Saskatoon city mag Planet S celebrates 10 years of "democratic achievement"

Planet S's first cover

The Saskatoon-based bi-weekly city magazine Planet S would like you to know that it's 10 years old, but it goes farther, reporting that the 260 issues have resulted in 80,000 pages and 160 million words. In the current issue, the paper's founder Mitch Diamantopoulos (now associate professor of journalism and chair of the University of Regina school of journalism) says

"Planet S is a different kind of paper, in many ways. It’s built on a cutting-edge business innovation — co-operative worker ownership. It also embodies an important democratic achievement — as a locally rooted venture, it’s about reclaiming media power from distant and remote media conglomerates. And, it ushered in a new, independent frontier in city journalism — bringing alternative journalism, at last, to city readers."

Planet S was created in an alliance with Regina based prairie dog, a similar worker-owned cooperative.

"This city-paper isn’t perfect, and its best work lies ahead of it. But it brings great bunches of freshly plucked fun to the Bridge City every two weeks. It put the local arts and culture scene — long hidden by syndicated Hollywood entertainment — back on the city map. It has carved out a role for itself as a watchdog, not a lap dog. It has connected with those too often left out of public affairs, like young people. And it has demonstrated the awesome power of quality journalism and media diversity to expanding the range, depth and quality of debate about our shared future. It has changed the conversation that is Saskatoon for the better."