The following text may have been generated by Optical Character Recognition, with varying degrees of accuracy. Reader beware!

WHITE3Y FREE PRESS, Thursday, August 10e 1972e pag AN OPEN LETTER TO OUR "COMPETITION" D. anci The owners and staff of the WH1TDEY FREE PRESS woul d 1 ike to wel come you to the competitive world of newspaper in Wvhitby. Over the past weeks we have sat back quietly during the introductory period of the eview. With your debut next week, we thought this message timely. Seforeeven showing us your worth, sirs, you have boasted most distaste- fully your 'professional ism' across the length and breadth of this town, which isunderstandable for it was not in little Whitby but in the seething metropol is of Toronto where you learned this 'pro- fessionalism'. But in the letters of in- troductorymailed out, you have walked unfeelingly over the hard working backs of former Whitby newspaper people in saying, 'Our task will not be easy in i i g h t of the poorly managed, defunct Whitby newspapers'. The \Whitby World under the editor'- ship of Linda Sutton you see vas per- haps one of the most 'professional' looking papers in the whole of Ontario County and according to the municipal i ty renown, a credit to the County Town. The Whitby A r g o s y on the other hand, under the management of Peter Oomen, was a lively little paper well To: PRITCHARD, JOHN HUNT, STEPHEN N. read and h a p p i 1ly accepted in many Whitby homes. Two thousand paid sub- scribers can vouch fqr the Argosy under its Oomen days. Both papers sadly went under be- cause frankly, there is only room for one newspaper in Whitby and we would be the first to say Pritchard and Hunt have the right to fight for that place along with the Wlhitby Free Press. With your assuming allusions to the Whitby paper scene, you have also hurt very deeply the staff of the paper and hurt as well, all who are associated with the Vhitby Free Press; our readers, our carriers and those who have sup- ported it with advertising revenue for over a year now. From what we can tell, you are be- ginning this enterprise credentially with the .hitby family name of Pritchard. Zut does* this give you the right, Mr. Pritchard to have your editor, who is the Whitby Archivist as well, deny Free Press Editor, Mrs. Durkee access to the Town of 'Whitby Archives until he could "try and convince you she had the right"? \We think not. The archives are for the ci ti zens of Whitby and like the benches in front of the Brock Street bank - for paupers and princes alike. The Historical Society itself vill back us on that. WHITBY MALL OPTICAL I Cent S Complete Optical Service Lab Repairs Eye Examination Contact lenses 10%o Discount on all Purchases BRING THIS COUPON TO STORE TO DE ELIGIBLE FOR THE DRAW STORE LOCATION 1536 Dandes Street E. Thickson Rd. & Hwy. #2 Alsowithyour scathingletters of in- troduction and follow-up attitudes, you have hurt the feelings and insulted the intelligence of many of our merchant friends. We are not overjoyed that you are bringing still another paper to Whitby while there is only room for one, but Canada afterall is peopled by a demo- cratic society and we wouldn't want it any other way. We have survivedmany things during our year of service in Whitby and yes, have even won the grudging respect of some of the toin officials. You have threatened in a most des- picable way our arrangement with the historical archives, and have even, through a member ofyour own fold, been forgotten accidentally -on - purpose in the doling out of advertising promoting a prime town function in 1light of the new paper. We have been insul ted and asked, not politely,to move over because Prit- chard and Hunt are here. And we can also, gentlemen, survive that. Hurting us is acceptable if th a t is your way of competing. Hurting the in- tell igence and feelings of others who be- l ieve in this paper is not. Please gentlemen. If you are indeed basing the. success of this paper on an oldWhitbyfamilyname- remember your bearing! whitby 72 8 m 7141