Michael Atkins made his way to Thunder Bay in the early 1970s for a job with the federal government’s Opportunities for Youth Program and, subsequently, as a reporter with the local daily newspaper. He was fired from both jobs for being too opinionated and landed in Little Current as editor of the Manitoulin Expositor, an experience he credits for understanding the power of journalism and its ability to have a positive impact on the community it serves.
When an opportunity to purchase a dying weekly newspaper in Sudbury presented itself, Michael didn’t hesitate. Northern Life eventually spawned a publishing empire encompassing newspapers in Ignace, Thunder Bay, Nipigon, Terrace Bay, Sturgeon Falls and Parry Sound. He subsequently launched Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, the Northern Ontario Medical Journal, Sudbury Living Magazine and Sudbury.com, an award winning website. The empire also included community newspaper groups and trade publications in southern Ontario and business publications in Ottawa, New Brunswick and New Hampshire, but Michael’s base of operations and his heart always lay in Sudbury and Northern Ontario.
When Sudbury’s economy was threatened by massive layoffs in the mining industry in the late 70s, Michael spearheaded the founding Sudbury 2001, a multipartite community organization that brought union and company representatives together with municipal politicians and other community leaders to take responsibility for the city’s future.
Michael credits the new spirit of community activism made possible by Sudbury 2001for the city’s renaissance as a vibrant community anchored by an impressive cluster of mining supply businesses and institutions like Science North, the Taxation Centre, the Northern Ontario School of Medicine, the Ontario Geological Survey and the School of Architecture. Over the years, a globally significant regreening project has also put to bed the city’s previous reputation as a barren moonscape.
In this interview, Michael speaks about several award programs he initiated to celebrate the achievements of Northerners, he tells us about the impact of Northern Ontario Business and Sudbury Mining Solutions Journal, and laments the demise of locally owned print media in the age of the Internet.
He concludes this interview by sharing his reason for spearheading the Sustainable Northern Ontario Economic Development (SNOED) course and this accompanying website of resources that will allow future generations of Northerners to learn from the experience of those who preceded them.