Just a few hours after arriving in the Sault and receiving keys to the place where I was to live for the foreseeable future, I did what pretty much every new arrival does.
I sat down on a packing crate, opened the phone book and ordered pizza.
And that's when I got my first hint this city was unlike any other I'd ever experienced.
There was no Domino's, no Pizza Pizza, no Pizza Hut, no Little Caesars, no Boston Pizza at the time.
The only franchise I recognized was the bargain-priced 241 Pizza.
Mrs. B's? Fratelli's? Service Grill? Sandro's? Aurora's? Huh?
As I learned later from Connor Dunster's definitive documentary about Sault pizza-making, this city had its own, very unique ideas about how pizza must be made and served.
When in Rome, do as the Romans
As a prolific pizza-eater and lousy cook, I had no choice.
If I was going to avoid starving in this place, I needed to adapt to local ways.
I phoned Dick Peplow, who'd invited me to Sault Ste. Marie to start an online news service.
Dick's wife Joanne suggested I try Pisa Pizza.
I did. Did I like it?
Let's just say over many months, my palate developed sufficiently to appreciate the local pizza variants.
Designing a news product
That was almost 20 years ago, late in January, 2002.
In my first days on the job, I hit the library hard.
My first task was to design what was supposed to be an innovative, attention-grabbing, real-time news product.
I needed to know everything about the community's demographics.
I needed to know what news was already available, and where coverage gaps existed that might be opportunities.
How much politics? Sports? Police news? Entertainment? Features?
I was SooToday's sole news writer at the time.
There was no way I could compete successfully on all those fronts with the strong teams in place at existing news outlets.
Picking my battles
I needed to be strategic.
One day, as I pondered whether to write editorials, my thoughts went back to all those family pizzerias.
I knew a bit about how local politics is played.
I'd read about the English-only resolution, and the CAO hiring controversy.
When my decision on editorials was finally made, it was to wait 10 years before inflicting my opinions on this city.
Communities have a wisdom of their own, and their own way of doing things.
Communities should be respected.
I had a lot to learn about this very unique place.
Know-it-all come-from-aways
Also, in the back of my mind was a suspicion that Sault Ste. Marie might be the kind of place that has no problem getting rid of know-it-all come-from-aways trying to lecture them on how to run their affairs.
I figured after 10 years, I might know enough about the history, the issues and the players to offer opinions that would constructively serve – and not just infuriate – the populace.
I decided the best thing I could do for Sault Ste. Marie was to tell this city its own stories and let it decide for itself what it thought about them.
The plan for SooToday
SooToday News would be rigorously researched, straight-up, free of editorial slants, but presented in an interesting style.
We would be there at your moments of triumph (elections, award presentations and sports championships).
We'd also be there when tragedy strikes.
We'd relentlessly and honestly chronicle both the city's strengths and its challenges.
Proudly local, fiercely independent
As some politicians and overbearing community leaders soon learned, we'd also fiercely resist any effort to bully us into averting our gaze from uncomfortable facts.
But it would be just the facts, ma'am.
Our news reporting would be fair, impartial, non-partisan and free of editorial assumptions and assertions.
And if I ever turned so sour, so full of complaints and negativity that I ceased to serve out of genuine love for this place, it would be time to move on.
That was 20 years ago.
10 years later, and 10 years after that
My decade of self-imposed editorial restraint expired in 2012.
I saw no reason to change then.
The Sault was getting along just fine, thank you, without my opinions or advice.
Today, within a month of the 20th anniversary of SooToday News, the company has grown into Village Media, a much-larger entity run by mostly younger folk far wiser than I.
It surprises and encourages me that the values I sought to instill in this company – integrity, enterprise and service to community – remain intact.
"I think it is fair to say that we have arrived," Village Media chief executive officer Jeff Elgie told a pre-Christmas company town hall. "In a time where most media companies continue to cut, we are growing faster than ever."
In 2021, we added new company-run news operations in the Ontario communities of Cambridge and Elora-Fergus, as well as in the Colorado cities of Longmont and Broomfield, and in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan.
Our industry-leading technology now powers 67 community news sites.
'A world leader in re-inventing successful news models'
On Nov. 15, 2021, Richard Gingras, Google's global vice president of news, spent a full day visiting Village Media's corporate headquarters at 298 Queen St. East.
"I spent an inspiring day with Jeff Elgie and his team at their headquarters in Sault Ste. Marie on Monday up at the intersection of of Lake Superior, Lake Michigan and Lake Huron," Gingras said in a subsequent social media post.
"Village Media is a world leader in reinventing successful local news models," he added. "They're now operating successfully in dozens of cities in Canada and are beginning to replicate the model in the United States."
I personally stepped down years ago from day-to-day administrative duties, but am intensely proud of the journalists who serve in our Sault newsroom under Village Media managing editor Mike Purvis and community editor Frank Rupnik.
SooToday newsroom
I have long held, against prevailing opinion in our industry, that a well-written positive news story can attract as many readers as bad news.
Darren Taylor leads our newsroom in writing heart-warming personal profiles and human-interest stories that prove my point: It doesn't have to bleed to lead. Affirming stories of human courage and resilience are as deserving of coverage as stories about car accidents or fires.
I believe the best sports journalism attracts a similar audience, playing to human desire for a little hope, a little reassurance that talent, hard work and fair play pay off at the end.
SooToday's Brad Coccimiglio is one of Canada's finest hockey writers and I'm proud to see him representing our company at every Memorial Cup, regardless of whether the Greyhounds are in contention.
The hardest-working journalists in any newsroom I've managed have always been in the sports department, and Brad is no exception.
More often than not, sports reporters are also just great people.
I've lost track of the number of successful athletes who've talked to me with great deference about sportswriters who spoke a few words of encouragement to them early in their careers.
Award-worthy excellence
No one was prouder than I a few years ago when James Hopkin agreed to join our news team.
James has extensive experience with national media networks and he was recently named a finalist in the best daily news/sports coverage category of the Canadian Online Publishing Awards (COPA) for his coverage of a 2021 fatal shooting on Pine Street.
A moving personal essay written by James in May about the ongoing effects of the residential school system on his own family in Wikwemikong was published by all Village Media sites across Ontario.
And then there's Jasmyn Rowley, Riley Smith and videographers Zack Trunzo and Drew Armstrong, who leave me in awe and often tears every year with their Random Acts of Kindness visits.
Jasmyn is, without a doubt, the nicest 'ambush' interviewer in the news business!
Exemplary photojournalism
Kenneth Armstrong returned to SooToday this year after a stint at our sister site GuelphToday.
Kenneth is also nominated for a 2021 COPA award, this one for Canada's best photojournalism for a photo essay he did in Guelph titled: Unsung: Guelph workers on the front line (20 photos).
I've worked alongside Kenneth in the field and witnessed firsthand the care and professionalism he puts into every shot.
When he first returned to the Sault, he was alarmed by how much the community had changed and the amount of gun violence he was witnessing.
He nonetheless managed to convert that apprehension into some first-rate spot-news coverage.
Behind the scenes
There are many, many others at SooToday and Village Media who receive little credit but are equally responsible for our success.
After years in the SooToday newsroom trenches, people like Donna Hopper and Carol Martin have moved into editorial administrative roles.
I've never heard of news editors winning awards for stopping reporters from making embarrassing mistakes, or for saving lives by posting road closures or weather warnings when they're off-duty, but trust me, editors are doing that kind of stuff all the time.
SooToday and Village Media have all kinds of unsung heroes behind the scenes, including administrators, graphic designers, web developers, sales, accounting, human resources, branded content, video production and project management staff.
In all, Village Media has been named as a finalist for seven national COPA Awards in 2021, including one for SooToday as the nation's best community news website.
The winners of those awards will be named in February.
Until then, every employee can take pride in knowing they've helped build a truly better mousetrap that's attracting international attention to Sault Ste. Marie.