How do you save a local newspaper? Just ask the Prince Albert Daily Herald's staff

The agenda attheTuesday morning sales meeting at the Daily Heraldin Prince Albert, Sask., is pretty simple:sell enough ads in thegraduationedition to keep the newspaper afloat.

"It's a keepsake it's full colour24 pages," marketing manager Erin Bergen remindedthe staff.

"We have to make sure we make money on it," said Leah Taylor, another member of the sales staff.

Newspapers are dying all over the world, and this past winter the Prince Albert Daily Herald was on the brink.

Star News Publishing, which owned the Herald and nineother papers in Saskatchewan, including the daily in Moose Jaw, announced it would sell or stop publishing all of its newspapers.

But in Prince Albert, something incredible happened.

The paper's employees did the unthinkable they bought the Herald and took it over.

"That was a little scary at first, but it's actually really exciting,"Bergen said."From day one when I started here eightyears ago, I always loved it here. I didn't want to see it going anywhere, that's for sure."

• WATCH: Nick Purdon and Leonardo Palleja's feature from The National about how the staff of the Herald saved their newspaper

Ink in her veins

"Once you start in the paper business it's just in you," said Donna Pfeil, another Herald staffer who admits she's a newspaper lifer."There's just something about it."

As a teenager she delivered the Herald door-to-door in Prince Albert her kids did the same.

More recently,Pfeil ran the paper's circulation department.

Then this past winter she spearheaded the hard-fought employee takeover of the 124-year old newspaper. The employees took possessioninearly May.

And so now, at age 44,Pfeilfinds herself the publisher of the venerable Prince Albert Daily Herald,the only daily in town. It currently has nine office staff, 13 people in themailroom, 47 weekly carriers and20 for the Daily Herald, plus fourdrivers.

'It's a big risk'

Pfeilsays she still can't reallybelieve what she and her colleagues did.

"There were a lot of moments where I'm like, 'I don't know if we can do this. I don't know if I want to do this,'" Pfeilsaid. "There was doubt.But deep down, I always knew it could be done."

While Pfeilwon't discuss the details of the purchase, buying a newspaper has to be one of the biggest business risks there is right now.

Since 2008, more than 200 local news sources (newspapers, online publications and others) have shut downacross Canada, according to the Canadian Local News Research Project.

The question facing Pfeil and the other employees is this: ifmedia corporations are failing, how can a group of everyday employees make a paper profitable?

'It's like a mom and pop shop now'

The first thing Pfeilsays they have going for them is that since the sale, everybody does everything.

For example, even though she's the publisher, after lunch it'sPfeilwho trains the new sales rep on the accounting software.

Far from being a negative,Pfeilsays this is a reason they have a chance to make the paper successful.

"We're not corporate. We don't have all the overhead. It's like a mom and pop shop now," Pfeil said. "You know everybody's in. It's not just jobs;it's our life."

And the Daily Herald isn't just any paper, she says. It's one of the oldestdailies in the country.

The town and the Herald have been together for more than 120 years.And in that time the community of "P.A.,"as the locals like to say, has grown to be the third-largest centre in the province, with a populationof around 35,000 people.

The paper's current circulation is26,200 for theweekly edition, and2,275 for the daily.

Simple idea,high stakes

The other change since the employee takeover is related to the paper's editorial content. Stories have to be more local than everbefore.

The theory is that if people in the community seethemselves reflected in the pages of the paper, they'll buy it.

It's up to managing editor Peter Lozinskito put the theory into practice.

Around midday he assigns his two reporters to cover a few high-profile local events.

Lozinskiadmits the past few months have been a whirlwind, particularlywhen the paper was rumoured to be closing.

"Some days I don't even recall putting the paper together," he said. "But we did it."

Challenge now is keeping doors open

Late in the afternoon, reporter Jason Kerr heads out to the local retirement home where student volunteers are getting awards.

"It's an emotional moment and it is one of those moments that most big media outlets don't cover," Kerr said. "So it's perfect for us."

When the Herald was up for saleand there wererumours it would close, Kerr got calls from other papers.

He chose to stay in Prince Albert.

"I never thought I'd be part of a group that had to buy a paper to keep it alive, but now that I am here it's an exciting opportunity.

"The work isn't done," he stressed. "It's one thing to buy the paper keeping it open is a completely different thing. Making sure it is viable."

With a reporter's salary, Kerr says he can't afford to invest in the paper yet, but he's doing his bit nonetheless.

"They're planning on taking a little off my cheque every day, soI don't get paid as much as I used to is essentially what happens with me," he said. "But it is worth it."

At the retirement home when Kerr arrives, the event organizers are ecstatic that the Herald sent a reporter.

Kerr, who grew up in Saskatoon and has lived in small towns all over the province, says local papers are more important than people realize.

"I have lived in communities where the rink is gone, the school is gone, the grain elevators have been torn down," Kerr said. "I've been in places where they have lost all this stuff and they don't recover. To lose something big like a newspaper it's something you don't want to see."

The new golden rule

Back at the Herald, the latest edition of the paper is being put together.

For years BrendaJuravinskihas worked inserting thousands of ads and flyers into the paper. Her hands are stained with ink, but she works so fast they are hard to see.

All winterJuravinskiworried about her job. That'ssafe, at least for now, but she says it hasn't been the biggest change she'snoticed since the sale.

Juravinski says she now feels part of something bigger.

"I'm excited.We're gonna do it. We're gonna work as a team and Donna is an amazing leader,"she says.

Despite all the excitement at the paper sincethe employeestook over,Pfeilwarns the Herald will only survive if they follow her new golden rule.Pfeil gets the reporters together and lays several newspapersout on a desk in front of them.

She shakes her head at one of the pictures on the front page.

"I'd like there always to be a picture of a person on the front," she said, pointing to a picture of the forest fire that burned this spring in Prince Albert National park.

"We need the faces in the paper, right?" she said. "That's our policy."

"We want the community to be involved with their stories, with their sports and the schools. That's how it used to be. That's where it needs to be again."

'It would be like losing your best friend'

The new focus on local stories is working, because later that day a woman arrives at the paper with a story to tell.

"Are you comfortable using your name?" managing editor Lozinski asked the woman.

GerryLavalleenods and explains how she won a car in a contest, but she kept being asked to pay up front.

"They said from day one it's not gonna cost you anything,"Lavalleesaid. "I want people in town to know the hassle I went through."

Lozinskifinishes his interview and takes a few photosofLavallee. He says he hasn't decided where the story will play in the paper.

Lavalleesays she came to the local paper because she believes in it and has been asubscriberfor longer than she can remember.

She says she was worried the Herald would meet the same fate as Moose Jaw's daily paper, which printed its last edition in December.

"It would be like losing your best friend. It's just sad, so I hope it doesn't go,"Lavalleesaid."We need it. It's important.I am so glad that the employees took it over and kept it open."

• WATCH:NickPurdonand LeonardoPalleja'sfeature from The National about how the staff of the Herald saved their newspaper