Our look back at 2017 continues now with the story of the turning of a page in Moose Jaw.  In fact, the final page. On December 6th after almost 130 years of delivering the news the Moose Jaw Times Herald stopped the presses.

Star News Publishing, which owned the Times Herald, ceased publication in a closure that shut down both the hard copy and digital edition of the paper.

Rob Clark worked as the Times Herald publisher for a number of years before taking on his current role as Executive Director of the Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce.  He believes a lack of corporate vision, combined with changes in technology were contributing factors to the closure.

"Corporate come in here and buy up these papers and took whatever profit out of them and didn't reinvest in them a whole lot."  Clark added,  "and then online and technology was the final demise."

The local closure is part of a trend facing print media across the country.  With widespread acceptance of news and information on digital platforms the traditional method of print delivery has been eroding for years.  

Murray McCormick, a former Times Herald writer, believes technology is one of the main factors for newspapers closing.

"The internet has just hammered newspapers. Back in the day newspapers didn’t take the internet seriously, we didn’t think it was going to be the place to get all of your information."

"Every year now they are closing another one. Its kind of sad and disappointing to see it happen but it's what the reality is. People just don’t go to their local newspapers for local news anymore."

Evidence of that came in late November with the announcement of the closure of 34 papers in southern Ontario.