The Porterthe only written newspaper dedicated to informing eastern Minganie, on the North Shore, is in danger on the eve of its thirtieth anniversary. The cause: the “incomprehensible” end of a federal subsidy of approximately $40,000 that allowed this community weekly to hire its only journalist.
Since five years, The Porter was receiving support under the Local Journalism Initiative, a program specifically set up in 2019 for Canadian media outlets to “hire journalists” and “produce civic journalism content aimed at underserved communities.”
Ottawa allocated nearly $60 million in its last budget to extend the IJL until 2027. Even before The Porter renews its grant application – and receives the funds promised by IJL since January – the program managers informed the Natashquan weekly, based in the Saint-Dilon house famous for the dance sung by Gilles Vigneault, that they were cutting off its supplies.
“We received a very vague email indicating that the jury had to make difficult decisions and allocate funds where they are most needed,” explains the newspaper’s director since October 2023, Annie-Jade Creamer-Éthier.
“I admit that I found it a little inconceivable that The Porter is not a priority, given that we have only one journalist and we are the only printed newspaper that covers our territory.”
A newspaper without journalists
Without this federal aid, the weekly newspaper can no longer afford to pay the salary of its only reporter. “The grant has changed a lot of things for us. It helped us hire a full-time journalist: before, it was the director who was responsible for relaying and reporting on events happening in the region. A journalist allowed us to have more detailed, longer, and more diverse articles.”
Before the hiring of journalist Julien Greschner last January, The Porter depended on volunteer contributions from the community to fill its pages. “I brought stability,” the employee explains. “Before, the newspaper had to wait until it had accumulated enough articles to publish. It wasn’t one issue a week, it was more like one issue a month.”
Since his arrival, The Porter, to meet IJL criteria, must produce a minimum of five articles per week. “We have published every week since I have been here,” says Julien Greschner, a Joliette native who fell in love with the Côte-Nord.
“I want to settle in Natashquan and I saw myself in the long term with the newspaper,” laments the journalist, a geographer by training. “Let’s just say that the axe came sooner than expected.”
Thin sources of income
Printed in approximately 530 copies each week and distributed free of charge in Natashquan, Baie-Johan-Beetz, Aguanish and the Innu community of Nutashkuan, The Porter relies largely on aid from the Ministry of Culture and Communications of Quebec (MCCQ) and on revenues from around forty subscriptions at $46 per year.
“We have a recurring grant from the MCCQ, but it’s starting to decrease every year,” says the director, who has been in office for less than a year. “We also have a community printing service that brings us a little bit of money, but it’s not our livelihood either.”
The end of the subsidy threatens to transform eastern Minganie into an information desert, fears Julien Greschner, and to contribute even more to its isolation. “Each community has its own communications networks to share news,” notes the journalist. The Porteron the other hand, is pretty much the only one capable of building bridges between them.”
Without subsidy, The Porter will continue to exist – but for how long? “I could wear the journalist hat in addition to my role as director,” believes Annie-Jade Creamer-Éthier. “I don’t know, however, if I could do that for long.”
The weekly is now appealing to the community to replenish its coffers and extend the services of its journalist. “What is in danger is a bit of our bulletin board and also our voice,” concludes the director originally from Montreal. “We cover a lot of events, but also the exploits accomplished by the Minganois. It would be a shame to lose this podium that highlights the good deeds of the people here.”