It would be an understatement to say the media landscape has been under constant pressure and undergoing rapid change.

Meta (Facebook) continues its battle with the federal government, blocking online news from reaching its feeds, or on Instagram, which it also owns. (Google, Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, took a combined 80 per cent share of the $14 billion online ad revenues seen in the country in 2022, according to the federal government.)

Now, in a shocking turn of events that continues to reverberate, Metroland announced the closure of 70 newspapers across Ontario, throwing more than 600 people out of work. This includes Kawartha Lakes This Week, which started in 1977.

It was only a few months ago when the Advocate shone a spotlight on the 10-year anniversary of The Lindsay Post’s demise. Here we are again, chronicling the end of another media outlet. We are saddened by the loss of real news outlets in favour of corporate social media giants.

Planned long before we knew of Metroland’s announcement, we are launching The Business Advocate in October, a magazine focused on business news across the whole Kawartha Region, including Peterborough. It publishes three times per year. Kawartha Social, a lifestyle magazine, will launch in November and is focused on community, culture, food, fashion and home, covering the same geographic region.

The Advocate has received numerous emails and calls about what our response might be as Metroland vacates print news. As this city’s only remaining news and features publication in print, we certainly have a responsibility to do all we can to serve the public interest.

What that might look like involves an honest and logical look at what the community needs and what we have the capacity to do. Rest assured; this is the question that preoccupies us in the shadow of this announcement.

In the meantime, we will continue to serve our readers and advertisers to the best of our ability through The Lindsay Advocate and its new magazines.