Dear friend,
It is with deep regret that we share that our community newspaper, the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, will cease publication by the end of this year.
As you know, the Bulletin was forced to suspend all print issues at the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, and as time progressed, it became increasingly clear that the possibility of returning to print had become financially impossible. Over recent years, the Bulletin has struggled, as have all newspapers, with an industry-wide decline marked by dwindling advertisers and subscribers. The COVID-19 crisis only intensified the situation and has forced the Jewish Federation of Ottawa, which publishes the Bulletin, and its Board of Directors to make this difficult decision.
We want to express our deep appreciation for your dedicated support and readership. To those who reached out over the past few months expressing concern for the Bulletin’s future, we thank you for your compassion and interest. Please know we would have liked the situation to be different. The Bulletin has been a part of the fabric of this community since 1937 and it will be missed.
A most special heartfelt thank you goes to our dedicated Bulletin team, Patty Moran, talented production consultant, energetic and creative Business Manager Eddie Peltzman, and expert Editor Michael Regenstreif, who has led the paper for 13 years. We wish them all the absolute best for their future and thank them for their professional and dedicated service.
For all of you who have outstanding subscriptions, please contact Jean Meyers at (613) 798-4696 ext. 242, or email jmyers@jewishottawa.com, if you would like a refund on whatever remains on your subscription, or if you are willing to convert this into a tax-receiptable donation.
While this marks the end of the print paper, we will honour the tradition of the Bulletin by transferring its name and aspects of its mission and vision into a new electronic news message, to be called the “Ottawa Jewish e-Bulletin.” The e-Bulletin will be published by Federation and emailed to all members of the community who share their email addresses. It will continue to serve readers by inspiring, informing and connecting us. We will be sharing more about the e-Bulletin in the next few weeks and will be asking for your feedback. We hope you will all engage with us on this process, which will also involve calling for community submissions. This will be your voice as well!
While we hope that you will make the transition to the new Ottawa Jewish e-Bulletin, for those with limited or no internet accessibility, on a cost-recovery basis, we would be pleased to mail you a photocopy of online articles. If you need to access this service, please contact Cibele Rosa at 613-798-4696, ext. 236, or email crosa@jewishottawa.com.
The demise of the traditional print paper elicits many powerful emotions, from nostalgia to wistfulness. We wish the outcome could be different. However, Federation is optimistic about moving forward with a streamlined communications platform tailored for and by our community.
