Busy, busy!

Jim Cumming
Publisher

This column was written in Toronto. It comes following three days of meetings with other publishers from across Canada. In Saskatchewan, Ontario and the Atlantic provinces publishers and their staffs will be meeting to celebrate the achievements of papers. On Saturday evening three regions will hold their awards ceremonies recognizing photographers, writers, columnists, layout designers.
It is a prestigious ceremony in each region. The Fort Frances Times is up for awards by its writers, its sales people and its electronic publishing department.
Tony Sutton, one of North America’s leading newspaper designers will review The Rainy River Record newspaper. On Friday afternoon Tony will offer suggestions on ways the look and read of the paper can be improved.
Linda Plumridge, Record co-owner, is on the board of the Ontario Community Newspaper Association and will spend a considerable amount of time looking at newspaper industry initiatives that will have an impact on papers across Ontario and across Canada.
Ken Johnston, Record Editor, will be attending the annual Ontario conference. On such a busy weekend coming up, with the skating show, and the Rainy River Winter Carnival, we will have to rely on Anne Mailloux and Linda Johnston to perform yeoman’s service. During the day, the two will be active reporting on and taking pictures of the carnival outdoor activities. In the evening, Michael Hillborne, from the Times, will be on hand to cover the skating events and the crowning of the carnival queens. We will also look to volunteers to help the paper by writing stories and supplying pictures.
Mike Behan, Times Editor, will be away and that will require the staff to shift responsibilities too. This is a busy weekend. The community of Nestor Falls will be hosting their winter carnival this weekend. Micahel Hillborne will be at Nestor Falls. The Muskie Senior boys will be in NWOSSA playoffs against a Thunder Bay team. The Muskie Hockey team hopes to have their series with Kenora wrapped up Tuesday and they look to face the Dryden skaters beginning on Friday. That will keep our new sports reporter Amy Scanlon extremely busy.
Duane Hicks, Times Reporter, will assume the roll of editor in Mike Behan’s absence as well as carrying on his regular responsibilities. Melanie Bechard, Times Reporter, will be covering various other activities across the community. The staffs of both papers will be busy.
The Liberals have announced their nomination day for the new riding of Thunder Bay-Rainy River. Membership sales ended on February 29. The new Conservative Party will be announcing their candidate nomination meeting shortly as will the New Democrat Party. That will quickly bring us to a federal spring election if political pundits are correct.
The doldrums of winter have passed and the residents of Toronto are coming out of hibernation. In Toronto, the north sides of streets are jammed with pedestrians. The people of Toronto are experiencing their first break in winter. They have been blasted by more snow than normal. The temperatures have also been colder than normal this winter.
And just as district residents took advantage of the weather last weekend to begin enjoying spring, Toronto was out this weekend
–Jim Cumming
Publisher