A lot of what’s happening in the world now happens on-line – not just buying stuff (e-commerce) but also news and community interaction.  Most of us have got used to the idea that we can find out facts with an Internet search but the water gets muddied when we search for political or health “facts”.  A lot of this is opinion but it’s often hard to separate opinions from facts. News sites like Cobourg News Blog try to present facts but comments (opinions) are also allowed.  Although I don’t collect personal information like Google does, I can rank which articles got the most attention (hits) and which generated the most comments.  Like all polls/surveys, some interpretation may be required. For example,… Read complete articleWhat was Most Popular Topic in 2021

The problem with news is not that Google and Facebook are stealing it (they just link to headlines of what’s already there) but that there is not enough money in the online advertising by media companies to compensate for the lower revenue from print advertising.  Although major (and minor) newspapers have an online presence that uses material gathered by professional journalists, and Google etc. simply point to this, these sites don’t generate enough revenue to replace what they used to get from print advertising.  Governments – notably Australia, France and Canada – are trying to force Google and Facebook to share some of their revenue but meanwhile the shift in where to get news is happening anyway.  The practical result… Read complete articleA Review of Local News

One of the advantages of an online format with an active community of commenters is that the interest in articles can be measured – both by the number of comments but also by the number of views.  I can’t imagine anyone disputing that 2020 was an unusual year with the biggest local topic being the impact of the virus.  For Cobourg that translated into how many visitors would we get on our beaches.  But there was also a lot of interest in some other things. For example: Changes at the Mall, the Cannabis factory shutting down, Starbucks coming to Cobourg, Woodlawn as a Rehabilitation centre and more. Below is a list of the most popular posts as measured by views… Read complete articlePopular Topics in 2020

One of the things that make this blog different to other News sources is that the Cobourg Community actively comments on articles.  In fact people tell me that’s one major reason they visit this site. Print Newspapers do something similar with their Letters to the Editor and Opinion columns (but without comments).  At one point, Grahame Woods was writing an opinion column on Cobourg Blog and had a good following.  Effective immediately, Cobourg Blog will accept “Letters to the Editor” from any Cobourg resident or business.  They will be clearly labelled as such and as usual with this category, will be subject to rules: the real author will be named but not their email; promotion of events is allowed; advertising… Read complete articleLetters to Editor now Accepted

Publishers, editors and journalists rarely talk about their own industry although lately, print newspapers talk about their dwindling business.  Large news media companies such as the Toronto Star have recently got some publicity but the small ones just seem to fade away.  The Cobourg Star was a daily Newspaper for over a century but recently merged with others until it became Northumberland Today. But when it finally closed in November 2017 (see link below), Cobourg residents were unhappy and were vocal at a “Town Hall Meeting”.  As a result a small group led by Rob Washburn and John Miller started a portal web site (Northumberland Hub – Sept 2018) that provided brief news synopses plus links to all local news… Read complete articleNews in Cobourg – August 2020