Charlotte County has lost a familiar old voice, at least for now. Crystal Murray, president of Advocate Media Inc., announced in a front page article on May 29 that the Nova Scotia company would "pause" publication of the Saint Croix Courier but holds out hope that CHCO TV might take over the venerable community newspaper, the only one based in the county.
      CHCO TV News Director Vicki Hogarth confirms in an interview that Advocate Media approached the independent television station based in St. Andrews about taking over the Courier. CHCO's lawyer is reviewing a proposed contract, Hogarth and CHCO TV station manager Patrick Watt confirm. They hope the Courier could return to newsstands by fall, but they have hoops to jump through first.
      Hogarth says, "As crazy as it sounds to go into the newspaper industry right now, I think that if we restructured it as a nonprofit, because CHCO functions as a nonprofit, and we just reinvested back into the paper, it wouldn't be about making a profit, it would be about breaking even and making sure there's a really amazing newspaper that truly represents Charlotte County."
      She hopes to organize a community meeting this summer before advertising for an editor, setting up facilities to produce a newspaper and finding someone with a web press to print it.
      Advocate Media still intends to run its commercial printing operation in St. Stephen, Murray writes. "They just don't want to run a paper any more," Watt says. "We're not buying a company. We're basically buying a trade name," the right to publish a newspaper called the Saint Croix Courier, he says.
      Hogarth says the newspaper and television station would run as separate operations, but they might share stories and work together. They would have to compete with Charlotte FM radio station in St. Stephen, owned by Acadia Broadcasting.
      St. Stephen Mayor Allan MacEachern wishes CHCO well in this venture into print journalism. "If you're not recognizing leaders and service groups in your community, guess what? They're going to start fading away," he says, adding, "Do we need to get that news out there? 100%. A community paper is very important."
      "I think it's a prime time and, if someone does all that, then you will get the ads. That paper used to be full of ads at one time. You will get them back," he says.
      St. Stephen Area Chamber of Commerce President Rebecca Smith shares the mayor's sentiments. "We are saddened by the news of the Saint Croix Courier closing, and we are hopeful that CHCO can make it work to keep it for our community," she writes in an email.
      Likewise, provincial cabinet minister and St. Croix MLA Kathy Bockus, a career journalist who reported for the Courier for many years, wishes CHCO well. "It's sad for a community to see a business close, even sadder for me to see a business I and so many others were an active part of for so long. The Saint Croix Courier has always connected the community ? from the many volunteer correspondents who wrote about the activities in the outlying areas ? who visited who and where they were from – to coverage of news events, council meetings, high school sports, festivals, graduations, births and deaths, with the occasional pet photo contest or recipe edition thrown in for good measure. I'm pleased to learn that CHCO is considering taking over publishing the Courier. I wish them well," she writes.
      David Main founded the Saint Croix Courier in 1865, making it older than modern Canada. Advocate Media bought it in 2022, likely saving it from becoming part of The Brunswick News, owned by Irving family interests. The national chain Post Media acquired The Brunswick News and nearly all of the province's newspapers in 2022. Murray acknowledges that Advocate Media struggled to publish the Saint Croix Courier without local editorial staff for almost two years.
      "It's not that we didn't see it coming, right?" MacEachern says, adding, "We all saw that the paper was getting thinner and thinner and thinner. There were no ads in it. You need to have ads, you need to have people that buy the paper, you need to have local reporting."
      Besides covering stories by telephone and rewriting press release, Advocate Media reprinted stories from the provincial press through the federally funded Local Journalism Initiative.
      "We are confident that CHCO's deep roots in the community and their commitment to local media can ensure that the Courier continues to thrive," Murray writes.
      Hogarth says, "When you hear from these big multi media, vertically integrated, companies, 'Oh, it's impossible to do local news now,' we know it isn't, because we're already doing it despite all the odds in rural southwest New Brunswick, and I think the same could be said for a paper if you approached it with heart and that your motivation is always to serve the community first."
      She has been talking with former staff about the Courier's "glory days" when town council, police and fire, service clubs, businesses opening and closing, minor sports, the high school winter carnival and graduations competed for space, as Bockus notes, with "who's visiting" in Leonardville, Little Ridge or Rollingdam.
      National and provincial press often pick up stories which local reporters break first, Hogarth notes. "If we let the small papers die, then the entire news industry suffers and, if the news industry suffers, then democracy suffers."