Originally appearing in THE EQUITY in 1995 as a part of a story on a PHS computer class where he lauded the internet as something that was going to change the world for the better, Jon Stewart, the owner of the media and consulting company Calumet Media, made a career in the then brave new world of cyberspace. Now that he’s back in the Pontiac, he hopes he can share some of the expertise he’s acquired with local businesses.
With his family roots in the Pontiac going all the way back to the 1840s when the original Stewarts settled on Calumet Island, Stewart grew up along Hwy. 148. He left the Pontiac at the age of 17 to go to Heritage College and thought he wouldn’t come back.
“I remember signing a scholarship or bursary that I had won that year saying that I would eventually come back to the Pontiac and bring my services. They used to force everyone to sign that and I laughed saying, ‘I don’t think I’ll ever come back’,” Stewart said. “Then at 30, I wanted to buy a cottage back in the Pontiac, and at 40, I realized that I actually really wanted to live full time up here and could potentially do my job up here regularly, so I sold the home in Ottawa.”
Opening up Calumet Media last January, Stewart says he’s already working a lot with the Pontiac Chamber of Commerce and recently received a big contract to redesign the website of the MRC Pontiac.
“Specifically, I’ve helped radio stations and newspapers transition into a very digitally forward world,” Stewart said, on his background in digital media.
Working for companies like Post Media and Ottawa-area radio stations to transition them to an online advertising model, Stewart helped implement concepts like optimal website design, understanding how data collection works, privacy policies and lead generation.
“I wanted to come back to the Pontiac to do similar things with businesses in the community,” Stewart said. “There’s been a brain drain over the last 30 years and people leaving the area and not coming back with the skills to help businesses understand how they can modernize your communication and modernize their ability to generate business at a larger scale than just simply those who are across the street.”
Now with the improvement to internet infrastructure in Otter Lake, Stewart believes that he can run this business fully out of his cottage on nearby Clark Lake.
While Calumet Media focuses on helping local businesses, he says he is working with companies as far away as Alaska, which wouldn’t have been possible even three years ago, despite frequent power outages still plaguing his operations.
Despite these hiccups, Stewart emphasized that businesses embracing the digital shift is crucial for local businesses to both thrive and survive.
“If you fight the digital transformation it is going to make it harder for you,” Stewart said. “So for instance, I was looking for an accountant. There are some accountants in Shawville here, but they don’t have an online presence at all so I skipped over them and went over to Renfrew because there was an accounting firm over there that had a really nice online presence with lots of great detail about all their services. It allowed me to educate myself before making that call, which is how most consumers buy products these days, they want to do research about your business beforehand.”
Stewart says that while local reputation can still take you far, how people consume is changing and therefore businesses have to change with it.
He believes that while businesses in the Pontiac face a unique challenge in terms of keeping their websites compliant with Bill 96 while still appealing to anglophone customers, he’s optimistic that they can thrive if technology is embraced and utilized.
When asked to reflect on the statement he made as a teenager in 1995 about the internet making the world better, Stewart replied:
“I’ve seen it change and completely destroy various industries that were unable or unwilling to sort of move forward. But I’ve also seen other things that have come along and businesses have flourished with their capability of expanding their message and reaching more people. So as with everything in life, it’s sort of a mixed bag. We all like social media, but also social media can tribalize us all and force us to only look at one opinion of things. So you just gotta take everything with a grain of salt.”
Brett Thoms
Shawville May 19, 2023
