About Aux Quatre Coins

Aux Quatre Coins

Overview

Aux Quatre Coins is the French-language community newspaper of Ascot Corner, a municipality of about 3,400 residents in the Haut-Saint-François regional county municipality of Quebec's Estrie region. Despite the "weekly" label attached to it in some listings, the journal is not a weekly: its masthead states that it is published ten times a year and distributed free of charge to every resident of Ascot Corner. Produced by a volunteer committee, it is a classic Quebec journal communautaire — a non-profit community paper written by and for the village it serves, carrying municipal news, the activities of local organizations, recreation programming and classified advertising. The June 2026 edition, Volume 41, Number 5, ran to more than forty pages, and recent issues are posted in full on the municipal website.

History

Aux Quatre Coins' own volume numbering traces its run: the paper was at Volume 25 around 2010–2011, Volume 28 in 2013–2014 and Volume 29 in 2014–2015, which places its first volumes in the mid-1980s, and it reached Volume 41 in 2026 — roughly four decades of continuous community publication. Its legal deposit at the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, number D 8751399, has remained constant across the decades. The journal's physical format has grown with the municipality: issues in the early 2010s were produced in a compact 7-by-8½-inch format with a print run that rose from 1,170 copies to 1,225 and then 1,265 copies, while the June 2026 masthead lists a larger 8½-by-11-inch format and a print run of 1,550 copies, tracking Ascot Corner's population growth (3,368 residents at the 2021 census, up 6.6 per cent from 2016).

Publication frequency has varied modestly over the run — some mastheads of the early 2010s state eight issues a year, while others of the same period and the current masthead state ten times a year. The paper's own 2019 schedule set out the year's ten issues in detail, with copy and advertising deadlines at 3 p.m. on the 15th of the month and publication on or near the first of the next — 1 February, 1 March, 1 April and so on through the December issue. The run has continued unbroken into the present decade: a June 2025 issue and a September 2025 edition are posted on the municipal site ahead of the June 2026 number. Fundraising has always been part of the model: a November issue of the mid-2010s advertised a Knights of Columbus brunch held "au profit du journal" — in aid of the newspaper itself.

Programming and Content

The journal's content is the life of the municipality in print. Municipal affairs lead: a February 2022 issue presented the newly elected municipal council under the headline "Votre nouveau conseil municipal!" and regular issues carry council news and municipal notices. The recreation department's programming fills several pages each issue — the autumn 2025 programming insert and the summer 2026 leisure program in the June 2026 edition list courses and activities from karate and jiu-jitsu to story time at the Johanne-Demers-Blais library — and community events such as the Fête nationale celebrations of 19 June 2026, the Fête de la pêche and the annual volunteers' evening receive advance and follow-up coverage.

A typical autumn number from October 2013 (Volume 28, Number 6) shows the formula at work: a cover photograph of the Saint-François River and the Route 112 bridge, the municipality's environment day and bulky-waste collection dates, a Knights of Columbus brunch, FADOQ activities and seasonal community notices. The village it serves sits on Route 112 along the Saint-François River, about eleven kilometres east of Sherbrooke, and the journal mirrors that scale — nothing in its pages travels far beyond the municipal boundary, and almost everything in the municipality finds its way into its pages.

Local organizations hold standing space: the Knights of Columbus, the FADOQ seniors' network and the Centre des femmes La Parolière all appear in its pages. The journal actively solicits residents' writing through an opinion column, under published rules requiring signed texts bearing the author's name, address and telephone number, of which only the name is printed. It also publishes classified advertisements — priced at five dollars per 25 words in its early-2010s rate card — a crossword by verbicruciste Pierre Mongrain, a community telephone directory of local services and organizations, and paid advertising from businesses across the Haut-Saint-François, gathered in an index of advertisers.

Audience and Reach

Aux Quatre Coins is delivered free to all residents of Ascot Corner, so its audience is effectively the entire municipality: 1,550 copies of the June 2026 edition were printed for a community of some 3,400 people and about 1,360 dwellings. The advertiser base visible in its pages is drawn from Ascot Corner and neighbouring East Angus, Fleurimont and Sherbrooke-area businesses serving the village. Because the journal is produced by volunteers and financed by advertising, classifieds and community fundraising, its reach is deliberately hyperlocal: it does not seek readers beyond the municipality, but within Ascot Corner it is the one printed publication that reaches every household, including residents who do not follow municipal communications online.

Digital Presence

The journal's digital home is a page of the Municipality of Ascot Corner's website — the inventoried website, ascot-corner.com, is the municipal domain, and the journal is hosted there rather than on a domain of its own. Complete issues are posted as PDF files: the September 2025 edition and the June 2026 edition (uploaded in May 2026) are both available on the site, alongside the leisure-programming inserts the journal carries. The journal also maintains a Facebook page under the name Aux Quatre Coins, noted in its masthead. This arrangement — a volunteer paper carried on municipal web infrastructure — is the extent of its online presence; there is no separate news website, and the print edition delivered to households remains the primary product.

Ownership and Organisation

Aux Quatre Coins is owned and produced by its community through a volunteer journal committee (Comité du journal). The committee meets monthly — in recent years on a weekday evening at the Centre multifonctionnel, 5699 rue Principale — and its meetings are open to any interested resident. An annual general assembly renews the board: the February 2022 issue reported that Robert and Hélène Bédard had agreed to renew their mandates, along with four directors, Gina Castelli, Normand Fréchette, Suzanne Hardy and René Rivard. Hélène Bédard was listed as the journal's editor (éditrice) in that period. Earlier mastheads show the same volunteer structure, with presidents such as Jean-Yves Pilotte in the early 2010s and named contacts for layout and proofreading; layout in the early 2010s was handled by ORDINAPLUS INC., while the June 2026 masthead credits printing to Groupe Audaz. The journal is not part of any newspaper chain and has no paid newsroom; its organization is that of a community association sustained by its readers.

Contact and Availability

Aux Quatre Coins is published ten times a year and distributed free of charge to all residents of Ascot Corner. The journal committee is based at 5699 rue Principale, suite 7, Ascot Corner, Quebec J0B 1A0. Its email address, printed in its February 2022 masthead, is journal.auxquatrecoins@gmail.com, and its editor at that time, Hélène Bédard, was listed at 819 566-7166; mastheads of the 2010s carried the earlier address journal.ac@live.ca. Current and recent issues can be read online through the journal's page on the municipal website, ascot-corner.com, and the paper is also present on Facebook as Aux Quatre Coins.