About The Highlander

The Highlander

Overview

The Highlander is a free, independently owned weekly newspaper for Haliburton County, Ontario, published on Thursdays from the village of Haliburton. Its masthead carries the line "Haliburton County's Independent Newspaper," and the paper describes itself as "a local, independently owned and operated weekly newspaper for Haliburton County." Founded in 2011 by publisher Bram Lebo, The Highlander is the upstart in a two-paper town: it competes directly with the Haliburton County Echo, the paid weekly published in the same village since the nineteenth century. Where the Echo is the county's historic paper of record, The Highlander built its position on free distribution — 8,000 copies an issue by its recent count — aggressive local coverage and a populist, community-first voice summarized in its published mission: "To tell the story of Haliburton County each week."

The Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA) member directory lists The Highlander with a circulation of 8,000 and no publishing group, reflecting its independent ownership. The paper is published by The Highlander Newspaper Limited from 195 Highland Street in Haliburton, and its editor is Lisa Gervais.

History

The Highlander was created in 2011, in the wake of the closure of another Haliburton paper, the County Voice. As the paper itself recalled in a March 2017 editorial, when The Voice closed in 2011, its editor Stephen Patrick joined the newly created Highlander and became its first editor, bringing enough editorial strength that many readers assumed the two publications were related; they were not. Patrick, who had also been an instrumental part of the County Voice and served on the board of the Rails End Gallery & Arts Centre, died on March 13, 2017.

The paper's founder and publisher, Bram Lebo, came to newspapering by an unconventional route. He studied law at Osgoode Hall Law School and was called to the Ontario bar in 1994, then moved to the Netherlands, where he completed an MBA and a Master of Business Informatics at the Rotterdam School of Management. He worked for DigiCash, the pioneering electronic-currency company in Amsterdam, and in 2000 founded Expatica, an online news publication for English-speaking expatriates in Europe, which grew into one of the most widely read English-language publications in continental Europe. Returning to Canada, he worked for the Government of Ontario, serving as Director of Marketing and Brand Development for ServiceOntario, and in 2009 co-founded Gravitas Business Architects. He settled in Haliburton County, hosted radio programs including "County Hot Seat" and "Half Facts" on Canoe FM, the county's community radio station, and launched The Highlander in 2011, serving as its publisher and a regular columnist.

The paper grew steadily through its first decade. Early editions in 2012 were already promoting distribution of 5,000 copies a week to more than 70 locations throughout the county — a figure its advertising material pointedly noted exceeded what advertisers could reach through either of the county's other local papers. The audited circulation printed in its masthead rose to 8,062 for the period January to June 2016 and 8,871 for January to June 2017, audited by the Canadian Media Circulation Audit. Editorial leadership passed from founding editor Stephen Patrick to Matthew Desrosiers, who was editor in the paper's early years, and then to Lisa Gervais, who was listed as editor by 2017 and remains in the role. Staff writer Mark Arike has been a fixture of the newsroom since the paper's early years. Issue numbering tells the story of unbroken weekly publication: Issue 731 appeared on March 19, 2026, and Issue 743 on June 11, 2026.

Programming and Content

The Highlander covers the same civic terrain as its rival — county and municipal councils in Dysart et al, Minden Hills, Algonquin Highlands and Highlands East, health care, education, development and shoreline issues, business, sports, arts and community events — but with an emphasis on advocacy-flavoured local reporting, explanatory coverage of county controversies and a strong letters page. Its published mission commits it "to report on issues, people and events important to the community," "to reflect and promote pride in the culture, people and landscape of The Highlands," and "to encourage Highlanders to believe in themselves, in our community, and in their power to make our place in the world better every day." Lebo writes a regular publisher's column, and the paper's pages carry local columnists and contributing writers alongside staff reporting.

The paper has also extended into audio: it produces a podcast featuring interviews with local figures, including a conversation with Minden Hills mayor Bob Carter and an episode in which owner Bram Lebo and editor Lisa Gervais discussed the removal of the dean at the Haliburton campus of the former Sir Sandford Fleming College — programming its readers were writing letters about in the spring of 2026. The Highlander has won awards in the OCNA's Better Newspapers Competition, including a first-place category finish in 2022 and a third-place finish in 2023, as published in the association's winning entries.

Audience and Reach

The Highlander is distributed free across Haliburton County, through pickup locations in the villages and hamlets of the Highlands and to subscribers. Its cover has long advertised 8,000 copies, the figure also carried in the OCNA directory, and its independently audited circulation reached 8,871 in the first half of 2017, according to the Canadian Media Circulation Audit figures printed in the paper. In a county with a permanent population of roughly twenty thousand — and a far larger seasonal population of cottagers — free county-wide distribution gives the paper a household reach that exceeds that of its paid competitor, a selling point the paper has made to advertisers since its earliest issues.

Digital Presence

The paper's website, thehighlander.ca, publishes its reporting online between print editions, and full print issues are archived digitally, with 2025 and 2026 editions — including those of December 18, 2025, March 19, 2026 and June 11, 2026 — preserved in the Internet Archive's Haliburton County newspaper collection. Its podcast adds an audio channel to the print and web operation, and publisher Bram Lebo's background in online publishing — he founded one of Europe's earliest expatriate news websites — is reflected in the paper's early adoption of a free-distribution, web-supported model for a rural weekly.

Ownership and Organisation

The Highlander is published by The Highlander Newspaper Limited and is independently owned; its owner is Bram Lebo, who serves as publisher and writes a regular column. The editor is Lisa Gervais, who has held the role since at least 2017. The newsroom sits at 195 Highland Street in Haliburton, and its staff over the years has included staff writers Mark Arike, Alex Coop and Sue Tiffin, sales manager Walt Griffin, business manager Heather Deveaux and production manager Heather Kennedy. Lebo also serves on the board of the Haliburton Highlands Chamber of Commerce. Like many Canadian community newspapers, the paper acknowledges financial assistance from the Government of Canada in its masthead.

Contact and Availability

The Highlander is published weekly on Thursdays and is distributed free at pickup locations throughout Haliburton County, with home subscriptions also offered. Its office is at 195 Highland Street, Box 1024, Haliburton, Ontario, K0M 1S0, telephone 705-457-2900. The paper's published contact email, shown in its masthead for the publisher, is bram@thehighlander.ca, and its website is thehighlander.ca. Its older domain, haliburtonhighlander.ca, was used in its early years.