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

At an event at the Cobourg Community Centre on Thursday, several Tourism marketing initiatives were presented.  Information intended to attract Tourists to Cobourg will be provided to locations across Ontario and the marketing material will have a new look with the focus on Experiences.  The Town’s Tourism web site (although still on line) will be superceded by a new one: ExperienceCobourg.ca – the idea is to not overdo the details and encourage visitors to get more detail at the web site.  At the program launch, a collection of Souvenirs produced by Hoselton Studios was unveiled.  These will be sold at Tourism centres in Cobourg; that is, at 1) the Tourism office in the Market Building behind Victoria Hall and 2)… Read complete articleTourism Marketing Launched for 2018

On March 20th, a Town hall meeting was held at Victoria Hall on the subject of “what to do about the loss of a daily newspaper?”  The Town was supportive by waiving the Hall rental so organizer Rob Washburn reported back on Monday on what came out of it.  Rob said that there were about 150 attendees and that it “was an unqualified success”.  People were passionate about the subject and showed that they were interested in a wide range of topics: not just politics but also community organizations, cultural groups, and events. Since then news providers have expanded: Northumberland News has expanded, 89.7 FM is producing more news, Today’s Northumberland was recently created, the Burd report has started up… Read complete articleUpdate on Local Newspapers

About 160 people were at the meeting in Victoria Hall tonight led by Rob Washburn.  When Rob introduced it he said that it was more a conversation than a meeting – no decisions were made but a lot of ideas were presented.  At the meeting I saw many political figures: Lou Rinaldi, John Henderson, Brian Darling, Aaron Burchat, David Piccini and Adam Bureau. During the meeting many of the local journalists and media representatives were there and spoke up – too many to name individually.  These included Northumberland News, SNAP, CHEX, My Broadcasting, FM89.7 as well as Social media: Now Network, Cobourg Media and Cobourg Internet.  Many in the audience spoke of many years of experience in newspapers or radio… Read complete articleGood Turnout at Town Hall on Local News

Many people in Cobourg and nearby areas were unhappy when Northumberland Today closed down. The weekly Northumberland News and various blogs (like this one) do not fill the big gap.  What’s needed is not just a daily coverage of all kinds of news but also coverage of community activities such as entertainment events, births, engagements, deaths and club meetings as well as local classifieds – preferably daily.  And of course multiple reporters (and others) were put out of work.  But John Miller, professor emeritus at Ryerson University School of Journalism and resident of Port Hope, wanted to do something. With the help of interested citizens and in particular, Rob Washburn, John got people discussing the issue.  John is “out of… Read complete articleTown Hall meeting proposed re Local News