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1 r 1h0bsday october 6th 1955 the acton free press acton ontario pajefxvk just what is your newspaper this question has many answers here are a few f it serves this corrtmuhity with news advertising editorial comment and entertainment it promot es projects which ft believes will make this a bet ter place in which to live its a manufacturing plant it converts ink paper metal and power into a finished product it gives employment year round its a business it enjoys full status as both a wholesaler of news papers and a retailer it plays its full part in the commercial life of the community its a servjceestablishment it tries to give information and guidance both through rtscolumns and personally through its staff its classified section is the local market place it is the 20th century town crier and com munity counsellor its a 1 00 home institution it serves this district first last and ajways its taxes help support local schools and local government it buys all possible supplies and services locally its the voice of the people its printed reports comment and pictures mirror this community in such a way that we may under stand both its problems and its opportunities it is a vital factor in theoperation both of free respon sible government and in the life of free demo cratic individuals r participating in national weekly newspaper week october 1 8 1 955 behind the paper curtain typographical terrors abomb fail to subvert voice of weeklies prime miifister pays tribute to weekly papers prime minister louis st laur ent has included his endorsatlon of national weekly newspaper week ihls message to canadas weeklies follows i am pleased to have this op portunity to pay a tribute to our canadian newspapers on the occas ion of national newspaper week the successful functioning of our democratic system depends in large measure on the extent jo which canadian citizens are aware of the issues with which their el- ected i rep at all levels of government are faced those who have the responsibility of pre- senting those issues to their readers are playing an esential part in the democratic process for a free res ponsible press helps to create a wellinformed public opinion i should like to mention in particular the important role of the weekly press of this country which serves onethiid of canadas pop ulation in many areas remote front our cities the weelclles constitute the principal source of news for their readers who depend greatly on them to keep informed of pub lic affairs i feel confident that the vast majority of canadians would wish to join with me in extending sin cere appreciation to our newspap ers in canada for providing us with local national and international news and in wishing them contin ued success in their important work it takes 11 pounds of milk to make a pound of cheddar cheese this address was given by w h cranston one of canadas outstanding weekly i newspaper men and publisher of the mid land free ipress before group of men in vancouver during the recent cwna convention his remarks so well- summarised the ipart weekly newspapers are playing in canadian life today that we print his humorous and informative message in full 7a few- months agoln ohebr oiir more widely circulated magazines there appeared an article about the editors of canadas 800 weekly newspapers the article was entitled cracker barrel i oracles and the title was reasonably ac curate at least in respect to the first two words most weekly editor consider themselves crack ers for even staying in the busin ess and most of them abro agree that one way or another they are most of the time over a barrel yet perhaps living high and be ing up a tree are not too far apart these days for most of us let alone for the journalistic oracles socall ed who attempt to mirror and interpret the lives of the million folk who live in nonmetropolitan canada even marilyn monroe in fact there are times when even the publishers of the daily newspapers must wisnr limy could- find seclusion among the upper leaves of some stalwart oak take for example the case of the manager of one of the units in the daily chain which issues a morning paper here on the coast it seems that when his compositors were making up the classified page the other day they found themselv es a bit short of advertisements they decided to fill up the space with the pictures of two well- known hollywood beauties across the top of that classified page as it appeared in print 4 few minutes later was the advertising slogan try one today they are so economical and right beneath that admonition side by side were rather revealing photographs of jane russell and of marilyn mon roe could be 4361428 fcrrors but perhaps not too many of us should laugh at these typographical errors that haunt the days and nights of the journalist we are told for example that the weeklies week the free press serving acton for over 80 years is far from alone in the services to the commercial social political and institu tional life it performs for this community it has brother weeklies across canadas broad breadth who each in their own pressrooms put on paper the births marriages deaths deeds and misdeeds ideas and actions that make the local news for 2392000 canadian families this week with our nearly 800 brothers werq proud to be members of a huge family of editorial clerical and printing workers who present the news week after week this week is national week ly newpapers week the first time observed as such in canada and wed like to use the occasion to say thanks were thanking our readers who at the same time are our cor respondents were thanking our advertisers who make every news paper economically possible were thanking- our staff members the team that puts the papor to bed and out every week and were thanking our community as a whole host to all the activity reflected on these pages this week we may pause possibly take some pride in past achievements as one weekly or reflect on our growing prestige as one of many weeklies however its a short indulgence for next week is another week and by the time this paper is being read were already at work on the next issue kssssrsk 3 modem electronic computers have proven that on each newspaper page there is a potential of no less than 4367428 typographical errors let alone potential mistakes in eng lish or in fatt faced with such an aweinspiring prospect is it any wonder that a number of the weekly editors now in your midst are giving serious consideration to abandoning forev er their groaning presses and their stomach ulcers in the first place while they themselves may be small business men the average full time employ ment in canadas over 800 week 1y twiceweekly an3 efpweekty- that they do tmrs coin offices is under 10 employees per plant nonetheless there are over 5000 men and women engaged in producing the weekly newspapers which today serve 2392400 famil ies well over half the nations- total population three times as big and these close to eight million canadian weekly newspaper read ers constitute a market three times as big as toronto and montreal combined because of the geographical dis tribution of this market its signif icance in the overall canadian economy is sometimes less evident to national advertisers than it is to the local town and village busin essman that it is a substantial market for goods and services however and that the weekly press is the major merchandising factor in this 2382000 family market is well il lustrated by the fact that last year canadas weekly twiceweekly and triweekly newspapers carried close to 12 million worth of adver tising this is an average advertis ing investment of nearly 5 per subscriber family these 2392000 families however paid out over 5 million per year or 120000 per week to ensure that they got a steady diet of home town news and views in their local weeklies the average canadian invests more per issue for his local wee pap than for a other newspaper or magazine of compar able circulation very seal local yokels there is still a lot of canada lot of canadians and a heap of canadian dollars outside the big cities and in the markets served by the weekly newspapers of this country but while weekly news paper publishers can justifiably talk in big figures it doesnt mean despite the fact that there are many weekly newspapers with net paid circulations bigger than number of canadian dailies and despite the fact that there are a number of businessmen of sub stantial financial stature among the country editors of this nation weekly publishers and editors arc quick to admit that they are in a very real sense local yokels indeed their business depends in no small degree on their bcin just that a few months ago in montreal i was attempting to explain to a group of senior public relations experts why it was that so many of their publicity releases so un erringly and so speedily found their way into the giant waste paper basket which- now adorns each weekly editorial office not leven the abomb i had quoted examples both ser ious and comic to try to prove lhat only as the weekly newspaper con centrates its reporting and inter preting on the community it serv es can it hope to perform its true social cultural and economic funct ion therein lies its strength to both reader and advertiser ev ery single bit of news comment arid photography tied to people and places its subscribers know at which the chief publicity nruin of one of canadas larger in dustries commented somewhat caustically i suppose you didnt even print anything about the abomb no i replied and ill tell you why the bomb didnt go off in our trading area and there wasnt one relative of one local resident in hiroshima at the time 1 doubt if- i convinced him no easy task and i may have stretched the point a bit as the editorial pages of canadas weekly press are not entirely unmindful of the world stage its editors however have long since learned the absolute ac curacy of the psychologists finding that man learns easiest by pro gressing from the known to the un known reporting what happens at home to the home folks is the sur est way of correctly interpreting our changing world and like most other weekly ed itors and like most of the several millions who read our papers we are more interested in what hap pens at homo and to home folks than in attempting to interpret the latest twist in the tail of the chin ese dragon or last weeks growl by the russian boar of course publishing a local paper about local people when one isonescif crrtirelyiocar is no easy task in isame glass house may i assure you it is much eas ier for any editor to analyze in public print any one or all of the problems facing the north atlantic treaty organization than it is to express on paper an opinion as to whether the town dump should be moved to a new location or west seventh street be pave yo see very tew people really know mucn about nato but youd be amazed how many local grandstand quar terbacks there are living near the new dump site or on west seventh street the editor of a local newspaper you see has to live in the same glass house in which live all the rest of the people whom he may nick with an occasional editorial stone as publisher and editor you cannot take the position of a de tached observer there are no ex- porienced receptionists or agile of fice boys to ward off irate readers who demand to see the weekly editor your daniels den has a rather steady tenancy of local lions and i do not refer to mem bers if any service club take for example our staff writ er in a nearby town when a siz able forest fire broke out recently on a farm near the community he raced out equipped with camera to get pictures and story for the next days edition picture or scotch pine but the pwner of the scotch pine plantation which the flames were threatening didnt see it that way i as soon as the reporter arrived the farmer told him in no uncertain terms to put away that blasted camera and get a shovel that hed be doing a lot more good fighting the blaze than photograph ing it you know that farmer may have been right is a page one picture worth more than 50 acres of scotch pine local newspaper editors have o practice what they preach on their editorial pages they do a lot of preaching so most of their spare time is devoted to practicing may i read you this obituary notice of a weekly newspaper publisherin the smal village of marmora ont this is how it ap peared in the toronto globe and mall an editors service mamnrj a il i can you picture what life in your town would be like without a weekly newspaper youd have nothing to keep you up to date on happenings right in your own neighbourhood if you had something to sell youd have to go out and ldok for a buyer if you needed to buy something youd have to look all over town for it your neighbours could marry have children r even die without you hearing aboat it until much later council could pass a bylaw affecting you and you might never hear of it plans for worthwhile community projects might never get started for lack of news and support and how would you keep up with the fortunes of the hockey team or the baseball club fortunately your town has a weekly newspaper a source of local information that no other kind of publication can replace over the years canadian weekly editors have lent their support unstintingly to many a good community cause this year for the first time they are celebrating national weekly newspaper week and imperial oil is glad to participate in paying tribute to your weekly newspaper v national whwy nemcswper weekoctob9 i to lj a- v imperial oil limited vt this warks for oar advertisers he is a highly specialized abc circulation auditor who periodically visits our office to examine and verify our circulation information he is also a reporter his findings are published in an easytoread abc report which we make available to our advertisers in a very real sense this man is working for you providing facts about our circulation audience that help you to invest your advertising money on a sound business basis ask us for a copy of our latest a bc report tws m is a wwb of audit suroou of circulations trro nonprofit association of pvblfttiore acrvortisors and advertising ogoo owr circulation is audited by apori- oncod abc circulation auditors our a4c ruport shows haw much drcula hon wo how a- tr goos how ob tainad and othor facts that toll odror- titors what thoy got for thoir- mono whan thoy ino this popor vis actofcr free press 56 mill st acton t i mvonw 174 wendell cabine publisher of the weekly marmora herald since 1907 died in kingston general hospital after a brief illness the son of rev and mrs jago sabine he was born in palmerston in 1871 and educated in western i ontario where his father held sev eral methodist church charges he took his printing apprentices in st marys he was village clerk 10 years served on the marmora school board the marmora continobtlonr school board and later the marmora high school board he was secret ary of the marmora high school board he was secretary of the marmora agricultural society and a member of the marmora public library board i j lie was an elder member of ses sion and lay representative to pres bytery from st andrews presbyt erian church thirty year ago he wai superintendent of the sunday school and adult bible class he was president of the marmora branch of the upper canada bible society and a justice of the peace he was a member of marmora af and am 222 and master of the o4ge in lttl in 1053 he was dxxrm of prince edward district last of tit chamcrs here gentlemen was a commun ity practicef as well as community preacher and a riot untypical one either among weekly journ alists in a day of collectivism- in a time when the great god govern- ment is spreading its tentacles ov- er almost every phase of our life in a day when we are prone to say what can one man do any way here in this field of canadian wekly journalism remain one of continued on pa0ectetxm