Paul Samyn

Free Press passes 150-year milestone with eye to future

On this day 150 years ago, in a rented shack on Main Street, a long run began with a rickety hand-turned press that had arrived via ox cart at the junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers.

Strengthening trust, credibility in complicated media landscape

For years, any correspondence I have with readers usually ends with the following line before my signature: I hope we continue to earn your trust.

That expression of hope is based on the recognition trust is our key asset, one that must never be taken for granted. The journalism we produce each day will either strengthen that asset or potentially put it at risk.

Since 1872, the Free Press has worked hard to build trust with readers and, as we mark our 150th anniversary, we’re pleased to announce a new initiative to strengthen such faith.

After an extensive independent review of our practices and standards, the Free Press has received certification from the Journalism Trust Initiative, a global effort led by Reporters Without Borders.

Free Press makes arts, culture coverage available free of charge; launches arts newsletter

Applause can mean many things.

It’s a way to show enjoyment and approval. At times, it can signify support. A round of applause can even be an expression of gratitude.

Unfortunately, the COVID-19 playbill meant the sound of applause that was a regular feature of our arts scene was silenced for far too long.

There were no performances, no concerts, no opening nights, no curtain calls, no red carpets. A shining part of our cultural fabric was forced to go dark.

Reader Bridge to Free Press future

There are many things a good newspaper needs to be.

A light that exposes injustice. A magnifying glass that brings into focus what otherwise might be missed. A signpost to help you navigate the way to events that matter to you.

A foundation that supports and strengthens the community through the power of its words and pictures. 

But these and other fundamental qualities of a newspaper we strive to deliver each and every day aren’t enough if the Free Press isn’t also a bridge.

Heartfelt thanks, and here’s to a better year

The New Year’s Eve party that ushered in my 2020 seems like a lifetime ago.

A neighbourhood collection of hockey parents crowded into a basement. Finger foods and drinks. Handshakes, hugs and kisses. At the stroke of midnight, we staggered out into the cold for a fireworks show that lit up the sky.

On that night, we had no idea what was silently headed our way, how our lives would be changed, disrupted and upended in ways we could never have imagined.

Exactly 365 days later, we now know all too well and all too painfully what this year has wrought. To say 2020 was a dumpster fire doesn’t even come close; at least dumpster fires can be extinguished.

An apology for marginalizing people of colour; and a promise to atone for our past

The St. James of my childhood was a largely monochromatic world.

Most of our neighbours were Caucasian, or more simply, white. So were my classmates. The same could be said for the subscribers on my Winnipeg Free Press paper route.

The area’s white member of Parliament, Dan McKenzie, made headlines by defending apartheid after a visit to South Africa in 1982 and suggesting Black people made natural car mechanics. Despite the controversy his remarks created, he was re-elected in 1984.

Six years later, I walked for the first time into the newsroom of the Free Press, a local institution which, like so many others in the city at the time, was also very white.

New Free Press additions to greet new year

Long before I joined the Winnipeg Free Press, one of my chores was taking care of the annual Samyn letter to our family and friends that needed to be mailed before the new year.

I would retreat to basement to hunker down over the typewriter — yes, I am dating myself with that reference, but at least ours was an electric one — and look for a way to make my mother’s random notes about the year more readable.

But as Free Press editor, what has become a year-end tradition of writing a note to you, our reader, is anything but a chore. It’s a chance for me to not only thank those who are increasingly funding our newsroom’s journalism, but also let them know what we have in store for the coming year.

So, without further ado, here are our resolutions to give you more reasons to read the Free Press in 2020:

A more inclusive newsroom, a wider perspective, a better reflection of our community

Stacked up in a back corner of our newsroom are some vintage photographs that remind us how far the Free Press has come from our early days.

Much like the newspaper of old, they paint a picture in black and white of who we were and the way things were as the city we have covered since 1872 began to grow into the Winnipeg we know today.

There are moustaches and bowler hats. Pocket watches and waistcoats. And lots of white men — but no women.

A lot has changed in our newsroom since E. Cora Hind found a way to get her foot in the door more than a century ago to become the first female journalist in Western Canada. But we haven’t come far enough. And we need to do much more to better reflect the city and province we serve.

Introducing the new faces of our newsroom

For those of you who pay attention to bylines, you’ve probably noticed a few new names in the Free Press lately.

And for an industry that has long been shedding reporting jobs, a media organization adding bylines is actually newsworthy.

So let’s get right to the latest news the Free Press is making by way of the newest face in our newsroom: Tom Brodbeck.

For decades, Tom has been a fixture on Manitoba's political scene, first as a legislative reporter for the Winnipeg Sun and then as the tabloid’s marquee columnist.

From the editor: Support our journalism and get a chance to see Obama

I have no idea what Barack Obama will say when he speaks in Winnipeg next month.

But I do know what he said in his farewell speech as U.S. president. Just days before Donald Trump’s inauguration accelerated the descent into the post-truth era and the rise of “alternative facts,” Obama issued a remarkably prescient warning about the threat the internet poses to democracy.

Obama was worried about the viral nature of disinformation that knows no bounds on Facebook and Twitter. He foresaw the danger of a society where more and more people are fed only by their personalized media streams.

“We become so secure in our bubbles that we accept only information, whether true or not, that fits our opinions, instead of basing our opinions on the evidence that’s out there,” the 44th president of the United States said during an address in his hometown of Chicago.