Not only do they largely rely on social media platforms to build an active following, but they also depend on them for staying informed about news in their area.

Theresa Blackburn, co-founder of the River Valley Sun newspaper based in Woodstock, says the free publication, which started in 2019, has been helped by social media. 

"We started the paper with nothing, and we started basically from scratch, and because Facebook was free it was wonderful," Blackburn said Thursday.

Meta is leaving smaller news outlets scrambling to find an alternative strategy to stay connected with their audience. (Dado Ruvic/Reuters)

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, has been signalling a news ban after the government passed its Online News Act in June.

The law requires big tech giants like Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.

Meta has already begun shutting down Canadian news, leaving smaller news outlets scrambling to find an alternative strategy to stay connected with their audience.

Facebook "allowed us to disseminate information, to have a platform for no real cost and to get everything out there," Blackburn said.

And now she worries that both River Valley Sun and its subscribers will suffer as Meta begins shutting down news on its platforms.

"Ultra-local news is actually doing something good in the community and having the inability to disseminate that to the greater public and to reach as many people as possible hurts us."

A lose-lose game

CHCO-TV is a community cable channel that is already struggling to expand its reach beyond the Charlotte County region to other small towns across southwestern New Brunswick.

That's why it uses Facebook to connect with about 28,000 followers who may not have access to the actual channel on the Rogers system.

Vicki Hogarth of CHCO-TV, in Charlotte County, says her community station may lose its target audience. (Submitted by Vicki Hogarth)

Reporter Vicky Hogarth, the news director of CHCO-TV, worries the station will lose its target audience, while local communities lose access to current affairs and information about events.

"I got the first phone call today from someone in Fredericton who said, 'I can't see you on Facebook anymore,'" said Hogarth. "So I said, 'Can you go on the page and tell me the last post you see?' And he saw one from a couple days ago and then before that he went back six months."

"Fifty per cent of Canadians are already … subject to being blocked from Canadian content on their platforms, so I am a little terrified about what's to come down the line."

Residents of Woodstock and 53 other communities in the area have another source of local news with this month's launch of the River Valley Sun. 

The new publication is the brainchild of a local couple and the former editor of the other local paper, the Bugle-Observer.

Theresa Blackburn, her husband Stephen Chisholm, and former Woodstock Bugle-Observer editor Jim Dumville make up the entire editorial team. 

They have their story meetings around the breakfast table and the layout for the print and online editions is done in the basement. 

'Ultra-local'

The overhead is low, their focus is clear, and they think they've found their niche. They are funding themselves by selling local advertising and sponsored content.

"Ultra-local," Blackburn said. "Produced by people who actually live here, and who are connected to here on a really deep level. The management is right here. The upper management? That's us."

The River Valley Sun is a new free newspaper in Woodstock. (Catherine Harrop/CBC)

The paper, which had a first run of 5,000 copies, is free and is published once a month. 

"Neither of us is planning to get rich or retire and move to the Bahamas on what we make out of this paper," said Dumville. "It's just survival and offering something to the community."

The first edition of the newspaper is filled with articles from volunteer reporters and columnists from Beechwood to Nackawic.

Other paper

The River Valley Sun is only the third independent English newspaper in the province. All the other newspapers are owned by J.D. Irving Ltd.

The last independent newspaper to be published in Woodstock was the Carleton Free Press. It went head to head with the Bugle-Observer, fighting to stay in business.

The paper was started by the former publisher of the Bugle-Observer, Ken Langdon, who began publishing in 2007 despite a court injunction from Brunswick News. 

Langdon filed a complaint with the federal competition bureau, alleging anti-competitive business practices by Irving-owned Brunswick News. 

The Free Press went out of business in a year after an economic downturn and advertisement pricing competition from the Bugle-Observer.

Fearful at time

 Stephen Chisholm delivers the River Valley Sun to the Ayr Motor Centre in Woodstock. (Catherine Harrop/CBC)

It was at that time that Blackburn first thought of doing a community newspaper.

"What happened to [the Free Press] made me fearful," she said. "And there was no way I was starting that. And I don't think I had the understanding and knowledge of the community related to print."

Instead of a newspaper, she and her husband started a magazine called Ageless New Brunswick that has been going for seven years. Now, combined with Dumville's newspaper background, they're taking the newspaper plunge. 

"Really the future of what we become, if we stay the same … the community out there will decide that," Dumville said.

The editorial team is going to work at it slowly and hopes to be publishing twice a month by January 2020.