‘I’m going to be lost,’ 87-year-old Ontario woman says after local paper closed
When Joan Aikins moved to Barrie, Ont., in 1954, she turned to the city’s paper for everything from local news to deals on diapers for her newborn child.
Four years later, when the Barrie Examiner became a daily paper, Aikins was among the first to subscribe. Even as age and disability set in, Aikins remained a loyal subscriber to what she called a “lifeline” for the community.
That loyalty came to an abrupt end on Monday, when she learned that the Examiner was one of 36 newspapers unexpectedly shuttered as part of a swap between two major media conglomerates.
Now she’s grappling with a genuine loss.