Q+A | 'A hit to the community': Longtime editor of Whitehorse Star on the paper's demise
CBC
Jim Butler, longtime editor of the Whitehorse Star newspaper, says he's been "addicted" to ink and newsprint for nearly 50 years.
"Now it looks like I'm going to be called upon to break that habit," he said on Monday.
After 124 years, the Star is going out of business. It was announced in Friday's edition of the paper. The final issue will roll off the presses next month.
The Star — among the few independently-owned newspapers still operating in Canada — has a history that's closely entwined with the territory itself. It was founded in 1900, when the Klondike Gold Rush could still be considered current events.
The paper started as the Northern Star, and over the years became the White Horse Star, the Whitehorse Daily Star, and since 2019 when it ceased to be a daily, the Whitehorse Star.
Butler says it's been a "surreal" few days since he put the finishing touches on Friday's paper, with the announcement of the imminent closure.
"I went home, filled the birdfeeders, fed the cat, walked to a lookout above the Takhini River valley, and rationalized that despite the very grim ending of my 43 years with this marvellous enterprise, the river will continue to flow and life will go on," he said.
Butler spoke to Yukon Morning host Elyn Jones on Monday, about the end of that "marvellous enterprise."
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
This is reflective time for you, obviously.
The people I feel badly about are not myself, but about my Star colleagues who are going to be out of work next month, and the loyal readers. We're about to enter into a real void of their supply of locally-produced news stories and photos. It's a hit to the community, I think.
There was a group that recently tried to come up with ideas to keep the paper going. What happened?
I can't get into the specifics. We all have to keep the, you know, the nuts and bolts of it confidential.
But talks went on for a period of time early this year, and in the end a mutually agreeable deal could never be made. And that's why the owners decided last week to take the steps that we're taking.
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