I called Dan Senick one night and asked him if he knew the Davidson paper was for sale for $1. Dan said he knew and was meeting owner Tara de Ryk in two days. I am always the last to know. Wanting to retire, Tara decided to sell the paper for $1 to a person or group committed to keeping The Leader alive. There were 12 entries, with Dan taking first prize. The paper will relaunch in January.

These are hard times when it comes to selling papers, but there is incredible value when it comes to sharing and providing news in communities. Daily papers have taken a beating from the Internet, but people in towns and villages rely on their local paper for news. There aren’t many alternatives. People at weekly papers put in many more hours than those at dailies. When I was at the StarPhoenix, we would sometimes hire people from the weekly world. They couldn’t believe that it was possible to make more money and work less.

It is great that Tara came up with a unique way to see that her paper continues to publish. It was great that Saskatoon media picked up on her story and spread the word. It was great that Dan, and all those others, stepped up. As many of you might know, Dan is the publisher of this paper, as well as magazines named Living 55+ and Women of Saskatoon.

Some of the gang that once worked for the Saskatoon Express, specifically Carol Trapp and Aaron Shutra, have been carrying the advertising ball on those products. They will manage accounts in Davidson and area. The Express closed its doors in May, just a month short of an eight-year run. In the world of newspapers that was an amazing feat for a start-up. That it survived eight years in the shadow of the StarPhoenix was pretty darn good. It survived at a time when national advertising went from hundreds of thousands of dollars to hundreds of zeroes of dollars.

It should be mentioned again that local owners wanted to keep the Express going. Had some fresh ideas that were being discussed been implemented, and some costs cut fairly painlessly, it may still be publishing. The beanies in Vancouver saw it otherwise. The same beanies have shuttered papers in other Saskatchewan communities.

Dan is running a lean machine with the new products. People work from their homes and the unofficial office is the Tim Hortons in Rosewood. Dan takes his coffee black, if you should ever have the urge to buy him one. I was proud to spend what I thought were the last eight years of my newspaper career at the Express. In total, I spent 42 years in the newspaper game. The first 10 and the last eight were the best of my career.

Since the Express closed, I have been writing columns for this paper and Living 55+. I will continue to do that and will be a proud contributor to The Leader. I asked Mayor Tyler Alexander if Leafs jokes will fly in Davidson. He seemed to think they would. We won’t be a bunch of city slickers, taking from the communities that The Leader covers. While newspapers are a business, those of us affiliated with the paper want to give back. That will be provided in both our presence and commitment to local news. You have to know what makes a community tick to properly cover it. Dan, Carol and I attended a town council meeting on Dec. 17. It was wonderful.

Tara de Ryk lived in Saskatoon and spent a fair chunk of her week in her Davidson office. Dan will be in Davidson at least one day a week, and the rest of us won’t be strangers. The newspaper’s office will be open four days a week. Dan has enlisted the services of long-time journalist Darren Steinke to cover Davidson and area. Darren provided much of the sports coverage in the Express. He had long stints at the daily papers in Prince Albert and Medicine Hat. He is an outstanding writer and photographer. More than that, he is passionate about the newspaper business.

The Leader covers a lot of territory, which includes the communities of Dundurn, Hanley, Kenaston, Bladworth, Craik, Imperial, Elbow, Strongfield and Loreburn. I hope I didn’t leave anyone out. I curled in many of those communities in the 1970s. One of the best nicknames in curling was the one given to the late Stan Austman. He was known by some as Steamer Stanley from Hanley. It seemed odd, given Stan was born in Kenaston.

At a time when the StarPhoenix has in the range of 13,000 subscribers, The Leader has approximately 1,200. That is incredible and a tribute to Tara and the loyalty of her readers.

Long live The Leader.

-Cam Hutchinson