As Newfoundlanders say goodbye to a daily print paper, some worry culture will suffer

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ST. JOHN’S, N.L. — Today is the last day for anyone to pick up the major daily newspaper in Newfoundland and Labrador in print.

The Telegram newspaper in St. John’s, N.L., is ceasing its daily print run and switching to a weekly print version with daily news online as Postmedia takes over SaltWire Network, the paper’s parent company.

Nicole Penney with Memorial University’s Folklore and Language Archive says clippings from The Telegram paper are common sights in the folders full of documents about community or family histories that people bring to her office.

She says those carefully collected documents — Telegram clippings included — help tell the social history of the entire province, and it’s much harder to assemble those stories when they’re online.

Newfoundland Quarterly, a 123-year-old arts and culture magazine, is among several publications in the province that rely on The Telegram’s printing press, which Toronto-based Postmedia chose not to buy.

Editor Joan Sullivan says she’s working to find a new local printer, but she worries the other small papers will have to fold or compromise in some way, compounding the loss of The Telegram’s daily print edition.

“Print stays put,” Sullivan said in an interview, quoting Newfoundland author Robin McGrath. “People save it, people cherish it, and people re-read it.”