As Jasper, Alta., burned in the unprecedented wildfires of the summer of 2024, the Jasper Fitzhugh, a weekly community newspaper, reported faithfully on the incident. And as the town began to rebuild and restore infrastructure, the Fitzhugh reported extensively on their progress; for example, alerting readers to the deep cleaning required in Jasper’s schools and the work of volunteers recovering items from damaged homes.

Yet, only one year later, on Aug. 11, 2025, editor Peter Shokeir announced the Fitzhugh’s closure. After twenty years of service to the Jasper community, the newspaper was no longer financially sustainable — the wildfire had destroyed local businesses that previously supported the Fitzhugh through advertising revenue. 

It was the final blow to a community paper facing the same challenges as most local Canadian news outlets: consolidation and layoffs, ad revenue flowing to social platforms rather than news publishers and fallout from Bill C-18, the federal law passed in 2023 requiring online platforms (specifically, Meta and Google) to remunerate news producers for their content.

Meta responded to Bill C-18 with its now-infamous ‘news ban,’ blocking users from sharing links to Canadian news articles. The ban had disastrous impacts on the reach and viability of local news outlets. Research suggests nearly a third of small Canadian outlets stopped using their Facebook and Instagram pages in........

© National Observer