In The Decline and
Fall of the Kingston Whig-Standard, published by the online news magazine
Straight Goods, author Jamie Swift questions a series of ownership and staff
changes at the newspaper – and takes the managing editor to task for holding a
board seat on the local Chamber of Commerce. Indeed the past year has provided
plenty of opportunity to ruminate over ‘the good old days.’ In a post-mortem on the
Halifax Daily News, Stephen Kimber writes: “With each change in ownership,
the newsroom’s hopes would rise — ‘Black’s a newspaper guy,’ ‘CanWest has the
resources,’ ‘Transcon wants us’ — only to be dashed within a few months. Inevitably,
the paper’s journalists would soon wax nostalgic for their last, better bad
owner.” Was there once a better, stronger, more pure journalism – or was it all
self-delusion? It seems even the Weekly World
News will be missed.