The final edition has hit the streets.  After almost 130 years of delivering the news the Moose Jaw Times Herald has stopped the presses.

Star News Publishing, which owned the Times Herald and still operates several other papers around the province, including the Prince Albert Daily Herald, ceased publication today.  The closure means the end of the digital edition of the paper as well as the print version.

The decision will affect about 25 employees in Moose Jaw.

Rob Clark worked as the Times Herald publisher for a number of years before taking on his current role as Executive Director of the Moose Jaw Chamber of Commerce.  He believes a lack of corporate vision, combined with changes in technology are both contributing factors to the closure.  "Corporates come in here and buy up these papers and took whatever profit out of them and didn't reinvest in them a whole lot".  "And then online and technology was the final demise".

The numbers seem to back up Clarks point about how technology is changing news consumption.  The Pew Research Centre for Journalism and Media reported in 2016 that nearly 67% of people 18+ are going online to get news and information.

The local closure is a symptom of a trend facing print media across the country.  With wide spread acceptance of news and information on digital platforms the traditional method of print delivery has been eroding for years.  The resulting decline in circulation and advertising revenue is something that many long standing newspapers have not been able to turn around.

Evidence of this came in late November with the announcement of the closure of 34 papers in southern Ontario.