Prairie Dog turns 31, literally thanks to you
Editorial | Stephen Whitworth
Happy groundhog day! Also, happy birthday to us! Prairie Dog turned 31 today. Thirty one!
The ’Dog almost didn’t make it.
Most readers know the story at this point. Like media outlets everywhere, Prairie Dog and its sister-paper Planets S in Saskatoon have been hurting for a long time. Between ad poaching and censorship by social media monopolies, a global pandemic and economic slump, a business-saving CEBA loan coming due, and boycotts by conservative ad buyers who hate it when we print radical ideas like “don’t crush poor people” and “climate change is real”, running an independent newspaper hasn’t exactly been the trip to alternative news party town Prairie Dog’s founders envisioned when we launched Feb. 2, 1993.
I’ll go into more detail in next week’s What Just Happened? column (yes it’s coming back!), but in brief, after the Dec. 14 edition, publisher Terry Morash called me to meet to discuss shutting it all down. It had been a long time coming. CEBA was the immediate terminal threat, but debt and poor revenue prospects had grown into a two-headed monster that looked unbeatable.
With nothing to lose, we set up two CEBA/Business Crisis GoFundMe campaigns to at least keep the possibility alive that we could somehow wriggle out of the fiscal coils squeezing the life out of us.
Long story short, Regina’s response to our cry for help was great. Hundreds of you (435-ish) donated, some quite generously. Local news media spread the word (well, reported on an interesting local story—but we appreciated it).
You’ve convinced me and Morash that alternative media might be viable in Saskatchewan.
We’re now back to publishing online and fighting hard to get back to print. Will we pull it off? No promises! Will we still be alive in April? No guarantees! But we WILL say this: the fact so many of you showed up to help proves it’s possible to keep Prairie Dog going.
It won’t be easy — or cheap — but you proved it’s possible to do this. And you’ve convinced us we might be able to build a paper that’s not just clinging to life but could be bigger and better than ever.
It all comes down to community support. You sent us a clear message: Prairie Dog has it. That’s the best birthday present ever.
Let’s see how far we all can run with this thing, together!
The battle isn’t over! Support Prairie Dog with a donation here (e-transfer), here or here. Cheques can be made out to Friends of Prairie Dog and mailed to PO Box 37069 Regina South, Regina SK, S4S 7K3. And spread the word to friends and strangers, in person and online on social media (let’s use it for good for a change)!