Kenney believes in weekly newspapers for messaging

By Justin Seward

Commentator/Courier

A St. Albert Gazette journalist questioned Premier Jason Kenney whether or not he feels the government thinks newspapers are a viable advertisement vehicle for informing the public now and into aftermath of the pandemic at a rural roundtable on June 11.

“I certainly believe weeklies constitute a channel of communication in a world where so-called old-school newspapers are falling out of fashion and traditional readership of physical newspapers is on the decline,” said Kenney.

“We know that in rural communities, weeklies continue to be widely shared and read, and are a unique local source of information that in many cases binds communities together. Weekly newspapers are a key part of life, especially in many rural communities and we want to ensure they have a strong future. We also acknowledge that weekly newspapers have had to address the transition in the media world to increase their digital offerings. And that takes money and that takes investment as well.”

Kenney believes the Government of Alberta has always been a significant advertiser across the weekly newspapers.

“I hope you’ve seen that in the past year in particular as we’ve had pretty big ad buys around public health messaging,” said Kenney.

“You’ve certainly have  my commitment that will continue to be the case in the future.”

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