NEWS RELEASE
OMAH HISTORY COMMITTEE
*************************
On May 15 at 7 p.m. via Zoom, the History Committee at the Orillia Museum of Art and History (OMAH) hosts Dave Dawson, formerly of the Orillia Packet & Times and current OrilliaMatters community editor, as guest speaker.
His talk, Evolution: Packet’s Death Spawns Birth of Digital Newspaper, will walk us through the demise of the Orillia Packet & Times and the birth and success of the online newspaper, OrilliaMatters, that picked up where the Packet left off, providing the news and local information to our community.
It was a dark day in Orillia when the Packet & Times — after 144 years of faithful service — shut its doors in November 2017. Employees found out about the news on social media. No final edition. No goodbye. No thank you. Our community was left angry and frustrated, wondering how they would find out what was happening locally.
In less than two months, editor Dave Dawson, born and raised in Orillia, helped assemble a team to resurrect the community’s lifeline. OrilliaMatters was born. Its DNA was digital and its foundational employees were former Packet staffers. OrilliaMatters has grown exponentially and become an industry leader that attracted a film crew from Google’s New York City office to chronicle the team’s success.
Join Dave, and hear about the relationship of the Packet to our community, its foundational importance to good journalism and the growth of OrilliaMatters.
Don’t miss it.
To receive a link to the talk visit www.orilliamuseum.org/5-24 or call Monica at 705-326-2159.
Admission is free. Donations to OMAH are appreciated.
Next up
June 19: Amanda Marino — A Leacock Love Story. Here is the link to register: www.orilliamuseum.org/6-24.
— Submitted by Mary Ann Grant
*************************
