The waves from Quebecor Inc.’s recent announcement that they would be axing 500 jobs at Sun Media Corp. rippled their way into Cochrane last week.
After 11 years of service for the Cochrane Times, as editor from 2001-2008 and publisher since 2008, Darryl Mills is one of the many across the country faced with making a career move.
But Mills said he’s leaving Sun Media on good terms and in good spirits, with fond memories of his tenure as publisher of the small-town paper.
“I always wanted a job where I felt I was making a difference and impact on the community,” said Mills.
“The best thing about this job is coming into work and not knowing what’s going to happen every day.”
Mills said he has particularly enjoyed the competition between the Times and the Eagle over the last 11 years — a necessary evil in journalism that motivates quality copy.
“I was definitely brought in to battle the Eagle and it’s been a good 11 years of solid competition,” laughed Mills.
For the better part of the last two decades, Mills has made a career for himself in journalism, beginning at the University of Winnipeg.
Since moving to Cochrane in 2001, Mills has gone from being editor of one newspaper to publisher of four Sun Media newspapers, beginning in 2008.
He admitted that the hectic pace of overseeing four papers simultaneously— the Airdrie Echo, Banff Crag and Canyon, the Canmore Leader and the Times — became wearing.
“If I have one disappointment about being a part of the many branches, it’s that it pulled me away from the community . . . I used to be really involved with the community of Cochrane when I first moved here
. . . I had amazing staff in all four branches. Without having a strong staff, it would have been much more challenging.”
Mills has been involved with various high school sports and organizations including the Cochrane Youth Association, the Chamber of Commerce and Cochrane and Area Victim Services.
The former Times publisher is still optimistic about a future in journalism, in spite of the massive layoffs faced by various industry professionals since the advent of the Internet.
“People have been predicting the death of newspapers since before I became an editor,” said Mills. “I think there’s always going to be a place for newspapers, it’s just a matter of adaptation. . . people are always going to need good journalism and I think newspapers are still the most trusted news source out there.”
Mills added that in this day and age, filled with citizen blogs and tweets, people are in need of good, credible journalism more than ever.
Looking back on his own time as editor for the Times and some of the more controversial stories he covered, he said it always came down to one thing.
“At the end of the day, if I had been fair and accurate, I could sleep at night.”
The layoffs by Sun Media Corp. are in response to decreased advertising revenue and rising Internet competition.
The media conglomerate will be closing two printing plants in Ottawa and Kingston as part of this restructuring phase, which will mean the loss of another 100 jobs.
The company will be centralizing copy editing and pagination through Toronto, cutting some 27 jobs conventionally held by journalists.
Mills said the publisher’s position will not be eviscerated, only shifted in a different direction.
“They’re definitely changing the focus and specific duties of publishers.”
Paul Morse, head of the Southern Ontario Newsmedia Guild, made a clear statement last week about the devastating impact the massive layoff has had on the industry as a whole.
“The erosion of these kinds of jobs is a significant problem for newspapers that are going to be dealing with trying to put out quality journalism with workforces that are clearly stretched beyond the limit. . . . This is a terrible day for journalism in Canada,” Morse told the Toronto Star last week.
Mills said he’s looking forward to moving on to “big, exciting things”, as he shifts his career in another direction.
