Our history
The Sarnia Journal began in 2014 with a straightforward purpose: give people a newspaper rooted in the place they lived.
Its history includes the journalists who asked questions, photographers who paid attention, people who designed and delivered the paper, businesses that advertised and residents who trusted it with their stories.
The publication has changed as the ways people read, the economics of local news and the people carrying the work have changed. Through those changes, the need for local journalism has remained: people paying attention to this place, asking questions and helping neighbours understand what is happening around them.
The first Sarnia Journal appeared on March 6, 2014: a free, 20-page weekly newspaper.
Daryl Smith, a former publisher of the Sarnia Observer, helped bring the publication into being alongside editor George Mathewson and sales manager Paul Brown, who had also worked at the Observer. Sarnia Lambton Business Development Corporation supported the business planning and financing.
The idea was to make a newspaper intensely attentive to local life. Council decisions, neighbourhood concerns, businesses, sports, arts and the people behind them belonged in its pages.
The work extended well beyond the newsroom. Advertising, design, administration, printing and distribution made it possible for reporting and photographs to reach readers each week.
The Sarnia Journal’s early years established the range of work readers came to expect: public affairs, community reporting, local business, sports, photographs, letters and stories about the area’s history.
Early mastheads recorded contributions from reporter Cathy Dobson, photojournalist Glenn Ogilvie, designer Stacey Peters and sales staff Karen Callies and Brian Waring. Over subsequent years, writers and photographers including Tara Jeffrey, Troy Shantz, Bruce Smith and Ronny D’Haene contributed to the publication.
Local historians, columnists, letter writers and residents added knowledge that a newsroom could not gather on its own.
In 2017, the Sarnia Journal expanded its reach with a monthly edition delivered to more than 10,000 additional households in Lambton County.
In April 2018, it won first place for General Excellence in its circulation class at the Ontario Community Newspaper Association awards. The recognition assessed the publication as a whole, including reporting, photography, presentation and advertising.
The pandemic affected both the stories the Sarnia Journal covered and the business that paid for the coverage.
As local businesses closed or reduced their operations, advertising declined. In March 2020, the Sarnia Journal announced that its April print editions would move from weekly to biweekly publication. Reporting continued online while staff worked from home.
Free home delivery ended in November 2021. In April 2022, the Sarnia Journal returned to four print editions a month, with copies available at pickup locations and a paid home-delivery option.
That return was short-lived. Following a summer hiatus, the Sarnia Journal announced a digital-only relaunch in September 2022.
The move changed how readers received the publication and how it could sustain itself.
Read the March 2020 notice to readers and the announcement of expanded print publication in 2022.
On August 1, 2023, Nathan Colquhoun acquired an 80% ownership stake in Sarnia Media Group Inc., the company behind the Sarnia Journal. Journalist and editor Tara Jeffrey held the remaining 20%.
The change brought a question into the publication’s future: how could the Sarnia Journal become something that the people working within it and the wider community could take responsibility for together?
Presentations shared with staff in 2023 outlined a ten-year vision for shared ownership, open-book accounting, editorial independence and more opportunities for local people to contribute.
The intention was to build a publication that could endure beyond the involvement of any one owner.
In his January 1, 2024 blog post, Nathan explained the purchase and the thinking behind it.
He described local media as a place where a community’s understanding of itself takes shape, and connected the Sarnia Journal’s future to his interest in worker ownership and alternative ways of organizing a business.
The post also set out an intention to eventually share ownership with people committed to the publication’s work and protect it from acquisition by a national company.
That account remains part of the Sarnia Journal’s history: a statement of what Nathan hoped to begin when he took it on.
The Sarnia Journal explored a return to print through a monthly magazine alongside its digital publication.
Tara Jeffrey’s reporting, editing and work as a co-owner helped carry the Sarnia Journal through this period. She is no longer involved with the publication.
Her contribution forms part of the Sarnia Journal’s history alongside the work of the people who built and sustained it before and during these changes.
The ongoing challenge has been to sustain local reporting while developing ways for more people to participate in the publication and its future.
The work continues
The direction outlined in 2023 continues to guide the Sarnia Journal: shared responsibility for the publication, open finances and more opportunities for people to contribute.
The work now underway gives those commitments practical form. The people carrying the editorial work shape its direction together, while readers and contributors can better understand how the publication operates, how it is sustained and where they can take part.
Financial and practical support helps keep the publication going. Editorial responsibility rests with the people doing that work, including the responsibility to check facts, treat people fairly and correct mistakes.
Shared stewardship also means making room for others. Reporting, photography, local knowledge, editing, design and practical skills all contribute to a publication. People should be able to understand how to join that work, how decisions are made and who is responsible for them.
These practices will keep developing as more people help carry the Sarnia Journal.
The original ten-year vision remains a reference for that work.
Original presentation, developed in 2023. Its proposals document the direction envisioned at the time.
See how those commitments are taking shape through About the Sarnia Journal, Open books and ways to get involved.
Help carry the next chapter
The Sarnia Journal’s history is still being made.
If you worked on the publication, delivered it, contributed to it or have photographs and records from its earlier years, we would like to hear from you. This account can grow as more people add what they know.
If you want to help with what comes next, there is room for that too.
Reporting on Sarnia–Lambton takes time: reading public documents, asking questions and following up. Your contribution helps the Sarnia Journal keep doing that work and sharing it freely.
Support the Sarnia Journal