You can read more Indigenous focused story on www.eaglefeathernews.com (File photo/paNOW Staff)

By paNOW Staff

Eagle Feather News

Content sharing underway between Pattison Media and Eagle Feather News

Aug 12, 2024 | 2:37 PM

A shuttered monthly Indigenous focused newspaper has relaunched in Saskatchewan with a fresh brand, a shiny news portal and a quarterly print magazine. EFN Media could be the comeback story of 2024.

Managing Editor Kerry Benjoe hit publish on the new site last week for the publication formerly known as Eagle Feather News. Rebranded as EFN Media, Benjoe said finally being at this point is a major milestone.

“I’m so excited to be at this point. When we took over the operation of the monthly newspaper and website, we knew our old website needed to be replaced. Unfortunately, with the grind of producing a monthly paper, we just never found the time or extra resources to make the necessary changes.”

Eagle Feather News originally started 25 years ago and has a long history of dealing with topics of interest to readers in Saskatchewan’s First Nation and Métis communities. It took a six-month hiatus due to financial pressure in the aftermath of Meta’s ban on Canadian news sites.

“It’s been a long six months where we took the opportunity to re-evaluate and re-position ourselves. It became quite clear to us how valuable Eagle Feather is to our communities and needed to find a way to bring it back in a sustainable way,” Benjoe said.

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The comeback came through a strategic partnership with Pattison Media which includes content sharing agreements, and advertising revenue sharing with an emphasis on a commitment to economic reconciliation and support for Indigenous journalism.

The magazine’s first edition features articles from 13 student writers at the Indigenous Communications Arts program at the First Nations University of Canada. The first of the new quarterly magazines was published in June 2024. The new digital news portal launched last week allows EFN Media to rapidly produce rich online stories and offer enhanced advertising opportunities for supporters as well.

“As with anything new, I do expect a few hiccups, but I’m sure we will soon master the backend of uploading content. The site is so bright and new and I hope our audience will love it as much as I do,” Benjoe said. “The team at Pattison has been and continues to be very supportive and I’m looking forward to the future of EFN Media.”

The entire news archive of Eagle Feather News has been transferred to the new EFN Media portal and Managing Editor of Pattison Media, Teena Monteleone said content sharing is officially underway.

“We are eager to increase our Indigenous news content and proud to be able to provide a wider distribution through our network of established readers through this partnership,” said Monteleone. “More importantly, EFN Media can stay focused on telling Indigenous stories in Saskatchewan that our readers can better relate to. We are looking forward to learning more from Kerry and EFN Media journalists and we hope some of them find a career path to journalism through our newsrooms too.”

The first article published by Eagle Feather News on the new site is written by NC Raine and it’s about one of Canada’s longest boil water advisories finally coming to an end. Shorter versions of EFN Media stories will be available on all Pattison Media news portals in Saskatchewan including paNOW.com, and will redirect readers to the EFN site for the full versions.

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panews@pattisonmedia.com