Wherever you visit, a region’s spirit shows in its newspaper
We are all well aware that traditional newspapers have been adapting to a period of monumental change over the last two decades, but it is still true that if you want to get a sense of a town or region’s personality, you can hardly do better than to spend a couple day’s with its local newspaper.
With this thought in mind, I like to pick up copies of the local paper whenever I visit towns outside of Chicago, and I was even more-than-usually curious on a trip to Stratford, Ontario, over the Labor Day (or Labour Day, in local parlance) holiday weekend. The United States is, after all, in a trade war with Canada, and I wondered how that would be reflected, both in the press and in the populace at large.
On the latter score, it is comforting to report that the politics of the national dispute seem to have a minimal bearing on interpersonal relationships. In our experience, they tended to surface more among merchants who lamented that they couldn’t ship products to the states or, to my personal disappointment, import bourbon to make a decent Old Fashioned because of high tariffs. Among everyday people, the differences hardly came up at all, beyond perhaps a roll of the eyes at the mention of U.S. statehood.
Stories in the news certainly showed that the subject weighs on the minds of Stratford locals and their leaders. One article in the Saturday, Sept. 5, Stratford Beacon Herald provided a detailed look at how disputes over tariffs on pickup trucks manufactured in Canada contributed to stalling negotiations with the U.S. Another reported in-depth on a Canadian think tank’s recommendation to, in the article’s author’s words, “turn the other cheek,” rather than retaliate against the 50% tariffs the Trump administration has imposed. Yet another described a local artist’s complaints that the already depressed market for artwork virtually vanished when the tariffs made it unfeasible to sell his products here.
Business stories in the Toronto Globe and Mail that weekend referred matter of factly to “the Trump tariff crisis.”
But, notable as such cases were, it was also illuminating to see — as seems true of local papers in almost any town you visit — that much of the reporting, whether in the hyper-local press of the daily Beacon Herald and the weekly Stratford Times or in the nationally circulated Globe and Mail, the topics that capture people’s attention are remarkably familiar. The names and, to some degree, the circumstances change, but the issues people want to read about would hardly surprise a Daily Herald reader — the rapid advance of artificial intelligence, fears about high taxes, the dangers of data processing centers, serious crime and, especially, local sports, culture and controversies.
One candidate’s list of priorities in his campaign for mayor reported in the Stratford Times says much: “affordability, health-care access, aging infrastructure, growth, sustainability and municipal governance.”
There are, to be sure, opportunities to get a glimpse beneath the skin and see the heartbeat of a town. Hardly surprisingly, both the Beacon Herald and the Times feature abundant coverage of and advertising for the town’s dominant theater presence. But stories like the Times’ front-page feature on the Stratford Filipino Festival or the Beacon Herald’s Page 3 feature on a documentary about “one of the city’s best-known traditions,” the Stratford Rotary’s Dragon Boat Festival, provide real insights into the spirit of the community.
I was reflecting on the dichotomy between national politics and local interests when I came across an interesting quote in a Beacon Herald story headlined “Canadians are happier than they’ve been in years, poll finds.” An executive for the company that conducted the poll emphasized that people tend to rate happiness in local terms.
“People may think the world is going to hell in a handbasket, but the closer your perspective gets, the better it seems,” said the pollster. “Happiness to some degree is reflected by your community around you, your local group of peers … There’s a sense of trust, reliance, comfort in that support.”
Want to gauge that level of happiness in the next town you visit, regardless of its borders, or understand the issues people care about there? Spend some of your time with the local newspaper.
• Jim Slusher, jslusher@dailyherald.com, is managing editor for opinion at the Daily Herald. His book “To Nudge The World: Conversations, community and the role of the local newspaper” is a 2025 Chicago Writers Association Book of the Year and is available at eckhartzpress.com.