Village Media

Village Media is a Canadian media company, which operates a number of hyperlocal online news and community websites throughout Ontario.[1]

Village Media's news sites focus on providing local stories written by local journalists in the communities that they serve.[2] In addition to local news, the sites offer weather, events, obituaries, and a wide range of community information. Village Media is known for supporting local events and charitable causes.

The company also maintains content and marketing partnerships with community newspapers in several other Ontario cities, including TBNewswatch.com in Thunder Bay and Manitoulin.ca on Manitoulin Island. Village Media was also a partner with the defunct LocalXpress in Halifax, providing them the publication platform.

History

SooToday.com was originally launched in 2000 as a regional tabloid shopping and business directory,[3] owned by former broadcaster Dick Peplow.

Following significant news cutbacks at MCTV, which merged all of the region's local television newscasts into a single regional program produced in Sudbury, SooToday began producing locally focused news content. In doing so, they became one of the first prominent Canadian ventures in hyperlocal web-only media.[3] Peplow launched sister site BayToday.ca in 2003.[3]

Following Peplow's death in 2007,[4] local IT consultant Jeff Elgie, formerly a minority investor in the site, increased his ownership stake, and eventually became CEO.

Inspired by the SooToday.com model, a different company launched TimminsToday.com, which was acquired by Village Media in 2014.[5]

The company's recent expansion efforts have concentrated on midsized cities in Southern Ontario, typically launching soon after the closure of the community's prior daily newspaper.[6] It launched BarrieToday.com in October 2015 in Barrie, GuelphToday.com in February 2016 in Guelph,[7] and OrilliaMatters.com in Orillia in 2018.[6]

Village Media also operates HalifaxToday.ca in Halifax,[8] OttawaMatters.com in Ottawa[9] and KitchenerToday.com in Kitchener,[10] in conjunction with Rogers Radio-owned news radio stations in those markets.

Assets owned by Village Media

Based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario,[1] the company's properties include the internet news sites SooToday.com in Sault Ste. Marie, BayToday.com in North Bay, BarrieToday.com in Barrie, GuelphToday.com in Guelph, TimminsToday.com in Timmins, ElliotLakeToday.com in Elliot Lake, OrilliaMatters.com in Orillia, CollingwoodToday.ca in Collingwood, BradfordToday.ca in Bradford, NewmarketToday.ca in Newmarket, and Sudbury.com in Sudbury. It has also partnered with Rogers Radio to create OttawaMatters.com in Ottawa, HalifaxToday.ca in Halifax and KitchenerMatters.com in Kitchener. Village Media also partnered with McClatchy and a number of sites in the United States modeled after SooToday were rolled out in mid-2019. MidlandToday.ca covering Midland, Ontario is set to launch in February 2020.

In 2020, the company acquired the assets of Laurentian Media Group, including the Sudbury.com news website and the business magazine Northern Ontario Business.[11] Village Media ceased publication of Laurentian's twice-weekly print newspaper Northern Life while retaining the Sudbury.com web edition.

The company formerly operated the video news portal local2.ca in Sault Ste. Marie, and the VM Radio network of internet radio streams.[1] Local2 was fully integrated into SooToday.[12] VM Radio was shut down.

References
  1. "Media outlets partner to expand Northern news network". Northern Ontario Business, October 2, 2014.
  2. "Taking a village to build a news network". Northern Ontario Business, April 2018.
  3. "Sootoday.com a hit". Northern Ontario Business, April 1, 2004.
  4. "Peplow left a legacy". Northern News Services, July 18, 2007.
  5. "Timmins Today sold". 93.1 Moose FM, May 15, 2014.
  6. "Village Media expands to Orillia". Northern Life, January 4, 2018.
  7. "Village Media rushes to fill local news void left by Guelph Mercury". The Globe and Mail, February 7, 2016.
  8. "Rogers zeroes in on hyper-local in Halifax". Media in Canada, October 17, 2017.
  9. "Village Media expands Rogers partnership to Ottawa". Media in Canada, March 5, 2018.
  10. "Village Media extends Rogers relationship to Kitchener". Media in Canada, June 21, 2018.
  11. "Sudbury.com sold to Village Media, Northern Life to print last edition on March 26". Sudbury Star, March 20, 2020.
  12. "SooToday will now be home to all the great programming from LOCAL2". Soo Today, April 8, 2016.
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