11/27/2025
The time has come to share the bittersweet news that the final issue of the Lunenburg Barnacle will be published in January 2026. It will mark 34 editions and three full years of operations.
This ending is part celebration, part grief, part beginning.
I want to start by saying thank you. We have so much gratitude to give. I don’t think the group of friends that started this labour of love in winter 2023 could have ever imagined the impact it would have on their lives or on the communities around them.
From the beginning, the Barnacle set out to be a project for a gaggle of new-to-Lunenburg-County folks to have a reason to gather once a week in the dark evenings of winter. We wanted to highlight all the incredible things we had come to learn and know about this special place we call home.
Immediately, people took notice. It was simple—everyone around us agreed that there are so many hardworking people, organizations and small businesses that deserve recognition and warrant a shout-out or boost.
Through this community response, the Barnacle grew in purpose.
We became about pointing to the things we wanted others to pay attention to. This was a radical and simple way to engage in this age of short attention spans and short-form digital content.
I could write a lot more about the journey the team at the Barnacle has been on, but I will save that for a series I will write to send-off the Barnacle. The story is complex and interesting, and deserves to be told properly.
The decision to end the Barnacle on our own terms comes from Carmen and I. We have been holding down the fort alongside a dozen other dedicated volunteers. We’ve decided to turn our attention to new projects in 2026.
The Barnacle has always been volunteer-run. It was never a sustainable model. It was just a way to reinvigorate local journalism, no matter how brief a tenure. The time to transition has come.
I want to invite you all into this process of ending the Barnacle. This is a transition that deserves grace and humility. You have all been a part of this, whether you attempted the crossword with your friends over coffee at No. 9, sponsored an ad to help us cover print costs, wrote a letter to the editor, shared a social media post, sent us an email, commented on our website, you were a part of the Barnacle.
The words of Vanessa Andreotti & Habiba Nabatu guide us through this process of hospicing this project.
“To be stewards of this time, we must develop the practices and capacities to tend to these endings, not with urgency or control, but with a kind of stillness that invites the birth of new ways of being. Endings are not failures; they are part of a cycle that requires presence, reverence, and humility.”
Read the full goodbye 👉 https://www.thebarnacle.ca/the-end-of-an-era/
