About Haliburton Echo

Haliburton Echo

The Haliburton County Echo — known as the Haliburton Echo — is a weekly newspaper in the heart of Ontario's cottage country, published every Tuesday from the village of Haliburton and serving the Highlands' year-round residents and summer cottagers alike. Established in 1884 (as the Minden Echo), it is one of Ontario's oldest community newspapers, with a focus on news features, profiles, and photography that has won dozens of awards from the national and provincial newspaper associations — a record few weeklies can match. For 140 years it has chronicled the Haliburton Highlands: the logging era, the tourism transformation, the fires and the rebuildings, and the modern cottage-country community.

Overview

The Echo covers Haliburton County — the Highlands municipalities of Dysart et al, Minden Hills, Highlands East, and Algonquin Highlands — reporting on municipal politics, the environment (the lakes, forests, and wilderness defining the region), the tourism and cottage economy, arts and culture, and the community life of Ontario's highlands. Published every Tuesday in tabloid format from Box 360, Haliburton, under editor Emily Stonehouse, it serves both the year-round population and the seasonal cottagers who swell the region each summer. The photography-forward, feature-rich approach distinguishes it from the wire-dependent weeklies: the Echo invests in original visual journalism — a tradition going back to chief photographers like Darren Lum.

History

The early history was compiled by Steve Hill of the Haliburton Highlands Museum. In his "History of the Provisional County of Haliburton" (circa 1931), former Echo owner R. H. Baker records that on August 21, 1884, the first copy of the Minden Echo was printed by Brown and Small. Beyond the weekly journal keeping residents abreast of local happenings, the paper filled private, commercial, and municipal requests — cards, stationery, notices, posters, even township voters' lists — the job-printing business that sustained the frontier press and tied the newspaper to the community's daily life.

John Henry Delamere (1836–1916) appears next: the Minden Echo of July 19, 1889, lists him as publisher and proprietor. On July 28, 1890, fire destroyed part of Anson's side of Main Street Minden; by May 1, 1891, the paper had doubled to eight pages and dropped "County" from its title, reading "The Minden Echo and Haliburton Recorder." Delamere operated the Echo until around 1906.

Richard Henry "R.H." Baker (1859–1935) owned the Minden Echo from circa 1907 to 1923, purchasing the Main Street Minden property in 1910. Early in World War I, Wilmur Louis "Mac" Macarthur arrived in Minden to teach school; with printing experience, he worked for Baker as a sideline, married Minden girl Louisa Mae Welch in 1916 — putting down the roots that would make him a Highlands lifer — and on March 1, 1923, purchased the Minden Echo property from Baker for $1,000 — the sale presumably including the business itself, a remarkable price for a newspaper even then. The Minden premises published the paper until destroyed in the Minden fire of 1942 — the blaze that erased the physical plant but not the lineage.

The paper eventually relocated to Haliburton village and became the Haliburton County Echo — the Haliburton Echo — continuing the 1884 lineage into the modern era as the Highlands' paper of record. The move from Minden to Haliburton reflected the county's shifting centre of gravity: Haliburton village, the county seat, becoming the natural home for the paper serving the whole Highlands. Through the twentieth century's transformations — the logging economy's decline, the rise of tourism and cottaging, the amalgamations creating the modern municipalities — the Echo remained the weekly chronicle, adapting its coverage while keeping the community-journal mission of Brown and Small's 1884 founding.

Awards and Recognition

The Echo's trophy case is among the fullest in Ontario community journalism. The paper has won dozens of awards from the national Canadian Community Newspaper Awards and the provincial Ontario Community Newspaper Awards. The 2005 masthead proclaimed it "Ontario's Best Community Newspaper" (circulation 3,500–4,999) for 2003 and 2004, with a Blue Ribbon Award in 2004 and a run of honours stretching back through 1987–2003. At the 2018 national awards, the County Echo placed third for Best All-Round Newspaper in its circulation class. Individual honours include humour columnist Steve Galea's Humour Columnist of the Year award — the judge praising his engaging voice, genuinely funny narratives, and self-deprecating "guy next door" charm — a third-place sports section lauded for "superior photography and use/placement of photos," and Robert Mackenzie's first-place best business story for his examination of the Highlands' resort industry in County Life. The sister paper, the Minden Times, has shared in the honours — including first place in its circulation category, Chad Ingram's best feature story, Darren Lum's best spot news photo of the Minden flooding, and columnist Jim Poling Sr.'s placings.

The Echo serves the Haliburton Highlands' dual population: the roughly 18,000 year-round residents and the tens of thousands of seasonal cottagers who make the region one of Ontario's premier cottage destinations. The coverage reflects highlands concerns: municipal governance across four municipalities, the lake environments (water quality, shoreline development, the pressures of cottage growth), the forestry and aggregate industries, tourism, the arts community (the Highlands' vibrant cultural scene), and the everyday life of the villages. The award-winning photography captures the region's natural beauty and its people — the visual record of cottage country.

Coverage and Audience

The Echo serves the Haliburton Highlands' dual population: the roughly 18,000 year-round residents and the tens of thousands of seasonal cottagers who make the region one of Ontario's premier cottage destinations. The coverage reflects highlands concerns: municipal governance across four municipalities, the lake environments (water quality, shoreline development, the pressures of cottage growth), the forestry and aggregate industries, tourism, the arts community (the Highlands' vibrant cultural scene), and the everyday life of the villages. The award-winning photography captures the region's natural beauty and its people — the visual record of cottage country.

Ownership

The Haliburton Echo is owned by White Pine Media, continuing the tradition of independent regional proprietorship. Earlier in its modern history the paper was published by Osprey Media Group Inc. — the 2005 masthead naming Len Pizzey as publisher and Martha Perkins as managing editor, from the offices at 146 Highland Street, Haliburton — before returning to independent ownership. The Echo's sister paper is the Minden Times, the neighbouring Highlands weekly with which it has shared awards success and, at times, staff and resources. The independent ownership has preserved the paper's community focus and its investment in original journalism — the features, profiles, and photography that win the awards and keep the readers.

Digital Presence

The Echo publishes online at haliburtonecho.ca, extending the Tuesday print edition with digital news, photo galleries, obituaries, and community content. The website serves the cottager audience — the seasonal residents who follow Highlands news from Toronto, the GTA, and beyond during the months their cottages sit quiet — and the award-winning photography finds its natural home in the digital gallery, where the Highlands' landscapes and community moments reach viewers worldwide. The e-edition replicates the print experience for readers who prefer the laid-out page. For the Haliburton Highlands, the Echo remains what it has been since 1884: the community's journal, recording the life of Ontario's cottage country week by week, in words and pictures — from the Minden Echo's frontier job-printing days to the digital present.