[MUSIC PLAYING]
DAVE DAWSON: Everybody has a story.
And in Orillia specifically, our daily newspaper,
told the city's stories for 147 years.
There's not a person that you could
talk to who wouldn't have something
to say about how it touched their life.
And I remember going into the newsroom as a young boy.
And I kind of thought it was a noble pursuit
to be telling people's stories.
That's when something inside me kind of clicked
that there might be something in the future there for me.
26 years I worked there.
I never went a day with my byline not being in the paper.
That was like a badge of honor to me,
because a daily newspaper in a community
this size just becomes bigger than just a newspaper.
But even though the engagement level is so high,
there was never talk about growth or investing.
It was all just about how can we save another dollar,
how can we cut another person.
And when we sold our presses and moved to a strip mall,
that showed that we were going in the wrong direction.
And when we found out that the paper was closing,
it was devastating.
It was personally devastating.
I was at an age where I was like, what am I
going to do career-wise?
What's the community going to do without a daily newspaper?
It was where they turn to find the big stories,
the little stories.
The news from the console chambers,
the hockey score, an obituary, it was how people found out
that people died.
I mean, that's just the reality.
So when that important news source is suddenly sucked away
and there's nothing there, people really
recognized what they were missing.
What was happening was not acceptable in our community.
There had to be a place where they make quality local news
effectively and profitably.
That's when I heard about Village Media and Jeff Elgie,
who's the owner of the company.
JEFF ELGIE: Village Media is a digital-only publishing company
focused on local news media.
People still want that information
about their community that they always got.
What's been disrupted is where they get it from.
So to us, it's, hey, let's take these great people,
this great content and move it over into this business model.
So, really, we were fortunate enough
to be able to connect with the publisher
from that daily paper, some of the regional reporters,
and Dave, their regional editor.
We work with Google, in particular,
with their tools that can enable newsrooms
to do much more powerful things that
were never possible before.
And so we say, look, there's a set of tools for you,
so you don't worry about anything
other than writing a great story, which you've always
done.
And I think, for journalists, when they're focused
on writing, they love it.
And so we knew that the conditions were right,
and we had confidence in the people.
And so it was, let's do this.
And within a month of the paper closing,
we launched Orillia Matters.
DAVE DAWSON: When we launched, our numbers were really strong.
I could tell right away we were really onto something here.
People were coming to our site in droves every day,
every hour, every half hour.
It just blew me away.
I had a friend of mine yesterday say,
I don't miss the newspaper anymore.
Everything I need is right there at Orillia Matters
and is there quicker, I can get it easier,
the paper doesn't get caught in my snowblower--
[LAUGHS]
I always thought I would die a newspaper guy,
but this new chapter has created something awesome.
I think the future is brighter than we thought.