Sun will continue to grow from new home

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 13/05/2022 (1484 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

When the Brandon Sun first moved into its sprawling home at 501 Rosser Ave., the company was already 84 years old and had enjoyed a lengthy and prosperous history within the community.

Plans for the move from the Sun’s previous home on 10th Street had begun a year earlier, with the purchase of the property — a whole city block — from the John Deere Plow Company.

Six months from that purchase date, the old John Deere building, initially built in 1947, was completely remodelled, then becoming the city’s “most modern business premises” for the period.

And for the intervening 58 years, this building has been the production hub for generations of Sun employees — from publishers, editors, journalists and photographers to press workers, accountants, newspaper delivery workers, warehouse staff, sales staff and everyone in between.

I have had the great honour of witnessing just how amazing that operation has been in this community. When I started with the newspaper nearly 17 years ago as a news reporter, I used to spend some of my spare time after my shift was done, watching the newspapers roll off the printing press in our warehouse. The image is burned into my memory of the press operators, with colourful ink still fresh on their fingers and overalls, flipping through the pages to check if the registry of the print job was properly aligned.

Giant rolls of paper, ink by the barrel, and a busy evening schedule of plating, calibrating, and delivery would begin. That period in the Sun’s history was inspiring to my younger self, and I know precisely the sense of loss many in the community have felt when those presses fell silent, and other presses in another city began printing our region’s daily newspaper.

As someone who has long had a keen love of this industry, I felt it too.

But time and tide, they say, wait for no one, and this was only one of a flurry of changes our industry has experienced over the last two decades. While much of that change has been very difficult for proven media such as the Sun and other media operations in our country, it’s also been difficult for the communities and readers who we serve in western Manitoba.

Truly, the rise of digital news reporting and social media have been both a blessing and a curse as news media attempt to navigate the changing landscapes. The last two years during the pandemic, in particular, have hastened the need for many of those changes to take place sooner, rather than later. Brandon’s financial pain, and that of its business district, has also been our pain.

Yet there have been improvements and silver linings that deserve mention, even among the pains we have been experiencing. As we have previously announced, The Brandon Sun will be moving to a new location at 800 Rosser Avenue, Unit D7 next week in the Town Centre. It’s a change that will better reflect the modern newsroom we are attempting to become as part of our company’s transition to a more digital and mobile media company. Together with our sister paper, the Winnipeg Free Press, we continue to operate under our parent company, FP Newspapers Inc.

We are a smaller, but more nimble operation, one that no longer requires the sprawling expanse to which we had been accustomed. And I’ll admit, even for me, realization of this will take some adjustment as we work out the kinks in our new office space and roll with the changing media landscape.

Such change is never easy – in fact it’s often messy and exasperating. Those who remember the so-called “golden area” of newspapers will find this especially true. Nevertheless, our company staff have spent a large number of hours learning new systems and technology, embracing that change even as we bid a long goodbye to our former offices. It has been a trying time for them, and for readers attempting to navigate all our system changes.

I would ask that the public bear with us for a few more days as we make our final move to the new location. Our offices will be closed on Monday and Tuesday so that we can make the official move into the Town Centre. If you need to reach us, calls to our advertised phone lines and emails will continue to be answered and responded to.

The readers and business owners of this city and of communities in western Manitoba have given us their trust and readership over the last 140 years, and thus the means to continue telling our community’s stories, no matter what location in which we have found ourselves. It is a responsibility that we do not take lightly as a news organization, and a history with this city that I personally wish to respect and honour in the years ahead.

For that reason, the Sun continues to invest in improvements to our news gathering operations, so that we can do an even better job of providing our region with the news it needs and deserves.

From our new weekly podcast, “Sunny Side Up,” and our e-edition to daily online news updates, increased social media interaction and digital advertising, the Sun will continue to meet the needs and wants of our growing city.

Should you have any questions or suggestions, comments or critiques, you will find me as always at mgoerzen@brandonsun.com and by phone at 204-571-7445.

» Matt Goerzen, editor