Thanks for the memories and here's to the future – together – in these fast-changing times

THERE’s no doubt that this week’s final printed edition of the North Star – and its sister paper, the Highland News – marks the end of an era.

But it also heralds a new chapter for an industry that is moving with the times to reflect the changing needs of you, our readers, and of the advertisers whose goods and services also meet local demands and pump vital money into our economy.

Elsewhere on these pages, you’ll see how we intend bringing you the local news and views you wish to access in a manner that is relevant to and fits in with your own busy lifestyle.

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I’m not the first to observe that the times they are a changing – and that’s because it was ever thus.

Our new community reporter, Iona MacDonald, from Ullapool, is 16 years old and a “native” of the digital age that we all now embrace. On her first week with us, she showed me a newspaper cutting from 10-plus years ago showing some of the new intake of Primary 1 pupils across Ross-shire at that time. She was one of those pupils and the piece had been written by me. It was a delight for me to see that the newspaper cutting had survived the years and also that here was a new generation ready to learn the ropes and pave her own way in this fast-changing industry.

Did it make me feel old? Of course it did! But more than that it was a testament to the role we play charting these milestones for people in the communities we serve.

Iona is taking her first steps in this ancient profession and doing a grand job of it so far. Last week she put together a simple but informative TikTok about a day in her working life, hailed by the National Council for the Training of Journalists (NCTJ) which puts us all through our paces as trainees.

And you know what? I look forward to her showing me how she did it and sharing skills that come so naturally to her in the same way I and my seasoned colleagues will try and pass on our hard won collected wisdom and advice to her. We really are all in this together whether 16 or 64 and every day is a school day in terms of learning new skills and finding compelling ways of telling stories.

I remember well the first day I set foot in the old North Star office in Dingwall. I’d been born in Ross-shire’s county town, spent my first years in Easter Ross and then been brought up and schooled on the Black Isle. Given that my dad hailed from Gairloch in Wester Ross, I figured I was a Ross-shire lad through and through.

I had hair then – quite a lot of it, truth be known. I’d finished university in Glasgow and was heeding that niggling calling to this trade we call journalism I had felt for many years. The journalist’s technology of choice then was a manual typewriter and A4 paper – a wad of which then editor Willie Wilson handed to me as I made my pitch.

I met the Ross-shire’s Journal’s gentle editor David Watt at the same time, engrossed in putting together the Reflections column which was an eagerly anticipated part of the paper. Thankfully, both of these men gave me the time of day and an opportunity to cover the likes of community council meetings for which I was paid lineage. The payment wasn't the driving force (just as well, really!). It was a thrill to see notes turned into stories appearing in these columns.

I still have a copy of my first North Star front page 'splash' – a community council-derived piece about 15 shopping trolleys being recovered from the Peffery. WW worked his magic and slapped it across the front with the headline “Hooked!” And so I was on this oddest of careers.

While later editing the Ross-shire Journal in Dingwall, I’d share office space with former North Star editor Jackie Mackenzie and work alongside the likes of the late Laurence Ford and a cast of colourful characters who all shared a passion for this strange beast we call “the news”. I learned something from all of them and feel privileged to have worked with so many good eggs down the years.

The technology has been revolutionised since those early days clunking away on a manual typewriter and reaching for the bottle of Tipp-Ex. The power of the mobile phone and the advent of social media have dramatically changed the way stories are told and the length of the news cycle.

Yet much stays the same as we embrace the digital age. Looking back at some North Star front pages recently, I recalled occasional phone polite calls to the office from the late, very proud mother of Luke and Tom Stoltman, Sheila. The World's Strongest Brothers are now household names and forging a legacy of which she would doubtless be proud. Back then, it was a story of a mother's strong belief in her sons – and one which the years would prove to be well founded.

So, yes, the end of an era. But stick with us as we continue to listen to your stories and chart the milestones – tiny and trailblazing – along the way.

The Ross-shire Journal comes out on a Friday in its printed form and can be found at www.ross-shirejournal.co.uk the rest of the time. You'll find it on Facebook and Twitter too. Thanks for reading.

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