Sure, we’re still hearing about layoffs and even Canada’s Globe and Mail came close to being paralyzed by a strike recently, but the news in the media biz isn’t all bad.

Not content to sit back while local papers owned by large chains suffer, a small group of former Sun Media employees have launched an independent community weekly paper and website for Hinton, Alb. called The Hinton Voice.

Meanwhile, a reporter at another independent newspaper, the Winnipeg Free Press, took what she learned at a computer-assisted reporting course at the CAJ conference and put it to good use for a story probing dirty restaurants in the city.

And yet another independent publication, Vancouver’s The Tyee, picked up a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award last week for a news website not affiliated with a radio or television broadcaster.

Despite tough economic times, it is still possible for journalism to thrive, whether it’s a community newspaper, a local online news site or one reporter digging through government records for a public service story at a metro paper.

(Image by jovike. Used under Creative Commons licence.)