After more than two decades at Canada’s oldest weekly, Jason Parks is moving on. He will continue his longstanding service to Prince Edward County as Program Coordinator at Community Care for Seniors.

A graduate of Loyalist College’s Radio Broadcasting program in 1999, Jason worked in tech support until an aunt nudged him to use his talents. Preparing  himself for print, he approached then-Gazette-editor Ross Lees and pitched a sports column called “Parkin’ it” in 2004.

Within the year, he had a permanent job as reporter/photographer. He was promoted to editor in 2019.

Jason has weathered huge and rapid changes in the news industry. When the Gazette office was located at 267 Picton Main Street, he would sit at his desk late into the night, next to Rick Fralick, who would pass on the history of current stories. The digital era was just beginning. “They had only just mothballed the darkroom; we were barely onto email,” Jason recalls. “Ross was driving CDs to Napanee to get the files to the printer.”

By 2011, the Gazette was posted on the PDF website, Issu, and, ahead of the curve, was sharing links on Facebook to a page that eventually gained 5000 followers.

The Gazette’s first website came in 2017. The weekly back-and-forth in the “digital town square” that was the Picton Gazette Facebook page was something to behold—and something that became more personal when, in response to the Meta ban on sharing news, Jason, along with the publishers, had to share news stories via his own Facebook page.

Along the way, of course, the Gazette experienced the existential threat that all businesses and cultural institutions suddenly encountered in 2020: the pandemic. Lockdowns and social distancing meant the office was shuttered and everyone sent home. The paper grew thinner. Elizabeth Crombie donated an office for Jason, with his favourite desk chair and a photocopier, in a corner of the Royal LePage building. “Both me and my family are forever grateful to Libby for that,” Jason notes.

The present publishers have no doubt that it was Jason alone who held the Gazette together during this crisis, doggedly committed to the regular publication of a paper uninterrupted since 1830.

The effort was nothing less than heroic.

When we finally met Jason in person in 2023, he emerged pale, but victorious. It was a symbolic moment when he pushed his chair and photocopier out of the Crombie office and along the sidewalk two houses up to the Gazette’s new location which just happened to be next door, at 100 Main Street. It was springtime and as we all together redesigned the Gazette for a new era, Jason flourished. His series of photography awards from the Ontario Community Newspapers Association reflects his energy and enthusiasm for the new direction.

As former editor Adam Bramburger puts it, “amid major change in Prince Edward County and in journalism itself, Jason has remained a constant in the newsroom. As readers, we have been fortunate to see him mature in his role, and his recent recognition and accolades reflect that journey.”

Mr. Bramburger recalled his years with Jason at the old location. “When we worked together and still today, it is evident that Jason’s love for his community and his passion for serving it through the pages of the Gazette have been the foundation of his career.

“While he’s stepping away from the keyboard,” he added, “I’m happy to see that Jason has chosen a position that will allow him to remain actively engaged in local service.”

Mayor Steve Ferguson remarked, “over the course of my 12 years as an elected official, Jason was a fixture at Council meetings, municipal events, and announcements by members of the provincial or federal government. 

“I was always confident that his coverage would be accurate, unbiased, respectful and thorough. At the same time, he was not afraid to take elected officials to task, or to editorialize and comment on issues involving our community that he believed in.”

“His departure will be a loss to not just to the Gazette, but to PEC as a whole. He spoke to us, he spoke about us, and he made us think. I wish him all the best in his new position.”

The issues close to Jason’s heart were those that mattered most to his community. He combined news coverage with advocacy in his editorials addressing important ongoing matters such as the need for lifeguards on our beaches, or the threats to Picton’s drinking water and its treatment. 

“I consider myself a progressive. The world is changing and the County needs to change with it. We need housing and jobs so our kids can stay here. I was a big supporter of PECI’s ‘Trading Up’ program.

“But we have to be careful not to pluck the golden goose one feather at a time. We need to be careful about the County’s rural charm and bucolic beauty and maintain the main reason for people to travel so far to visit us,” he notes. 

Jason’s longest-lasting colleague is the Gazette’s office manager, Karen Gyde. She managed to convey how the newspaper office is more than a job, it is closer to—and even literally—a family. 

“Reflecting on 21 years,” she said, “we have been through so much together—deaths, weddings, births, employees moving on, new team members learning the ropes, significant birthdays, anniversaries, and the births of our grandchildren.”

In the office, these social relations became the factual grounding of the news. “We relied on each other to identify people in pictures, remember names, and recall the history of events at the Picton Gazette. We have discussed how the County is changing, what we love about living here, how it used to be and the latest news on the street. Always asking each other, ‘is it true?’”

In last week’s farewell editorial, Jason likened his job as editor to “keeping his hands on the tiller” of the paper. For the latest publishers of the Picton Gazette, Jason was not only the skipper, but both the anchor and the beacon for this paper. We are grateful for his deep-rooted knowledge, his weekly contributions, and his guidance.

Jason, we wish you the very best in your next endeavour. We’re expecting newsworthy things!