OPINION: Why I can’t walk away from local journalism, and why I hope you won’t, either

People often ask me why anyone would choose to work in journalism in 2026. The answer is simple: because Canadian communities still need independent journalists asking questions, verifying facts and holding those in power to account.

I started my career in journalism during a far more optimistic time in the industry: with the Kingston This Week in 2009 as a freelance reporter. The pay was, predictably, abysmal, but I loved every minute of it.

I got to attend and photograph all sorts of community events from cattle shows at the fall fair to municipal council meetings, and interview everyone from well-known political and business leaders to folks from all walks of life who were doing remarkable things. Then, I’d turn these photos and interviews into news articles, and was happy and proud to be able to bring them to the community.

A year later, I landed a full-time job with the Kingston and Frontenac EMC weekly newspapers, which eventually became the Kingston Heritage and Frontenac Gazette when they were bought by Torstar/Metroland in 2011. There, I did much the same thing, and felt like I had won the job lottery.

In 2012, I was made editor of both these publications. The new job meant more meetings and desk work, but I still spent a good amount of time out in the community bringing stories to readers. I worked in that role until 2017, when the infamous Torstar-Postmedia “swap” closed dozens of local publications, including mine, and left each company with essential monopolies in communities throughout Ontario.

To say the news landscape changed dramatically between 2009 and 2017 would be an understatement. Twitter and Facebook community groups became the go-to source for information for many residents. For reasons I’ll explain below, I believe this was a dangerous development. But there were a few legitimate gems. In Kingston, for example, residents gravitated toward accounts like Make it Home YGK, started in 2011 by my now-business partner Cris Vilela, for trusted, up-to-the-minute information on what was going on around town.

Also in 2011, the Heritage and Gazette finally got a website (the late KingstonRegion.com), and I jumped on that bandwagon, sharing the stories we worked so hard on for more people to see. Cris eventually came on board as a freelancer, helping the site grow even faster with his practically omniscient knowledge of local breaking news.

Following the abrupt closure of our publications in 2017, I was moved to a job in Metroland’s head office developing editorial strategy through a digital lens for news outlets across Ontario. This eventually led to a position as a digital editor for Metroland’s Ottawa Valley area publications, where I applied these strategies at a grassroots level.

Over the years, I continued to keep in contact with my friends and colleagues from the Kingston Heritage (Cris and Tori Stafford) who started Kingstonist in 2018. I admired and believed in what they were doing, and in 2023 took a voluntary layoff from Metroland to run Kingstonist’s expansion sites: Lanarkist, Quinteist and Brockvilleist.

I must admit, being entirely free of the constraints of print is a breath of fresh air.

Today, readers neither need nor want print newspapers that clutter their homes and recycling bins with old news they read online days earlier.

Times have changed, and that’s fine.

What hasn’t changed is the need for trusted journalism.

In fact, I’d argue that perhaps now more than ever, it’s essential to the health of our society and democracy. We live in an age of anonymous Facebook posts in community groups and algorithms that feed us whatever big tech companies want us to see, resulting in distorted pictures of reality for even the most discerning internet users.

Furthermore, Facebook has outright banned Canadian news from their app in response to the federal government’s Online News Act, leading its many users to consume opinion-heavy accounts of what’s going on from random community members and sometimes outright fake news.

The only actual news that’s on Canadian Facebook these days comes in the form of screenshots and copy/pastes of articles, shamelessly stolen from news publishers by people claiming to be well-intentioned. (So far, the federal government has refused to step in and enforce the Act by making Facebook either ban this stolen content, or pay publishers for its use, but that’s a topic for a future column.)

Subscribers to Lanarkist, Brockvilleist and Quinteist get trusted, professional, algorithm-free news when it happens via push notifications and daily newsletters. We are independent, hyper-local publications with a team that works tirelessly to bring news to the communities we serve seven days a week, 365 days a year.

Telling important stories and holding politicians to account is essential, but it’s far from free. If you value trusted news and information, and living in an informed, healthy democracy, please consider supporting us by becoming a subscriber or advertiser, sending us news tips or even simply reading our work.

Subscribing to newsletters and push notifications is 100 per cent free, but you can also support us financially for as little as $7.95/month, or $79.50/year. Paid subscribers get early access to exclusive articles, an ad-free experience and help to ensure trusted news continues in their community.

As a local, independent business, we don’t have a top-heavy corporate office filled with wealthy executives. We use our profits to hire more reporters and expand the scope of our work.

I am well aware there are far more lucrative career paths I could pursue. But journalism is my life’s work. I can’t in good conscience abandon it, especially during this tumultuous time we are living through.

I hope you choose not to abandon it, too.

Hollie Pratt-Campbell is the Editor-in-Chief of Quinteist, Lanarkist and Brockvilleist