In February, Ryan and I went to Port Hope to learn about the not-for-profit Crier of Port Hope. The idea for our book project arose from thinking about the Crier in the first place. It’s a story that many Canadian journalists know, because famous writer Farley Mowat was involved with the Crier, and because it was a direct affront to the shoestring operations Conrad Black’s Southam was running in many small towns in Ontario.
Before we went, we thought it amazing a group of community members got together to start a newspaper, each putting $100 in the middle of a table and running with it. But we found out Port Hope was a special place, and the Crier was hardly incongruous.
Now, we’re writing about our Port Hope experience for our sample chapter to go into our book proposal.
In the meantime, here’s are some photos from our Port Hope experience.
On our way to Port Hope, we met with John Miller, a professor at Ryerson University. He was involved in the Crier and, as a journalism professor, had some interesting perspectives on the significance of their grassroots, not-for-profit adventure.
The group had kept tremendous records. We went to the archives and spent hours wading through them.
The Beamish pub, where the paper was conceived of, upstairs in a community room. Members of the Local Newspaper Committee each slapped down $100 to take an ad in the local Southam paper arguing Port Hope needs a better newspaper. When their ad was rejected, they started the Crier with the money.