By Michael Regenstreif
As noted in a brief report on page 17, the Canadian Jewish News (CJN) announced, April 22, that it would cease publication with its issue of June 20. It was a sad and most unwelcome announcement for those of us who practise Jewish community journalism, indeed, for the entire Canadian Jewish community, particularly those in Toronto and Montreal, Canada’s two largest Jewish communities – the markets the CJN primarily served.
The CJN published Toronto and Montreal editions. Each edition had its own local news stories, columnists and ads, and the two editions shared major stories, columnists and nationally targeted advertising.
As it happened, I had a phone conversation with Mordechai Ben-Dat, the CJN editor, at about 9:45 that morning. A few hours later, after the closure announcement was posted on the CJN website, I emailed Mordechai to say how shocked and saddened I was by the news; that I’d had no idea this was happening when we chatted earlier. In his response, he told me the CJN staff received the news at 10 am – a few minutes after we got off the phone.
I had a long history with the Canadian Jewish News. As a freelance reporter and feature writer for the CJN in Montreal from 1990 until my move here to work at the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin in 2007, I wrote countless articles for the CJN. Although I’d been writing for newspapers – primarily the Montreal Gazette – and magazines for many years, mostly as an arts journalist, and continued to do so after I started with the CJN, it was my entry into Jewish community journalism. I’ve continued to read every issue of the CJN since my move to Ottawa – the Montreal edition, which we receive at home, and the Toronto edition, which comes to the Bulletin office.
The CJN’s journalists are among my colleagues in the small field of Jewish community journalism – and some of them are friends – so this bad news hits close to home.
At first, there was some hope the CJN would survive as an online news site.
“If the CJN is to be a vibrant part of the future, it will only be as an enhanced and expanded digital edition. That is our hope. However, the CJN will disappear from your mailboxes and the newsstands,” wrote Donald Carr, the CJN’s board president, in the initial ‘message to our readers’ posted on the CJN website.
A second message, headlined “The CJN to close,” posted later in the day was more telling.
“The Canadian Jewish News will cease publishing in two months,” it read. “The board of directors arrived at the decision on Friday, April 19, having regard to the fact that there were still assets on hand with which to provide meaningful severance to the newspaper’s employees and to wind up operations properly.”
The CJN has about 50 employees plus freelance contributors and there’s been no mention that anyone would be retained to develop or staff an enhanced and expanded digital website. It just can’t be done without editors and writers to develop content and some sort of sales staff to make it economically viable.
Within a day or so of the CJN’s closure announcement, an online petition to save the CJN was launched. Although more than 1,500 electronic signatures were garnered in its first few days, its success is probably a very long shot.
Newspapers are an essential part of the glue that holds a community together. Jewish communities, in particular, have a rich tradition of community newspapers. The Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, for example, has been part of this community’s fabric for more than 75 years. The communities served by the CJN will be much poorer without it.
The whole nature of newspaper and magazine publishing is changing very rapidly in this digital age. Although the Bulletin has a loyal subscriber base, evidence shows that many, particularly young adults, are turning away from print and toward their screens.
That’s why the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin is currently in the process of redesigning and modernizing our print edition and preparing a new and dynamic Bulletin website as part of our strategy to carry us forward in a way that continues to serve our traditional readers and brings many new and younger readers onboard. We’re scheduled to re-launch the Bulletin with our Chanukah community-wide issue in November.
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