Can online publications truly fill the void?

Re Does democracy need newspapers? Maybe not so much, Opinion Jan. 22

Journalism professor Kelly Toughill is not troubled by shrinking or disappearing newsrooms and the possible impact on our democratic society, saying she is comforted by the emergence of online publications and that reporters from “digital and niche publications” sometimes outnumber print reporters.

A little closer to home, reporters from online pubs have not made up for the disappearance of print reporters in the Queen’s Park Press Gallery. Today there are about half as many full-time reporters at Queen’s Park as there were in the 1990s, and while the Star has maintained a strong and healthy presence there, reporters from other publications such as the Windsor Star, Ottawa Citizen, Hamilton Spectator, London Free Press, Waterloo Region Record, as well as CFPL TV of London and CKCO of Kitchener are now all long gone.

Of course, despite a much smaller Press Gallery, the news from Queen’s Park still gets out. But as newspapers are closed in small towns such as Dunnville or medium sized cities such as Guelph, it is safe to assume that that the likes of Buzzfeed, Huffington Post and Vice will not fill the growing gap in local news coverage.

Will democracy itself suffer due to these changes? Instead of shrugging it off, it would be more helpful to say, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said, that we are all concerned, and it is too early to know how this will result. Greg Crone, Caledonia, Ont.

Late Star editor Val Sears would have given Kelly Toughill a stern lecture on why newspapers are essential watchdogs in all democratic countries. In a parliamentary democracy such as ours, a free press is the only thing that keeps a majority government in check. Newspapers, not the opposition parties, exposed the wayward senators here, and brought down Richard Nixon in the U.S.

Whether online or hard copy, newspapers will always be there to expose corruption in politics, business, unions, medicine, clergy. William Bedford, Newmarket