Southeast Journal closes its doors after 35 years

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 15/01/2024 (821 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

One of Manitoba’s community newspapers has closed its doors after 35 years of readership.

The Southeast Journal has shuttered its operations due to financial reasons.

“The costs were getting too high and we were not getting the advertising that we had seen at the beginning of the year,” said publisher Brenda Piett.

Piett said the ads from provincial and federal governments and private corporations that were selling advertising through the Manitoba Community Newspapers Association weren’t as plentiful anymore as they once were.

“The government ads were drying up the last four to three months. Those were the hardest,” she said.

“The financial model just didn’t work anymore. The editor of the Free Press said that between Jan. 1 and Dec. 1, 2023, there were 29 community newspapers that closed in Canada. This is not unique to us,” said editor Don Piett.

The Pietts are originally from Thompson and moved to Emerson in 2006 to retire. Don worked in the refinery for the local mining company formerly called Inco, while Brenda worked for the same company doing first aid.

Brenda’s parents lived in Emerson so the couple decided to settle in the area. In 2007, they saw the local paper was for sale and they decided to buy it and try their hand in the media industry.

“We were looking around for something to do and the local newspaper was for sale and we thought, ‘We could do this,’” said Don.

The Pietts are the third owners of the free paper. They said owning a paper was challenging at first as they had never owned or worked for a paper before.

“It took us a while to get used to it. The publisher that we bought it from he hung around for a month and helped us to learn it and then we learned, and we got better equipment, changed our equipment up and it’s been fun,” said Brenda.

The couple would layout the paper in InDesign on their computer and then send the pdfs to Morgan Printing in Grafton, North Dakota where about 35,000 copies of the 12-page paper were printed every week. They didn’t have reporters but rather correspondents in communities like Morris and Tolstoi who would write for them while the Pietts covered Emerson. Their coverage areas were the RMs of Emerson-Franklin, Montcalm, and Morris.

The Pietts said they’re sad to be closing the paper. As to what will fill the void left by the Southeast Journal, the Pietts said another newspaper will do that.

“There is the Altona Rhineland Voice distributed in most areas that we were. I know that they were looking at expanding to one region where they weren’t which was Morris. Because one of our writers is talking to them about writing for them from Morris,” said Don.

Since the couple still have a year-and-a-half left on their website domain, Don said he might try making the paper digital only as the cost of printing and distributing were too high.

During their 16 years at the helm of the Southeast Journal, the Pietts have had a lot of memories.

“I went to Sperling one time – this is a sad story – because it was a beautiful fire appreciation thing for their fire department. I’d never been to Sperling before. It’s in our readership, but it’s so far away that we never go there. They had a story and I said, ‘Let’s go.’ I went there and did the story and front-page a beautiful picture of the whole thing. The worst part was Canada Post was doing their change in the city and they lost the papers that went to Sperling. They didn’t even get them. We sent them what we could. We were sending them 100 papers, but we didn’t have 100 extra papers to send them. It was a beautiful event I had a great time and that’s one I remember,” said Brenda.

So what will the Pietts miss most about owning and working for the paper? The ability to go to any town or city to cover different events and the recognition the paper gave them.

As for any departing words of wisdom to anyone considering owning a paper, Don said that’s something everyone has to decide for oneself.

“It’s one of those things if it’s right for you and the timing is right, go for it. Everybody has to decide those things themselves. Neither one of us are journalists. I always said I’m not a journalist, I’m just a guy who owns a newspaper.”