Lethbridge County considering cancelling Sunny South News subscriptions for residents

Posted on March 26, 2026 by Sunny South News

By Kristine Jean
Sunny South News

Lethbridge County councillors have passed first reading of a new advertising and public notification bylaw that could potentially see the cancellation of Sunny South News subscriptions for all county residents, expected to take effect later this year. 

County residents will have an opportunity to share their feedback about the proposed bylaw at a public hearing which has been set for April 2 in the Council chambers at the Lethbridge County administration building on 4 Ave. South in Lethbridge at 10 a.m.   

At Lethbridge County’s Feb. 19 regular council meeting, council passed first reading of Bylaw 26-008, presented by Trevor Lewington. 

Lewington, the county’s new Director of Growth and Engagement, was hired last fall and began his new role in November. He presented details of the proposed bylaw, which he noted was an updated version of an existing bylaw, and spoke to councillors about the County’s desire to focus more on digital means of communication, including advertising. 

“What we’re proposing is that council give consideration to that bylaw and if adopted, that administration would shift our public notifications from print today, and through a combination of our social media channels and other things that we do, to primarily digital in the future,” said Lewington. “That would include, but is not necessarily limited to our website, our social media and our bi-weekly newsletter.”

Lewington told councillors the County would take a phased approach for the remainder of 2026 to educate residents on the different digital channels available to them to “promote increased adoption.”

“So by the end of the year, we can actually phase-out our paid subscriptions under Policy 106, where the County effectively subsidizes subscriptions to the Sunny South News for residents,” he said.  

Lewington pointed out some background information for councillors, to “provide some additional context” which included taking a few select paper editions of the Sunny South News over an eight-week sample period, in September and October 2025 and January and February 2026 – those months included extensive municipal election coverage over several weeks and Year-In-Review coverage for all five municipalities in the Sunny South News coverage area. 

He noted the implementation of Policy 106 back in 1979, “at a time when print was the primary method of communication” and spoke of the changes over the years.

“At that time, the intent of the policy was for the minutes of county meetings to be published in the newspaper. That no longer happens of course – the editorial group, they make their own decisions about what they publish and how they publish it,” said Lewington. “Since 1979 the County has effectively paid for subscriptions for residents to that particular publication.” 

Lewington noted the financial impact of Policy 106, including both the subscriptions and print advertising in the Sunny South News, that totalled about $60,000 a year – an amount which he noted was a “significant investment.” 

“So council’s challenge or question for you is, to consider whether or not you believe we’re getting sufficient value from that expense, that could potentially be re-deployed in other ways,” said Lewington, detailing what he referenced as the lack of Lethbridge County coverage in those selected publications between September and October 2025 and January and February 2026. 

“You’ll see on the left hand side, is that Lethbridge County received the lowest amount of coverage of the municipalities that we looked at,” said Lewington. “Basically, at the end of the day, you can see that from a County perspective we were receiving the least amount of coverage, the least amount of news coverage in that particular print publication.”

He also said they looked at the ratio of earned stories – things the Sunny South News did from an editorial perspective relative to what the County paid for. 

“You can see that the ratio of earned versus paid is the lowest also, among those three municipalities that we compared including ourselves,” he added.

Lewington also shared the SSN circulation numbers that they gathered through an independent, third party and were based on that third party’s summary.

“So we did take a look at Ad Canada Media, which is an independent third-party, to better understand the demographics and circulation of that particular publication and what you’ll notice is that the paid circulation is noted as 3,578 households or deliveries or subscriptions. The bulk of that of course, is the county’s paid subscription,” said Lewington, noting the remainder of the SSN publication base is not on a paid subscription model. “You can also see, that from a market perspective, again this is a third party analysis, that almost half, just slightly more than half of our population in their readership area is under the age of 35, with 14 per cent being over the age of 65. Again, the question for council is whether or not you believe print is the right form of communication in this day and age and whether you’re getting sufficient value from that investment.” 

He also shared Lethbridge County’s own data – from the County’s information systems, and noted the third-party findings, as well as highlighted some points from the County’s website, social media channels and e-newsletter. 

Lewington noted that if the new Advertising and Public Notification Bylaw – Bylaw 26-008 is eventually adopted, it would repeal the existing bylaw, Bylaw 23-013. He also recommended that Council rescind Policy 106, effective Dec. 31, 2026. 

Several members of Council agreed with Lewington’s view and proposed changes. Councillors discussed the proposed bylaw, and noted similar discussions regarding the SSN have been held in the past. 

“I agree with your facts and figures and I know we’ve gone through this before, with the same results because after they quit sending a reporter to cover our council meetings, our content in the paper just sort of slid away to next to nothing,” said Coun. Lorne Hickey. “And they really don’t do any stories covering the county, as an off, other than that, but the outcry from the citizens was almost unbelievable – about you can’t take away that paper because (they) rely upon it,” he added. “I’m kind of curious how (residents) would react to that question, and would it be advisable to ask (residents) a question – how do you prefer your information.”

Lewington pointed out the education process over the remaining part of the year, that would help residents find and learn about the County’s digital communication methods, giving residents time to adjust to and adopt other forms of communication.

“We have not contemplated a public survey – that’s something that could be done to ask that question,” said Lewington. “Again, I would look to some of the numbers just to say that over time, there appears to be increasing adoption of digital channels versus print, and to your point, is the content actually driving value for us as an organization. Certainly a survey or some sort of public engagement could be conducted through this process,” Lewington added. 

Coun. Mark Sayers said he supports the proposed bylaw and adopting it, and noted the shift in technology over the past few years and how the County has also been moving in that direction. 

“There’d be some residents upset about losing their subscription but I think with an education piece and getting people to sign onto the newsletter they’d probably realize they’d get more information through our emails and through our newsletter than they would from the Sunny South News,” said Sayers, adding he believes there will be fewer upset residents than the last go-around. 

Coun. Kevin Slomp asked if the reason they only passed first reading of the proposed bylaw on Feb. 19, was to allow for some “sober and second thought” and allow for residents to provide feedback to councillors on the new bylaw. 

Lewington noted provincial legislation under the Municipal Government Act, that stipulates a public hearing must be held on this type of bylaw, prior to adopting it. 

“Because it is a change in our publication practice, even though there’s an existing bylaw, we are required to conduct a public hearing,” said Lewington. “Should Council choose to move forward today with first reading, there would then be publication and notice of a public hearing and there would be an opportunity for public submissions and that kind of engagement that would be directly before you.” 

Councillors passed first reading of Advertising and Public Notification Bylaw 26-008 and chose to defer rescinding Policy 106 until after the public hearing. 

Residents wishing to provide input on Bylaw 26-008 can do so in several ways including in-person at the Public Hearing on Thursday, April 2, virtually – residents not able to attend the Public Hearing in-person can register to provide input virtually. Residents must register by emailing crobison@lethcounty.ca no later than 4:30 p.m. on March 31, 2026.

Residents can also provide written comments via a submission to Council which will form part of the public record and be included in the Council meeting agenda. Written submissions must be sent to communications@lethcounty.ca no later than 4:30 p.m. on March 26.