The Picton Gazette was first published in 1830, more than a century after the beginning of the newspaper era, which was in London, England.

By 1830, the Gazette could draw on what were by then well-established forms and traditions. Some of those we credit to two early eighteenth-century newspaper writers, Joseph Addison and Richard Steele. In 1711 they created a paper that is still famous, The Spectator, a daily that published not the news (that was already covered), but thoughts and observations about everyday life organized in a single essay, much like modern editorials.

Addison and Steele considered their culture through a variety of subjects: commerce, fashion, music, literature. They aimed for a pleasant but edifying style, something that could be read while taking your morning tea. They hoped that this would encourage their readers to get beyond the novelty of “news” — not just to to be first with the talk of the town or the world, but to slow down, to reflect upon it.

As Mr. Steele put it, there’s a difference between reading and thinking. The latter does not commodify and use facts, but requires reflection, and sharing ideas with others. Knowledge is social. It requires a developed sense of self and an openness to other points of view.

For Addison and Steele, developing one’s sense of self means paying attention to daily life, not just the grand and global movements of “important” world leaders. The life of the mind—of things moral, cultural, social and domestic—is as important as the facts and large-scale events of the world, and it must take place in the world as well. The Spectator focused, not on politics or wars, but on bringing the quieter parts of life out into the open.

If we don’t give the details of ordinary life due attention, we lose the details of our shared existence with others, and we lose an opportunity to develop an inner, thoughtful life.

Another aspect of Addison and Steele’s accomplishment in journalism is connected to this. That is the idea that, no matter how much variety a newspaper provides, there is something that holds it together. This coherence is achieved by the creation of a voice, or a shared perspective. They created a set of characters to help define the perspectives at play in their daily paper. These days the same effect is achieved by establishing an editorial voice.

It is what is missing when you get your news in bits and pieces, scattered across “feeds,” an effect of scrolling, coming from everywhere and nowhere, curated by an “algorithm.”

We hope you have noticed the changes to this Gazette, not only in its appearance (which we hope offers a clearer reading experience, and, what goes along with that, a chance to reflect on and digest what you read). While we are keeping local politics and policies firmly in view, we are interested in all the things that compose living in this rich and varied place  — the books people are reading, or writing, the wines they are making, the food they are growing, or cooking. We hope to offer something that is worth mentioning to a neighbour, and perhaps spark a conversation about something we have in common.

And we hope that our team spirit comes through. We are working together to make this newspaper, and creating a community while we do it. Please do keep sending your thoughts in letters to the editor. Readers are the most important part of any newspaper. Please do keep comments coming on our Facebook and Instagram pages. We like the conversations sparked there too.

For at least its first seventy years, the Gazette featured poetry and fictional stories on its front page, often in as many as five of its seven columns. None of the stories is original to the Gazette (they were taken from other circulating publications). None of the poems is ever likely to be included in English Literature textbooks, but that’s not the point.

We hope that you’ll have enjoyed the few poems we have recently printed, and some of the historical pieces — whether stories or old columns, or even advertising — which we have reprinted or put on our website. We offer these in the same spirit that our predecessors have, as subjects for thought and conversation, and for fun.

In a time before radio, movies and television—not to mention the internet and social media—the Gazette supplied some family entertainment. I imagine readers of the paper comparing notes on a story that started one Friday, speculating on what would happen in the coming issue. Any one story is less important than the conversations it sparks.

A community is about its conversations. A newspaper offers the groundwork for that discussion. It gives voice to unnoticed things, and it offers considered perspectives on pressing issues. But thoughts and ideas come from all directions, from within and from without. Keep them coming! A newspaper is only as good as its readers.