When Adam Prudhomme began his print journalism career with the Napanee Beaver community newspaper, little did he know he would own the publication 16 years later. Adam took over as owner on April 1, 2024, purchasing the historic business from the Morrison family.
Adam began as a reporter and became managing editor of the newspaper in 2019. His editorial role continues alongside his owner role. He’s learning how to manage advertising, payroll, insurance, and many other business aspects that are new, but he has been fortunate to have supportive family and friends to offer guidance, as well as supportive colleagues.
He certainly never envisioned himself as a business owner, but felt he couldn’t pass up the opportunity. “Once the opportunity came along, I thought that I had to do this,” he says. “The paper means so much to the community. I hate to think what would have happened if I didn’t take this on. I just felt it needed to stay local.”
The process leading to the purchase of the business happened rather quickly. The Morrisons first presented the opportunity to Adam last fall. After they took the time to walk him though the business, including the financials, Adam consulted with advisors before making a decision.
One of the greatest challenges in the early days of ownership has been balancing the editorial work with the business needs. “I can spend a whole day working on business stuff but not having done any work for the paper itself. There’s got to be content to fill a paper.”
“There’ve been some late nights,” he admits, “but there was always going to be a lot of up-front work; things that had to get sorted out.”
Founded in 1870, the Napanee Beaver was acquired by Earl and Jean Morrison in 1953. After Earl’s passing in 1978, Jean carried the business until her passing in 2019 (at the age of 97). Her adult children continued to run the business until selling it to Adam earlier this year.
Feedback from the community regarding this ownership change has been positive. Mike and Mary Hewitt of Napanee took the time to write a letter to the editor with their thoughts: “We are very lucky to have the Beaver remain in operation under Adam Prudhomme. He has put a lot of work into his job as editor – now he will be working twice as hard as the owner, so we will keep our small-town newspaper for the foreseeable future. Let’s all help to keep the Beaver alive.”
The Napanee Beaver is a rarity in the Canadian print media industry. It’s both family-owned and independent (not affiliated with a large newspaper chain). It has a solid weekly circulation of 8,300 and serves Greater Napanee with home delivery, as well as a few other rural locations with papers available for pickup.
Adam has a vision for the future, “I definitely want to be more of a community newspaper in the sense of more contribution from residents in the community. I feel like that’s always been a big part of what The Napanee Beaver is, but that connection with someone in the community who has an interesting story or something to say, a memory from when they were growing up. That resonates with a lot of people.”
Adam’s future vision for the newspaper may well involve the next generation of his family. He has two young daughters, the older of whom is already conducting pretend interviews while she watches her father doing real ones. “It would follow the tradition of The Napanee Beaver, where it’s been family-owned and passed down from generation to generation,” says Adam. “It would be great if that worked out.”
For more articles read the full magazine on Issuu
