner, Valour FC…the list goes on (find links to even more sports coverage below!).
In addition to this kind of daily coverage, colleague Ken Wiebe has been plugging away at an incredible feature that truly is a treat for local sports fans. Watch for it this weekend.
By my count, 35 bylined sports pieces generated by our team have appeared in our paper over the last seven days alone. So much for the dog days of summer. The overwhelming majority of those are stories you won’t find anywhere else. Not anymore.
Here’s the thing: Much of what I just described above doesn’t/won’t do monster traffic when it comes to clicks and views online, and there’s no way to measure how much it resonates with folks reading it the old-fashioned way.
However, it’s important to ensure we’re not only giving attention to proven needle-movers like the Jets and Bombers, but as much else as humanly possible as well.
To be clear, we cover the NHL and CFL clubs extensively, daily, and, for approximately half the time, exclusively as well. Rather than just taking in home games and practices along with other local media, we’re also on the road for the other 50 per cent of the seasons.
Add it all up and it’s a significant investment of resources, but one that is both worthwhile and valuable. (This approach, it should be noted, extends well beyond sports into other key areas such as news, business and entertainment).
What’s the alternative? That recent stroll past the former Spectator building, with a big community event in full swing that would have been covered extensively by local writers in the past and now wasn’t going to get a lick of ink, was an eye-opener for yours truly.
Which brings me to you, dear reader, and a heartfelt thank-you for continuing to support the journalism we presently do at the Free Press.
Here’s hoping the community we’ve built together continues well into the future.
|
