Linda Wykes, owner of Riverside Press, who makes her living printing business cards, flyers etc., also publishes and prints a community newsletter called The Blue Mountains Review, based in the village of Clarksburg, Ont.When the local paper in the town of The Blue Mountains, Ont., shut down five years ago, Linda Wykes decided to step in and fill the void.
Ms. Wykes’s troubles illustrate the potential pitfalls as local newspapers close down and inexperienced citizens try to fill the gaps. In Ms. Wykes’s community alone, the Blue Mountain Courier Herald and the Meaford Express closed within the past five years. Further east, Metroland Media shuttered the Barrie Examiner and the Orillia Packet & Times after acquiring them in a swap with Postmedia in November, 2017.
She considers herself a publisher but not a journalist and has never had any article reviewed by a lawyer. She presumed any potential liability resided with the authors of the bylined articles or the official sources of the information. The letter added that the statements “maliciously prejudice Ms. Ardiel’s campaign for Mayor of the Town of Blue Mountains.” Later that fall, Ms. Ardiel failed in her bid to be elected mayor .
“His name was on it, he owned it, so I thought, ‘Well, I guess if he really, really wants to tell people where things are now, I guess he can,’ ” she explained.