About Chatham This Week

Chatham This Week

Chatham This Week is a community newspaper serving the city of Chatham, Ontario — the Postmedia-owned tabloid with a controlled circulation to approximately 19,400 homes, the free weekly of Chatham-Kent. Launched in February 1991, the paper has served Chatham-Kent for over three decades under publisher Dean Mulharrem (since April 2005) and editor Peter Epp (since July 1996) — the leadership continuity that has defined the title — the publisher since 2005, the editor since 1996, the institutional memory of Chatham-Kent's news in two people. Sharing a newsroom with the Chatham Daily News at 930 Richmond St. in Chatham, it is the free community weekly of southwestern Ontario's agricultural heartland — the Thames River community's paper — the weekly that has served the former city and the amalgamated municipality through three decades of change, the free tabloid of Chatham-Kent.

Overview

Chatham This Week publishes weekly in tabloid format from Chatham — the former city at the centre of the Municipality of Chatham-Kent, the community on the Thames River between London and Windsor, the heart of Ontario's corn and soybean country, the "Classic Car Capital of Canada" (the annual Retrofest). The coverage spans Chatham-Kent: the city of Chatham (the downtown, the neighbourhoods, the Capitol Theatre, the cultural centre), the towns of Wallaceburg (the former glass town on the Sydenham River), Tilbury, Blenheim (the cherry capital), Ridgetown (home of the University of Guelph's agricultural campus), and Dresden (of Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site fame — the Josiah Henson connection), the rural townships — the sprawling municipality formed by the 1998 amalgamation of the former city, towns, and townships into one of Ontario's largest municipalities by area — the new Chatham-Kent, the weekly covering the amalgamated whole. The paper covers municipal affairs (the Chatham-Kent council, the local boards, the public utilities commission), community news (the events, the fundraisers, the milestones, the cultural hall of fame), agriculture (the farm economy that defines the region — the cash crops, the greenhouses, the agri-business), and sports (the Maroons junior hockey, the school athletics, the local teams). With controlled circulation to approximately 19,400 homes, the paper reaches the households of Chatham free — the community weekly in the mailbox, the advertisers' vehicle and the readers' news — the free paper's dual role, serving the businesses and the households together.

History

A tabloid, Chatham This Week was launched in February 1991 — the free community paper entering the Chatham market alongside the long-established Chatham Daily News (the paid daily tracing its lineage to the 19th century). The 1991 launch reflected the free-weekly model sweeping Ontario's community press: controlled circulation to the homes, the advertisers paying for the reach, the readers paying nothing — the free-paper economics that built the community weeklies, the controlled circulation guaranteeing the advertisers' audience. Dean Mulharrem has been the publisher since April 2005, while Peter Epp has been the editor since July 1996 — the leadership stability rare in community journalism, the publisher and editor guiding the paper for two decades, the institutional memory of Chatham-Kent's news.

The paper has shared its newsroom with the Chatham Daily News — the downtown newsroom at 930 Richmond St., perched above a busy intersection, where (as a J-Source/Editor & Publisher report described) three reporters cover both titles: Ellwood Shreve (in the business since 1990, at the Daily News since the summer of 2002), Trevor Terfloth, and Tom Morrison — the daily and the weekly, the paid and the free, from the same desks, the empty desks around them testifying to the industry's contraction — the small-town newsroom in the age of news poverty, doing more with less. In December 2020, Postmedia launched 80+ redesigned community newspaper websites including "Chatham-Kent This Week" — the digital modernization of the chain's community titles, the weeklies getting the corporate platform — the December 2020 redesign bringing the community titles into Postmedia's digital fold, the local papers on the national platform. In June 2022, the Chatham Daily News reduced its print edition to Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday — the daily's retreat reflecting the changing media landscape, while the weekly continued its free distribution.

Coverage and Audience

The paper serves Chatham-Kent: the city of Chatham (the former city's downtown — the King Street core, the neighbourhoods, the Chatham Cultural Centre, the Capitol Theatre), the surrounding towns (Wallaceburg — the former glass town on the Sydenham, the museum, the annual events; Tilbury; Blenheim — the cherry capital, the Blenheim Cherry Fest; Ridgetown — home of the University of Guelph's Ridgetown Campus, the agricultural college; Dresden — of Uncle Tom's Cabin Historic Site fame, the Josiah Henson connection, the Black history), and the rural municipality (the farms, the hamlets, the concession roads). The audience includes the 19,400 households receiving the controlled-circulation weekly, the community organizations (the service clubs, the arts council), the advertisers (the local businesses buying the reach). The coverage includes municipal politics (the Chatham-Kent council's decisions — the budgets, the infrastructure, the services), community events (the Chatham-Kent Cultural Hall of Fame inductions at the Chatham Cultural Centre, the festivals, the fundraisers), agriculture (the farm news — the planting, the harvest, the markets), and the local issues (the Wheatley water plant rehabilitation and its temporary treatment trailers, the infrastructure debates, the small-town concerns). The shared newsroom with the Daily News means the weekly benefits from the daily's reporting: the community paper and the daily paper, one newsroom, the three reporters' work appearing in both — the shared journalism serving the paid subscribers and the free readers alike, the small staff covering the sprawling municipality.

Ownership

Chatham This Week is owned by Postmedia — the country's largest newspaper company, whose community newspapers include the tabloid weeklies across Ontario (the "This Week" titles, the community tabloids serving the smaller markets). The paper operates alongside its sister title the Chatham Daily News (the paid daily, publishing Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday in print since June 2022 — the daily's print retreat, the weekly's free distribution continuing — the two papers' divergent paths in the changing media landscape) from the shared Chatham newsroom at 930 Richmond St. The publisher is Dean Mulharrem (since April 2005); the editor is Peter Epp (since July 1996). The chain ownership reflects the consolidation of southwestern Ontario's press: the independent community papers absorbed into the national chain, the local newsrooms shared between titles — the southwestern Ontario press consolidated, the journalism continuing from the shared desks.

Digital Presence

The chathamthisweek.ca domain resolves to the Chatham Daily News platform ("Chatham News, Stories and Headlines | Chatham Daily News") — reflecting Postmedia's consolidation of its community titles onto shared digital platforms, the weekly's online presence merged with the daily's, the "Chatham-Kent This Week" website redesigned in December 2020 now redirecting to the daily's site. The digital offering carries the Chatham-Kent journalism to the online readership: the daily's website serving both titles' audiences, the weekly's stories appearing alongside the daily's, the community's news in one digital home — the consolidation complete online, the two papers' journalism under one roof, digital as well as physical. For Chatham-Kent, the paper remains the community's free weekly: launched February 1991, 19,400 homes, the tabloid of the Thames — Chatham This Week, Chatham-Kent's paper, the free weekly of the agricultural heartland — Chatham This Week, the tabloid of the Thames, serving Chatham-Kent since February 1991 — the free weekly, the community's paper, the tabloid of the Thames — Chatham This Week, since 1991.