How a Guelph resident saved a 136-year-old small-town newspaper from extinction

About two decades ago, journalist Mohsin Abbas was sitting in a Pakistani prison, the result of criticizing the government and its rules against the media. 

Then Canada stepped in, gave him and his family refugee status, and now he's giving back the way he knows how: through journalism. 

“I need to be part of the local communities. That's the whole idea,” said Abbas, a Guelph resident since 2020 who still works in journalism, writing for Daily Pakistan, freelancing for the BBC News and running the online Milton Reporter as well as writing the occasional local agriculture article.

Over Christmas he heard a CBC story about the closing of the Tilbury Times, a 136-year-old newspaper that had been shut down by Postmedia.

“The next day I was in Tilbury ready with a domain and some research,” said Abbas, who moved the publication online and is now the publisher.

By Jan. 3, he had the business license and a trademarked name. “Within three to four days, we brought the publishing from scratch to online,” said Abbas. 

But why Tilbury, out of all places, a town near Chatham with a population of around 4,700?

“I have never seen a town make noise about losing the publication as much as this town,” said Abbas.

He said in small towns, it's newspapers that keep communities connected. 

Abbas looked through the local library, scoured the archives and met the people around the neighbouring town to learn more about Tilbury.

“It's got a beautiful history behind it. That was one of the very touchy parts,” said Abbas. “How would you know the history if the paper was not there? We would not be talking about this today. The paper had a reason to be there and was always there.”

Gerry Harvieux, was the Tilbury Time’s editor for 10 years. He was bitter about the announcement of the newspaper shutting down but wishes Abbas the best. 

“It was one of the last, longest-lived paid subscription community newspapers in the province and to me it was the end of an era,” said Harvieux.

“I hope it works out for him. I think he's very sincere. It's obviously a passion for him just like it used to be for me. I think it's gonna be a benefit to the community. If he can pull it off in the fashion that he envisions.”

He said the beauty of local news is finding information that doesn’t matter to anyone else. 

“My greatest satisfaction was always what it did for kids in terms of seeing their accomplishments in the paper whether it was winning a regional science fair, scoring the winning goal or whatever it happened to be, that was an accomplishment of theirs. That was a big deal,” said Harvieux. 

“I still hear it on the street from people that they missed the paper. They miss certain things."

Now ready to slow down from war zones and international news, Abbas said he’s ready to spend more time with his wife and two daughters, who turn 10 and 16 this year.

“I need to relax. My girls are growing up," he said.

He’s also now focused on allowing a small town to continue to have a voice. 

“To write a good future we need to have knowledge of the past so I think to me, it's like usual work I do,” said Abbas. “I'm under pressure to do hard work.

“A lot of people want to speak out about the issues and I'm glad and we are giving them a lot of importance,” said Abbas. 

He said while talking to the media has brought attention to the project, the real work begins now.