Northern Journal
Canadian newspaper
The Northern Journal was a weekly newspaper based out of Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, Canada.
History
The newspaper was founded in 1977 as the Slave River Journal. In 2011, owner and publisher Don Jaque renamed the paper to expand its coverage beyond Fort Smith. The Northern Journal had a stated circulation of 4,000, as of June 2013.
Coverage of the Northern Journal included Fort Smith, the N.W.T.'s South Slave region, Fort Chipewyan and the oilsands industry near Fort McMurray. Staff were based in the Fort Smith newsroom, although the newspaper also relied on freelancers across the Northwest Territories and had regular contributors based in Yellowknife.
Jaque announced on March 1, 2016 that the newspaper would be closing because of "a perfect storm" of circumstances.
The region's small population and business community made it difficult to keep the newspaper profitable. Most businesses had also moved their advertising to Facebook.
The newspaper had also lost advertising from oil companies because of coverage of health concerns towards the oilsands shared by people living in Fort McKay and Fort Chipewyan.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Northern Journal” is canadian newspaper. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Northern, Journal and Canadian, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “canadian newspaper” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 14, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7058594. Authority coordinates are 60.007, -111.888. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1977, 2011, 2013 and 2016.
A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Northern Journal”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Northern Journal primary sources, Northern Journal archive and Northern research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Northern Journal”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Northern Journal” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.