The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge - Your Turn -- How Would You Save Your Local Newspaper?

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

From coast to coast to coast you wrote in to say what they'd do if they owned a local paper struggling to do business and succeed.

And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. You're just moments away from the latest episode of The Bridge. It's Thursday. It's your turn. And wow, did you have some answers to the question, what would you do to jazz up newspaper sales? You surprised me. Coming right up. And hello there, Peter Mansbridge here. Yes, Thursday means your turn. That means your letters, your ideas about a question that I posed.

And so on Monday, I posed the question, if you owned a local newspaper, what would you do to jazz up sales? We all know there are troubles in newspaper land and have been for a number of years. But what would you do? Because obviously many of you feel it's important that the local newspaper happens. But what would you do to make sales happen? So day one, you know, I kept looking at my laptop and nothing. I think there were a total

of two letters on day one. I said, okay, finally, finally, I've hit the barrier. I've asked a question that nobody cares about, not interested. So I was thinking, well, what am I going to do? How am I going to fill that time on Thursday? I guess I'm going to fill it with end bits because I've got lots of them. And then the trickle started, and the trickle turned into a torrent. And, in fact, there were so many letters that quite a few came in after the deadline. And the deadline actually means a deadline. But we'll see.

We'll see how far we get and if we can get some of those in too because the later we went, the better the answers were. I shouldn't say that. All the answers are good. All the answers that we're going to use anyway are good. So let's get at it. Keep in mind, we didn't ask the question in a vacuum. We asked it because Canadian newspapers are in big trouble, have been for a while. According to a report by the Local News Research Project, 516 news operations shut down between 2008 and 2023 in Canada.

No one thinks this is a healthy thing for a democracy, so that's why we asked our question. Here are some of your responses. Aaron Lazar in Toronto. My thought is a modern approach to a legacy media in the form of influencers. Influencers are used in all forms of promotion, including online media. Putting newspapers in the hands of influencers,

foreign and domestic, could potentially expose millions of people to a newspaper that might have never even considered it before. Perhaps, for example, Ryan Reynolds would influence for the Toronto Star. Toronto Star is still, for example, Ryan Reynolds would influence for the Toronto Star. Toronto Star is still, I believe, the biggest paper in the country in terms of subscriptions and in terms of readers.

Well, influencers do indeed influence. The number one influencer in the social media world today is Cristiano Ronaldo, the soccer player, who has 733 million followers and has endorsement deals with Armani, Nike, and Cattrall Oil,

among others. It's said that an average post by him generates 3.2 million US dollars in revenue. Can you believe that? Whoa. He's just about done his soccer career. But there's no doubt, heck of a player in his day.

Michael Artendale in Sudbury, Ontario. What I would do is get rid of the fee to buy the paper, whether it be subscription or the cash. Instead, invest the time in gathering the money to run it from local businesses and then beyond to cover the cost of operating it. Well, Michael, this is what La Presse did in Montreal in 2018. It did away with the paper product and went to a full digital format. Doesn't charge for it.

It became a non-profit organization after 133 years. So far, it seems to be working. Henri Vordon in Ottawa, he has an answer and it's all in one word. Porn. It would be profitable and allow the paper to survive. Perhaps it could even be converted into a website and go global. Profits would skyrocket. I hope, he says, my little suggestion has properly revolted you.

You should be upset at how my proposed solution would save the paper, but at the cost of sacrificing everything, a local newspaper contributes to society. Perhaps the question is the problem here. What makes a newspaper or a magazine more important than any of the other obsolete media that has died before it? Do local communities in Canada miss their telegraph, their town crier, or the clay tablet?

The important thing to consider here isn't the medium, but the content. Local news is what is important, and it does survive through more modern media from online magazines, social media, YouTube, X, and whatever else people come up with. It doesn't look like a newspaper anymore than a newspaper look like a telegraph wire. It's different, but not lesser. I think the question we should be asking is what supports our local, provincial, and federal governments should be putting in place to promote, develop, and when necessary, regulate the content creators using modern media. Jesse Johnson in Cobourg, Ontario. It's just east of Toronto.

I'd go back to focusing on local stories, especially feel-good stories, that people would be happy to share. My local paper doesn't do this. They mostly share stories about crime and some surface-level politics. This has been termed hyper-local, stories about crime and some surface-level politics. This has been termed hyper-local,

and there are several examples of this in North America. Some have been reasonably successful, some haven't been, but a lot of people did write to us with this same idea. Harold Gold in Calgary. My suggestion to increase subscribers would be to focus on local stories of interest. National and international stories are already being covered by the big players, so no point wasting any time or effort including those. Stories about local personalities, businesses, and interest groups is where the focus should be.

Having the readers get involved by providing feedback and publishing it may also improve engagement. When in doubt what local coverage to capture, talk to the people you want as subscribers and get their feedback. Buying is key to success. Bill Day in London. Which London is this? No, it's London, Ontario. Go local, big time. Using London as an example,

I would eliminate most international and national news and sports and do the following. Report in-depth on local politicians and political happenings. Profile our local politicians and give them space to update us and share their views. Give local citizens a forum through targeted questions and polls. Give each school and the local boards a full page once a month on a rotating basis, allowing them to celebrate student work and special events. Do the same for local sports organizations, but also provide extensive

coverage of the local sports scene, from house leagues and all sports to Junior A. Daily coverage in depth of the Knights, that's the London hockey team, the majors, the Lightning, ULO, UWO, Western Ontario, and Fanshawe Sports. Arranged with schools, colleges, and universities to have English, political science, and journalism students write feature articles. Use citizen reporters to cover all the little towns, their fall farms, and special events. Have contests with schools to have students celebrate Remembrance Day, Terry Fox, religious and cultural celebrations. Wow, Bill, you should be the editor, man. There's a lot of good ideas in there. Bill Day in London. All right, Ken Pellishock in Newstead, Ontario this week, he writes, for as long as I've been small-town living,

I've accepted that the local newspaper is mostly for flyers and obituaries. One time we paid attention to it, my mother-in-law was on the front page, and she wanted as many copies as we could get. So if I were in charge of a small-town newspaper, I'd do more of that. Little good news stories, with pictures of townsfolk and maybe a drawing or two, submitted by local children. Kevin Ellis. Now, Kevin didn't say where he was writing from, but he gave us his phone number with a 416 area code, so we suppose it's Toronto. Or he was in Toronto at some time where he got a cell phone and now he's living anywhere

and still using the same cell phone. That's what I do. Make them funded by a provincial media fund. This is what Kevin suggests. A social media company tax to support local newspapers to ensure their ability to provide quality and depth of reporting, and service to provide supportive analysis of local regional issues really influencing community life. awareness, support, as much as medical resources to survive and understand its real situation beyond that crafted by sophisticated political operatives. It's amazing, eh? There's some like really good ideas here. And you know, obviously it took 24 hours or so for the innovative juices to get going. And they got going from across the country. You know, at first when we started Thursdays, people said,

ah, that's not going to work. It's going to get you, you know, silly thoughts and silly ideas. Not happening. These are good, and I think it says something not only about the bridge, but I think it says something about podcasts in general. That they draw upon people who are really interested in their country, their community, their world, and they want to talk about it. And so here we go with, you know, lots of letters.

Alex, Texas. Not sure, Alex. Obviously, I don't think I got your pronunciation right, but we'll give that a go. Alex writes from Fraser Heights, Surrey, B.C. The advice is very simple here to the question, how do you make a newspaper survive? How do you jazz sales up?

The advice is very simple. Discontinue the paper printing and move the conversation to X. That's Twitter, or it used to be Twitter. Hire people that are effective communicators on the platform to facilitate a good dialogue with readers on issues that matter locally. Every other attempt to save the newspaper industry will fail because the papers are too delayed in reporting information. Well, it depends what information, right?

As we've heard in some of the letters already, if you focus local papers, if you focus local, nobody else is doing it. The analogy I give, says Alex, is would you be interested in reading about news via books? I'd argue probably not, because it takes several months to a year to publish something. The information reported would be too delayed to be relevant. It's the same thing for a newspaper's reporting. Irrelevant. To a degree, Alex.

Paul Thompson in Bath, Ontario. Bath is just west of Kingston, Ontario, home of the hip. You'll get that reference a little later when the random ranter comes on. Paul writes, I'm afraid newspapers have become periodicals in many ways, and some, like the Globe, can survive as the ruling class will pay for it, like we do for the Atlantic, the New York Times and the Washington Post, which is having trouble again, by the way, the Washington Post. And, you know, I could be wrong here, but the Globe, not that long ago,

it's not like it was making money. It's a great paper. No question about that. But you can thank the ownership for plowing along, even in difficult times. Anyway, back to Paul's idea. Others may survive as non-profits. Most of the rest of the English press has already been gutted

and will die, sadly. Personally, I think all the government support should be for weekly independent local papers. With the death of local radio, it is our last best chance to have a subjective coverage of community news. Otherwise, it becomes a Facebook cesspool. You got a point there. Rhonda Mulligan in Sturgeon County, Alberta. I would take a lesson from every good dance instructor or piano teacher. Parents and grandparents love seeing what their offspring can do. I would have regular

articles from school-aged children as part of the paper. This would accomplish two things. Make people aware of the existence of local papers and get the next generation interested, all the while letting parents and grandparents enjoy little Johnny or little Jane's fame. Garth Jolly. Garth, you forgot to tell us where you're writing from. Garth writes, like many others, for environmental reasons, I've moved to news online rather than a physical paper copy. But what I find excruciating about the online versions is the comments section following every article. It's generally filled with anonymous

trolls spewing conspiracy theories, bigotry of all sorts, and right-wing bile. I don't have to read it, of course, and I typically don't read it, except for when I lose all good judgment for a moment. But why do these comment sections even exist? Can anyone argue that there is even minimal value to having a space for hateful trolls to yell about every article? Let's go back to writing letters to the editor, where we must have the courage and decency to sign our name to our public comments. You know, I totally agree with that.

I remember when we started, when I was, you know, still at the CBC, and we started doing online stuff. And we even started doing comments for the program once a week. I think we even called it Your Turn. And we got into this big argument about, a lot of people would write, not include their name, not say where they're writing from, and they'd say, oh, I can't do that because, you know, if people knew what I was saying, I'd lose my job or whatever.

And I thought, I always had a problem with that. I thought if you're going to put their comments on the air, we should put their name on the air as well. And if it's something that looks like they could lose their job, then we should talk to them on the phone and find out what exactly their particulars are so we understand. And then we can make a judgment. But the same thing goes now.

You have all the stuff and phony names and bots that send in stuff and you see it online. Some places control it, others don't. You know, freedom of expression, blah, blah, blah. You know, I still, and that's why I ask here. I ask for two reasons. One, I think it's important we include your name. I don't have a problem.

We don't get that kind of garbage sent in to the bridge. People who write to the bridge are pretty serious. But I also like to know where you're writing from because it gives that national reflection of the kind of comments we're getting. And when I can say that comments come from coast to coast to coast, I want to mean it. And that's one of the reasons why I like to include not only the name,

but the place that you're writing from. Especially when Marilyn Wallace writes from Fanny Bay, British Columbia, one of my favorite place names. Here's what Marilyn has to say this week. This is the toughest question yet on the bridge. Local newspapers keep communities connected and informed, but are less able to monetize their efforts as advertising income dwindles. Any possible solution will require many new ideas,

but I only have one idea to suggest. Perhaps they could steal an idea from the bridge, adopting the weekly Your Turn that has been so successful in fostering involvement. A direct question could be posed that invites the audience to jump in, with a focus on concise responses that are screened for content. Many Bridge listeners have become so invested in your turn

that their weekly routines have changed to include it. This is exactly what advertisers want. Perhaps the financial stability necessary for the survival of local newspapers would improve. I sure hope so. Okay. We're about at the halfway mark, so why don't we take a break. And see where we go from there, because there are lots more letters. There's also the random ranter to come.

And I don't know, I think you'll like this week's rant. So we'll be right back, right after this. And welcome back. You're listening to the Thursday episode of The Bridge. That means your turn, your comments on the question this week, which is, if you were the owner of a local newspaper in Canada, what would you do to jazz up sales, to improve the sales situation for that paper? And we've got lots of answers to a question

that at first seemed to not inspire many of you to sit down and write, but as it turned out, a lot of you sat down and wrote. And we're going to get back to those letters in just a moment, but first of all, the random ranter was out driving the other day, out on the prairies where he lives, and he was inspired to this rant. So here we go. Like most Canadians, I love the Tragically Hip. They've been a major part of the soundtrack to my life.

So last week, as I found myself racing a freight train down the Trans-Canada, I put on the new hip release, Wait So Long. And wow, I was overcome. I mean, the first thing I did was put the songCanada, I put on the new hip release, Wait So Long, and wow, I was overcome. I mean, the first thing I did was put the song on repeat, and the second thing I did was roll down my window and stick my arm out of it. It was just the perfect way for me to experience a hip song. Prairie out my window, combines on the field, and a semi in my rearview mirror, all under the bluest of prairie skies. It sent shivers down my spine. I mean, I don't know what a religious experience feels like, but unless it was a mini-stroke, I think I might have had one. Now, to me, it's not even debatable.

The Hip are the most Canadian of Canadian bands ever. Their lyrics are steeped in Canadianisms and littered with references to Canadian places. That's always been a big part of the appeal to me, even if I didn't catch them all at the time. I mean, it blew my mind the first time I found myself driving through Moonbeam, Ontario. And forgive my westerness, but I had no idea Bob Cajun was a real place. But the hip did, and even though I was blissfully unaware at the time, the song still worked, because I don't know what it is about their music, but it speaks to me in a way that nothing else does. It taps into my appreciation for the Canadian experience, what we have, where we live, and how we got here. And for me, it goes beyond the music.

Because when I listen to The Hip, it gets my mind firing in all kinds of weird ways. I mean, The Hip have never sang a song about instant coffee in a Pyrex mug. And as far as I know, they've never referenced a beer parlor. But for whatever reason, when I hear their music, those are the images that often come to me. Other times it's bench seat pickup trucks and endless dusty roads, or canoe trips and campfires, or reading Farley Mowat in grade 5. That's the thing about great art, I guess. It takes you places, and it's not always where the artist intended you to go. Now, as luck would have it, I found myself back on the Trans Canada yesterday, and this time I wasn't alone. I was with a buddy who also happens

to be a big fan. We listened to the new song, and we talked and talked about the hip. I told him my weird instant coffee memories, and he told me some equally obscure thoughts that the music triggered in him. And we kind of laughed at each other when we realized that even though the music was triggering us differently, it was leaving us both with a real appreciation for our Canadian experience. And that's the thing. My Corduroy Road might not be your Corduroy Road. That line might trigger a memory of a place for you, or a time in your life, or maybe a pair of 1978 brown corduroy pants.

All I know is that every time I drive down a corduroy road or look up at a constellation, I can't help but think of the hip and feel a connection to the music, to my past, and to my country. Well, I wonder, do you have to be a hip fan to appreciate that rant? I don't know, maybe.

I know I'm a hip fan, and I'm a lot older than the render. Um, and the, you know, I think hip fans cross the age differences quite a bit. Um, but it's, it's so nice to hear a new hip song, despite of all the things that have happened over the last few years. You know, it's been seven. it'll be a couple of weeks, mid-October, October 17th.

It'll be seven years since we lost Gord Downie. And some of you still write to me and talk about an interview I did with Gord shortly before he passed, shortly before he passed, shortly before he lost, finally, the battle he had with cancer. It was a very emotional interview because, you know, Gord was a, you know, was a friend of mine. We weren't like close friends, but we were friends over, you know, 20 years. And people talk about that interview and what it meant to them.

There's a new film out on, I think it's on Amazon, which is a four-parter on the hip. And it includes part of that interview that I did with Gord. But it's funny how, you know, his time and their time has meant so much to so many Canadians. And so I appreciate the rancher doing his thing today. You know, good for him.

All right. Time to get back to your letters, and your letters are an answer to the question, what would you do to improve the situation for papers, especially local papers, if you were the owner of a local paper? All right, next writer is my friend Joe Stover in Churchill, Manitoba, the old hometown.

So Joe writes, if I were the owner of a newspaper, the first thing I would do is make sure my paper doesn't look like anyone else's. Every town, city, region is different. I groan when I see the front page of the paper in Windsor or Edmonton or Vancouver, all looking exactly the same. National and world news is important,

but people read the newspapers in their respective communities to find out mostly what's going on in their communities. If in charge, I'd lean heavily on what matters locally, with a paper you can look at and know where it's from, design, font, and all. Bob Zubricki in Barhaven, Ontario that's a suburb of Ottawa last week we had a Your Turn writer make his point in three words

this week Bob beats that, he delivers the goods in two words how to improve newspaper circulation Bob's letter says, original content. Good point. Jennifer Dyke in Calgary. I don't have an answer to your question. But in a quirk of timing, I attended a Calgary WordFest event last night, featuring Jeremy Classis, founder and editor-in-chief of The Sprawl,

along with some former Calgary Herald writers. The Sprawl publishes slow news for curious Calgarians. That's, I guess, their motto. I posed your question to Jeremy. One of his recommendations was to remember the importance of public engagement, of creating a dialogue with your readers. Local ownership seems another important element, as owners like Conrad Black and U.S. hedge funds cannot possibly, Conrad doesn't own anything anymore, papers, and U.S. hedge funds cannot possibly create a feeling of connection with the people who read the papers. Jamie Rothenberger in Calgary. As a geriatric millennial,

I started reading physical newspapers in high school before online news took off. I still prefer the tactile experience of a book or a newspaper over reading on a screen. Studies support higher reading, retention, and comprehension with physical printed materials. The experience is more immersive and less prone to distractions. In support of quality Canadian journalism, I've paid subscriptions to a national paper and the Calgary Herald on Saturdays. Every few weeks the paper is not delivered, much to my great frustration. At this point, people who buy physical papers are doing it intentionally. My suggested change, ensure the paper gets to paying customers.

It would at least help retain the subscribers they currently have. Providing physical copies for high schools may also establish a lifelong reading habit. Gary Gould in Brantford, Ontario. Your question prompted me to do some investigation, and I discovered an experiment in Japan where a news outlet printed a QR code on the label of water bottles. Consumers can read the newspaper on their cell phone by scanning the label. Research led the editors to find more people buy bottled water than newspapers.

This product innovation has had the effect of increased recognizability on supermarket shelves. This special bottle of water has become a must-have with younger age groups and enabled the company to make the transition to digital away from traditional paper versions. Ravi Ravishankar in Ottawa. I feel that the current newspaper model is becoming less interesting and less affordable for the reader who wants more curated content. So I recommend the following.

Break down the newspaper into different blocks, for example, political news and opinion, local news and events, business news, etc., and offer separate subscriptions to these various chunks. I can pick and choose areas that interest me at more affordable and competitive. Ernest Warnulus in Comox Valley, B.C. Partner with local artists and make every edition an artistic collectible. Go upmarket with better paper. Make having the paper under your arm a social statement. Partner with a local theater company, dancers, musicians, and sports teams, and have subscriptions include event tickets.

Do a deep dive on long-form journalism. Barry Smith in Peterborough. I had to come up with ideas and schemes to raise circulation throughout the 90s when I was the co-founder and publisher of a plucky community newspaper based in London, England, for Canadians living in the UK. Just as the internet was taking off and Canadian newspapers were becoming available online, today, to raise circulation, I would concentrate on developing the integrity of the brand promise. As marketers and PR professionals say, such as the promise of

truth, integrity, intelligence, influence, wit, all firmly based on value and economy for the subscriber, whether they're a reader, listener, or viewer, because all those media must be part of the newspaper's circulated services. Also, the option of an inexpensive subscription with ads and a premium subscription without ads, like Netflix and other subscription-reliant services, are modeled upon now would be my approach to raising circulation. Barry Smith in Peterborough, Ontario. And Barry has the experience. Okay.

Other letters came in after the deadline. But some of them are pretty good. So we're going to stretch here for a bit. This does not mean that every week, if you get in after the deadline, you're still going to make it on the air. Because usually I cut it off. But I'm making an exception this week. With more ideas for my friends in the newspaper business.

Hunter Crowther in Toronto. Actually, he got in just under the deadline. Hunter writes, if I were the owner of a newspaper in Canada, I would need to find a wealthy benefactor or corporation to help fund the project. Having previously worked as a reporter for regional newsrooms in York and Durham region, I know firsthand the struggles that community journalism faces. More often than not, the resources that reporters and editors need to cover municipal politics

or investigate complex stories and topics requires a healthy purse, a heavy purse. Without major financial backing or a generous angel investor, you would be better off to start a sub-stack than a full-fledged publication. Okay. Ian Walker, St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador. As a millennial without a subscription to the local newspaper, the Telegram, I had a hard time coming up with something for the question, but I thought it was a worthwhile question.

So I decided to ask my 92-year-old grandfather, Lloyd, who had been a lifelong subscriber to the Telegram. This is what he said. I get some news online, but I find a lot of articles lack substance or are behind a variety of paywalls. I like that my local newspaper has all the news I read and I need, from roadwork on my street to geopolitics. Unfortunately, there are not enough young people subscribing to local news. They are used to getting news for free. But good journalism costs money.

I think having youth journalism contests with scholarships for the winners would help educate young people of the value of local journalism. It should be an important part of the school curriculum, because in the world of fake news, it has never been more important to reach out to our kids where to find good journalism, teach them that, and that is worth paying for. Ian's 29, Lloyd's 92.

Ian and Lloyd Walker in St. John's, Newfoundland, Labrador. You know, there's so many of Lloyd's points in a couple of sentences that are so good. And perhaps the most important one is that good journalism costs money. If you subscribe to my weekly newsletter, and I hope you do, you can get it at thenationalnewswatch.com. It's free. I put in it each week half a dozen or so stories that I've read during the week that I think are not just good journalism, but they're interesting

and you may have missed them. So that's what I, you know, do with my newsletter. Some of them are behind paywalls and people get mad and they say, why would you bother doing this? And I say, well, you know what, it's a good piece. And you've got to understand that good journalism costs money. Now, some of those paywalls give you one or two things free. So you can usually kind of get away with it. But it might also inspire you to subscribe.

That's why I do it. Valerie Boire. Valerie Boire. She is in Lachute, Quebec my thoughts mostly revolve around improving sorry, gotta get this a little closer

my thoughts revolve mostly around improving readership, but hopefully over bridge contributors will also other bridge contributors will also have ideas in terms of finding more sustainable economic models. One, visibility. Multiply the opportunities to see, hear, and meet the columnists. Knowing them better could draw readers to seek out their writings. They could also create partnerships between newspapers or with other media to redirect to one another's

stories. Accessibility. Distribute in leisurely places or waiting areas where we can read on the spot instead of the grocery store or gas station where our hands and minds are full of to-dos. Stands next to the benches in parks and plazas, give out a copy with the breakfast menu at the restaurant, stick a QR code on bus or train windows. Community, provide more contextual analysis, link and explain local stories in relation to macro news and trends, rather than just reporting. In short, local newspapers could play a greater part

in rebuilding a more immediate sense of community and shared goals, which I'm sure would help in the effort to depolarize our worldviews and public discourse. Wouldn't that be nice? Kyle Crossman. I'm currently en route to Hawaii, somewhere over the Pacific, west of California. Great question, Peter. If I was the head of a local newspaper and I needed to gain circulation, here's what I'd do. If it were a smaller town type of newspaper, make it hyper-local. Include a section for coupons from local businesses.

They can cut out the coupons for each business day. They want to go kind of like a coupon book, deal of the week. That seems to be a flashback to the past. Make it hyper-local. Include a section for, sorry. I would also write more local stories about people in the town. As a kid, my baseball was mentioned a number of times, and now I sometimes pick it up to see how local ball teams are doing.

I'd also hit up the schools to print an art piece of the month or art piece of the week for students to submit their drawings or paintings. I like that. You could also write a community member of the week about someone who has done something worth noting that week. Heck, at least a few people would buy copies if their family members are in it. I also think I'd be interested in reading about local history. Again, a simple two-paragraph tidbit about what happened on this day in 1942. And at the end of the year, you could do

an award for each member art, history, sport piece of the year. Again, highlighting local achievements and community pride. Yeah, interesting. Enjoy your time in Hawaii. This may be the last one. It is the last one of the week. Caliph Bright Talon. It's actually Arnold Callum from Ottawa, Ontario.

Seems to be a number of names in here. If I were in charge of a newspaper today, I'd take a look at innovating the broadsheet format, including improving the quality of materials used, while also reducing the frequency of issues printed. If newspapers are constantly trying to keep up with other media for breaking headlines, they'll never keep pace and be worse for it. If instead they act as a sober second thought, a summation of the current events rather than the way Canadians learn about them, that would give them a selling point that hourly newscasts and social media cannot imitate.

That's Callum Arnold from Ottawa, Ontario, or Arnold Callum from Ottawa, Ontario. I'm not sure which. Either one, thank you. And thank to all of you for giving this some serious thought. One fellow wrote in whose letter didn't make the final cut, just simply talking about get back to local, you know, local delivery boys. So many of us, you know, started, you know, our first job was delivering newspapers in our neighborhood, you know, for whatever, a couple of dollars a week. That was a connection. connection to the community,

connection for the kid delivering the paper. I don't know, there are some good ideas in here for an industry that is struggling. I mean, if we keep going the way we're going five years from now, there won't be a paper of any kind that we're used to that's been a tradition. And maybe that's just the way things are. But it would be a shame,

and it would cut out a part of our culture, a part of our way of understanding each other. So that would be sad. All right, that's going to wrap it up for today. A couple of reminders. Tomorrow, of course, is Good Talk. Chantel and Bruce will be here. Interesting week in Canadian politics, as always.

The Buzz, my newsletter that I mentioned a little earlier, comes out Saturday morning, delivered to your mailbox, inbox, at 7 a.m. Eastern Time every Saturday morning. It's free, but you do have to subscribe. And it's great to hear from some of the Buzz readers. You can get me at the same address you write to this program at themansbridgepod podcast at gmail.com next week Monday is in many parts of

the country not all but in many parts of the country is National Reconciliation Day and it's a statutory holiday it will be across the serious network and on Monday there will be special programming to reflect National Reconciliation Day as a result the there will be special programming to reflect. National Reconciliation Day. As a result, the bridge will be in encore mode on Monday. And I think, I'm not sure, so I won't say.

But it'll be an encore broadcast Tuesday. Jana Stein will be with us. Her normal slot is Mondays, but she'll be here next week on Tuesday to give us the latest on the continuing story in the Middle East, which each day, if not each hour, does not look better than the day before or the hour before. So that'll be Jana Stein on Tuesday of next week. But that's it for here today for your turn.

Thanks very much for running. Really appreciate it. We'll talk to you again tomorrow with a good talk with Chantel and Bruce. But for now, I'm Peter Mansbridge. Thanks so much for listening. Talk to you again in almost 24 hours.