Saskatoon starphoenix Employees will continue to work remotely, as Postmedia Publications announced that the StarPhoenix building will be up for sale.
On Wednesday, Postmedia announced that a dozen Alberta community newspapers will be transitioning to a digital format, which will happen on February 27.
The Saskatoon print facility will also close, resulting in layoffs of full and part-time employees between February and April. Current printing operations will be transferred to Estevan Web Printing.
Former StarPhoenix columnist Les McPherson said, “It really was a great institution for most of my time in Saskatoon and most of my 120 years in the city.”
MacPherson spent 37 years writing sports and general interest columns and following the Saskatoon City Council.
Pointing to a street-facing window at the StarPhoenix while on location with Global News, McPherson said, “That’s my window.”
“I spent a lot of time staring out the window trying to think of something to write about.”
The StarPhoenix has been housed in its current building since 1967, and MacPherson hopes the loss of the physical newsroom will affect the content journalists are putting out.
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Former arts reporter Stephanie McKay said, “A newspaper newsroom is essential.” It really saddens me to lose the ability for all journalists to come together and make each other better.
“There is something truly special in the StarPhoenix newsroom. It was a sense of camaraderie and cooperation within those walls.
McKay was employed at StarPhoenix for 12 years, serving as two interns.
McPherson explained that newspaper owners began to feel lost when writing began to enter a more digital age.
“Profits were trickling down to the newspaper. They weren’t even coming close to making up lost profits on the digital side.
Pieces of StarPhoenix’s history can now be found in the city’s archives.
“There was a time when a newspaper office was a community focal point,” said city archivist Jeff O’Brien.
He explained that the Saskatoon City Archives has a collection of 400,000 photographs submitted by StarPhoenix as a result of a relationship with the Provincial Archives that began in the 1950s.
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“If you want to talk about the history of the city of Saskatoon, the people of Saskatoon, it’s in those pictures,” O’Brien said. “It’s a way of connecting the past very closely to the present in a very detailed way,”
“One of the reasons people are so fascinated with old newspapers is because it’s about us and the whole community.”
McPherson further stated that the loss of StarPhoenix would be huge for the city of Saskatoon.
“Not only in terms of institution, but in terms of coverage of municipal and city affairs.”
StarPhoenix employees will continue to produce content from their homes, as they have been doing since March 2020.
“I know how friendly the people who work at the newspapers are,” Mackey said. “I trust him a lot.”
Although the StarPhoenix building is going up for sale, the paper will continue to print from the new location.
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