This past week, a motley crew of The Other Press staff and I journeyed to the far-off land of Toronto to join other papers from across the country for the annual Canadian University Press national conference (NASH). This year’s conference was historic, as it was NASH’s 75th anniversary—if it were a marriage, CUP would be showered with diamonds and gold for sticking together that long.
I kid, of course, but 75 years is a really long time for groups of weird (yet totally passionate) newspaper kids to be gathering and sharing their stuff with each other. I think about the issues that Canadian post-secondary newspapers face today—things like the decline of print journalism in general and the over-saturation of news in society—and wonder what the big issues were when CUP first started in 1938. Could editors back then have ever imagined how much things would change today? Will newspaper editors 75 years from now laugh at how I worry about our social media reach on Facebook? Will there even be newspaper editors 75 years from now?
Indeed, thinking about the past brings forth many questions about the future. Still, there is something comforting about belonging to a tradition that’s spanned generations. This week, let’s all take some time to think about where we stand in the grand timeline of things—whether it be in your family, your job, or the world.
Sharon Miki
