With the abrupt end of the venerable Nelson Daily News and its very popular young Weekender offspring, some of us will no doubt recall earlier times with a tinge of bittersweet nostalgia.

In that golden heyday of the community newspaper, the Gazette was for several decades owned, published and edited by our own charismatic curmudgeon, Stan Orris. Whether ensconced in the book-lined chambers of the “House of the Seven Gables”- his heritage home at the very centre of Grand Forks, or in his similarly book dominated and architecturally picturesque downtown office, or at his beloved retreat at Christina Lake, Stan not only informed and entertained his friends and neighbours, but truly reflected the very heart of the community he loved.

Likewise, the Nelson Daily News was for most of a century a very vibrant, often multi-sectioned paper that daily provided, not only a handy summary of the most important world and national events, but also a comprehensive, in-depth serving of everything that was important to the residents of the Kootenay-Boundary. Appreciative readers responded in kind, flooding the NDN pages with letters, and supporting a record-breaking paid circulation that exceeded the total population of Nelson itself!

Times changed, as did the communities themselves, and predatory “black” birds swept in from east and west. “Community” was replaced by “commerce” and its Wal-Mart style bottom-line logic of “divide, conquer and consolidate” (as long as there’s a profit!)…

No doubt the Internet has played a role, but so did Black’s own Nelson Star, which hastened the inevitable. Even so, was a twice-weekly version of the NDN not viable? And, why is a profitable Weekender being closed?

Despite the rise of multi-national chains and absentee ownership, local and regional print media such as the Gazette, Weekender, and the delightful Route 3 have flourished and will continue to be a vital part of our sense of community. If we value that, we should raise our voices – even huge corporations can still be affected by public will.

If we passively accept what they hand out, however, we may live to see the day (already a reality in many places), when only sterile “advertisers” will be circulated as “print media,” and our only community warmth will come from the fading afterglow of nostalgia…