Read all about it: Charlotte County's historic newspaper makes comeback in print form

Mary Casement of Saint Andrews, N.B., says "Oh, that'll be in the Courier next week," was once a popular phrase in Charlotte County.

The phrase refers to the St. Croix Courier, the area's iconic weekly newspaper. It is now making a comeback in a free monthly print edition — a rarity in today's media landscape.

Casement, who began reading the newspaper 50 years ago, said the saying was used as a joke in those days when somebody acted in a questionable manner. 

"You always thought about what you were doing in relation to having ... the whole county know about it," she said, noting that the court report was always the most popular item in the publication.

She watched as the paper got smaller and smaller over the years, then vanished. An online version emerged last year after the paper was sold to the local television station, CHCO-TV.

Casement said seeing the over 100-year-old newspaper survive is extremely important to her. She is glad to get a printed paper again and thinks the newspaper will bind the community.

"Digital information just doesn't have the same feel, literally, as paper," she said.

Vicki Hogarth, the news director of CHCO-TV, said the Courier started printing in 1865 — before Confederation.

Hogarth said that legacy needed to be preserved. A federal grant will allow the paper to be printed for a year.

"It will be more of a curated snapshot of Charlotte County in the moment we're living in," Hogarth said.

She said the grant is just over $20,000.

Hogarth said the paper will be printed on the first of every month and will have local news, features about people and businesses, long-form investigative stories and a cartoon column.

"We're going to be taking the paper now to locations we've established across the county and growing it from there," she said.

Copies will be available at local coffee shops, convenience stores and pickup spots across the county. The online version will continue to be the source of daily news, she said.