An iconic Charlotte County newspaper has made its return to newsstands after a one-year hiatus.
The Courier was officially taken over by Saint Andrews-based television station CHCO-TV in October.
Online articles have been published since then, with the first paper edition hitting the shelves this weekend.
Vicki Hogarth, the station’s news director, said they have received a lot of positive feedback over the past several days.
“The community really had experience of one year without a physically printed paper, and because of that, I think it’s really appreciated a lot more just to see it in people’s hands,” said Hogarth.
“This week has been more moving than I actually thought it would be, and I think that people here feel the same way.”
‘It’s part of the fabric of who we are’
The paper, previously known as The St. Croix Courier, was founded in 1865 and most recently operated by Halifax-based Advocate Media.
However, the company paused publication in May 2024 and announced it had approached CHCO-TV to consider taking it over.
Hogarth said it was a decision that took them a while to make, given that they already run a television station.
“It seemed like a huge responsibility to take on, but ultimately we felt like this paper is too important,” she said. “It’s part of the fabric of who we are, so maybe it is our responsibility to step up and make sure it doesn’t die and build it into the umbrella of what we already do.”
“To not do it, we would have had so much guilt for letting something like this slip away from our community because we know it’s part of the soul of who Charlotte County is as a region.”
The station hired well-known New Brunswick journalist Nathalie Sturgeon to take the helm of the newspaper as editor. She previously worked as the editor of the Kings County Record in Sussex and spent time with Global News and CBC News.
Sturgeon said local journalism has never been more important than it is right now, adding that everyone should be able to have access to it.
“This process was about including people who do not find themselves online or with a computer or with a tablet or an iPhone or a cellular device of any kind,” she said. “We wanted to make sure that everybody has access to the information that is important to them, and printing is part of that process.”
Free paper to be published monthly
The Courier applied for and received a roughly $20,000 federal grant in order to help with the printing costs. For now, it will be published on a monthly basis rather than once a week.
“If you want breaking news, you’re going to go online. To print that days later doesn’t make sense to us,” said Hogarth.
“We’re taking a modern approach to an old-school concept and just doing a monthly curated print edition that has more investigative pieces, think pieces, columns.”
Hogarth said they are also listening to the community to hear what they loved about The Courier before and what they would like to see returned.
The new edition of the paper is free, and Hogarth said they plan to keep it that way so long as it remains sustainable.
“But what we saw from the first issue and the one that’s in progress right now is that as much as the grant covers that try-it-out-for-a-year type thing, the ads are already sustaining it,” she said.
“Since we’re not looking to make a profit, if the ads can sustain it, then we can continue to do this year after year without a grant. I think that also speaks to the business community really wanting to have a community in their paper and appreciating the work that we do here.”