New digs, same values

That was the message I had for members of the Westmount Municipal Association on Tuesday. I had been invited to clear up the flurries of hearsay and rumour that have been floating around Westmount since last Wednesday, when the Examiner and West End Chronicle staff was informed that we would be moving out of our Victoria Avenue office and relocated to a much larger space in LaSalle.

As word spread through Westmount, it was generally feared that the Examiner was abandoning the community. This is

completely wrong. We have simply moved our office to a new location just 15 minutes away. As editor, I have no intention of changing any aspect of the editorial content and remain firmly committed to keeping up the long-cherished tradition of excellence and 100 per cent Westmount content that the Examiner has always maintained.

My first taste of journalism came at the Examiner some 30 years ago, when as a student intern assisting reporter Andy Dodge, I picked up some valuable advice from the late John Sancton. His pet motto, “If it didn’t happen in Westmount, it didn’t happen,” remains firmly entrenched in the paper’s

philosophy, and moving our office does not change that one bit.

Other local papers—including the Suburban and the two or three little papers that are also distributed in Westmount—never had offices here and do not seem to consider this much of a drawback. They may not cover Westmount very well, but that is obviously by choice rather than a problem of physical distance. Technology has made it easy to work remotely—in fact for the past seven years our diverse stable of writers have all worked from home, submitting their words and images via e-mail. Some have only visited our office once or twice in all that time, but have been out there covering the community.

Yes, it has been a hectic week, but I am settled into my new office and I promise to let everyone know my new number once I get this fancy new phone system figured out. When I do, I hope to receive just as many calls and e-mails from readers as before.