- by Anne Finlay-Stewart, Editor
After watching the final episode of HBO's Succession, I began to think it was time to be clearer about the potential future of the Owen Sound Hub.
In February 2014, I published the first of two editions of The Owen Sound Option, a two-page print piece on pink paper in which I invited the reader to “consider the community you want and invest your energy in creating it”. ...
Two copies of the Option are in the Grey Roots Archives, because ... they existed. Among other subjects, they contain pieces about climate and bees by local young environmentalists, about how some of our neighbours came to Owen Sound and why they stay, and about transportation options that don't even exist nine years later.
I am still hoping to find a way to retain our eight years of Owen Sound Hub archives so they do not end up “theoretical”, like some people's collections of 8-track tapes or cassettes with no working device to make them speak.
There is still a possibility that the Owen Sound Hub might continue to exist with a new publisher or team after my October 28, 2023, deadline. I'm willing to entertain that option with anyone who wants to talk about that.
This is not a matter of simply handing over a loyal audience or my tiny list of essential advertisers to someone new. Anyone (or much more preferably a collaboration of “ones”) would obviously take the Hub in their own direction – places I've never dreamed of – and the audience and supporters would change accordingly.
But if it were to keep the Hub name, I would like to see it retain our basic goals of community building, finding solutions to our common concerns, and amplifying voices of those who are not always handed the microphone.
If that's not the vision of a new owner / publisher / editor, I suggest they find the courage that Michael Den Tandt and Paul Lachine had when they founded Hub Media, and start a new online newspaper with its own look and name. Or use their laptop and a local printer to create a print edition: the Grey-Bruce Gazette, or Owen Sound Sentient, or a neighbourhood East Hill Enterprise or Westside Worrier. In which case we'll let the Owen Sound Hub rest on its legacy.
Just to dispel any rumours: I am not being pushed out by cowardly threats or social media bullies. I'd made my own decision to retire, at least from the 24/7 part of the Hub, before the worst of that began. And as my family has said, no one is under any allusions that I will not start other projects.
I'll still be writing, and in my dreams, I'll be an “Editor Emeritus” – invited to write, edit, and speak about the subjects that interest me most, those that impact our life here together.
In that first edition of the Option I boldly echoed the words of Niels Bohr, the atomic physicist, “Every sentence I utter must be understood not as an affirmation, but as a question.”
I still feel that is important work for journalists and citizens – to be curious, to ask honest questions, to seek and share information and insights that others can use to reach their own conclusions.
