The last issue of the 114-year-old Prairie Messenger will come off the press next week.

The paper provided readers with a unique blend of local and international news and spiritual nourishment, said editor Peter Novecosky, who is the Abbot of St. Peter’s Abbey in Muenster, where the Prairie Messenger is printed.

“It makes me feel good that we have been that kind of a nourishment and inspiration for them, then on the other hand it makes me feel sad, too, that we can’t continue that.”

When he started as editor 14 years ago, the paper had around 6,000 subscribers. That number has now dropped to 4,000 as subscribers died, with only about 100 reading the online version.

They looked at trying to grow the online readership, but the paper’s subscription to its international news service alone was $2,000 a month, and with the costs of columnists and staff, the site would have needed to meet a budget of $100,000 through subscriptions or advertising.

“I didn’t think I had the expertise to do that, so we’re handing it off to some other people who perhaps can,” Novecosky said. Saskatchewan bishops are looking at alternatives, he said.

The paper started in 1904, nine months after the first monks came to the abbey, as a way of instructing the German settlers in the area and attracting new settlers from the United States.

In the 1930s and 1940s it turned to social issues such as the presence of the Ku Klux Klan in Saskatchewan, opposition to Catholic schools, and concern for the poor and underprivileged.

When he joined the staff as an assistant editor in the 1960s - mostly handling news items such as Catholic Women’s League minutes and baptisms - the paper started to broaden its appeal to readers in more dioceses and provinces.

“I enjoyed it. English wasn’t my favourite subject in university, but somehow I managed to overcome that and got to enjoy the work.”

He has received a lot of feedback in the past few weeks, he said.

“People have said they relied on it for inspiration, they relied on it for their own education, for keeping up on the news locally and worldwide, and when I go across Canada and talk to various bishops and religious educators, they always praise the Prairie Messenger as being the best paper in Canada, if not North America. Some very good fans,” he said.

“It makes me very proud. It brushes my ego a little bit, but I know I’m not the one responsible for all of that. The community has certainly supported the paper and helped found it. But I guess there’s a time for a change and that time seems to have come now.”