2016 was a tough year for many of us.
Everyone faces struggles of some kind, whether it relates to health, work issues or financial hardships. The best we can do is support others through those battles, hoping health returns and things get better.
For some, those chances for better days don’t come about, leaving those of us left behind to celebrate and honour the departed.
We offered that advice to some people very dear to us who had lost a friend. Rather than morph into a state of depression, they owed it to their friend to honour that person by excelling and doing well.
The part we left out though, was things will never be quite the same. Life will be different.
In recent weeks we have heard of numerous businesses changing hands. Businesses run by families, some for generations, have been sold off. Instead of going in to see Mr. Smith, patrons will now have to meet with XYZ corporation. Mr. Smith sold the business and it won’t be quite the same ever again.
Despite assurances to the contrary, the company won’t be as charitable and the deals won’t be as sweet, because XYZ corporation is focused on profit, rather than the satisfaction gained by serving its community well.
For the second time this year, Metroland media group has shuttered a Newspaper. Earlier this year it closed the Guelph Mercury just shy of its 150th anniversary.
This past week it officially closed the Fergus-Elora News Express, a faithful servant of its readers for over 160 years. It could be argued the closure was underway the day the Toronto Star, through its subsidiaries, purchased the paper.
At the time, it was announced the Star would bring its full resources to make a great paper better. But the fact is, the ransacking of the operation started within weeks of a new manager showing up. First it was staff layoffs, then they shrank the size of the paper and, in recent years, closed offices in Fergus and Elora. The same pattern of neglect is reflected throughout the county, where all but one Star Newspaper offices have been closed, with old phone numbers call forwarded to headquarters in Listowel.
In a stroke of irony befitting such a corporate behemoth, the announcement in last week’s News Express mirrored almost word for word the hasty exit it made from Elmira 18 months ago when it closed the Independent for good.
We thank readers for their loyalty and businesses for their patronage in 2016 and look forward to serving you even better in 2017.
