Although major newspapers and magazines (e.g. Time) publish Person of the Year and News of the Year, these are selected by journalists and not the readers of these publications.  But the blog format provides a way of measuring interest – the number of hits and the number of comments.  Although the Cobourg News Blog email goes out to about 1200 subscribers, not everyone clicks on the link to read more.  And although others look at the home page, not everyone goes past that to the detailed articles. So what are Cobourg people really interested in? I have listed below what people read about in 2019 with ranking based on hits.  Note that unlike many web sites, the count of hits… Read complete articleHot topics in 2019

With the closing of Cobourg’s only daily newspaper in November of 2017, many have struggled to find out what’s happening.  A group led by Journalists John Miller and Rob Washburn started Northumberland Hub to try to provide a way of steering people to alternative news sources but that closed in February, 2019.  At the risk of leaving out useful sources and expressing an opinion, I thought it’s time to recap how to get news updates if you live in Cobourg.  If you are reading this, you know that Cobourg News blog is part of that but it does not by itself completely fill the gap. The short answer is that instead of relying on a single newspaper for everything, you… Read complete articleNews Sources for Cobourg

On 27 November 2017, Northumberland Today shut down and left a big gap in local News coverage in Cobourg and Northumberland.  Although Northumberland News continued, it only publishes once a week so the rest of the week was left without any coverage.  So John Miller started a group to see what could be done.  The first step was a Town Hall meeting on 20 March 2018 which 160 people attended.  Since John was away, Rob Washburn stepped in to lead discussion.  Although it was apparent that most people wanted a restoration of a daily printed newspaper, it  was apparent that the only option was some form of online service.  Fifteen sites were identified as providing local news so the concept… Read complete articleNorthumberland Hub to shut down

It’s getting to the time of year to have high hopes for the New Year but 2018 was eventful for the world and for Cobourg.  It’s easy to forget what happened during the year – we had two elections so we now have a new Provincial Government and a new council; we had the major cultural event “Armistice 18”; the east pier was shut down; rezoning for a new school in New Amherst was approved despite protests;  people made clear that they were not happy with the closure of the daily local newspaper; and there were many more events that made news. I have listed 23 highlights with a link to a post about it. Some events had several posts… Read complete articleReview of 2018 News

On March 20, a Town Hall meeting was held to get input on what should be done to meet the needs of people in Northumberland for Local News. (See links below for more on this meeting).  Led by John Miller with significant help from Rob Washburn, a small committee was formed to do something.  It adopted the name Local News Northumberland and decided that an online comprehensive daily guide to local news was needed.  At Cobourg Council’s Committee of the Whole meeting tonight, Rob explained how a “Hub” or “signpost” web site is being provided to point to where News stories can be found.  Fifteen news sources have been identified and each day the headlines and lead photo from new… Read complete articleNew Web site Helps Fill News Gap

Recently, MoneySense Magazine announced their 2018 ranks for cities which are good places to live and retire –  and Cobourg’s ranks are slipping.  The table below shows the ranks for 2018 with some of the numbers from 2015 and 2017 for comparison. To calculate ranks, MoneySense looks at “Wealth and economy, affordability, population growth, taxes, commute, crime, weather, access to health care, amenities and culture.”  These are weighted so that money and health get high ratings but culture and amenities are low.  I would weight culture higher and maybe adjust some of the others but these are the ranks that are often quoted.  You have to wonder what such rankings mean – everyone’s idea of a perfect town is different… Read complete articleMoneySense Ranks Cobourg