I might have said this before, but I have a face for radio and a voice for print.
Which is why the last week or so has been so interesting, as I’ve been doing radio interview after radio interview as the last newspaper in the Peace still standing.
You see, last week, Glacier Media, who over the last 40 years or so have slowly been collecting newspapers in the western provinces, from Victoria’s Times Colonist to the Moose Jaw Today, shut down the Alaska Highway News and Dawson Creek Mirror.
They operate close to 30 newspapers and/or news websites across Western Canada, many of which they bought during the fire sale of Hollinger Inc. in 2006. (Conrad Black was originally the owner, but he had been ousted by that time.)
The Alaska Highway News was originally founded in 1943 by Margaret “Ma” Murray, a figure who looms large on the BC newspaper landscape. Over on that shelf (he says, gesturing vainly to a print audience)I have a Ma Murray award from the BC and Yukon Newspaper Association for that photo of Chris Leggett a few year’s back. You know the one.
Anyway. This last issue of the Alaska Highway News—the only paper to give a tinker’s damn about the North Peace—was also the last issue of the Alaska Highway News. That’s it. 80 years and no more.
And, while you might think that having fewer newspapers in the Peace, North, South or otherwise, might leave more room for us, that’s not the case.
You see, the Tumbler RidgeLines has been hyperlocal since day 1. That means that we covered stories about Tumbler Ridge, about the people of Tumbler Ridge or affecting the people of Tumbler Ridge.
So, if the Dawson Creek Mirror shuts down, what does it matter to us here in Tumbler Ridge? Not a lot. At least, not on the surface. It does mean that the news in Dawson isn’t getting covered, or the news in Fort St. John. But Tumbler Ridge? Sure.
I know, I just said that this paper is all about things in Tumbler Ridge. So why are we talking about papers closing in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John?
For one thing, because there are other possible fall-outs. The Peace River and Regional District created ads for the other papers. If those papers don’t exist, will they continue to create those ads just for Tumbler Ridge? Only time will tell.
It also makes our situation here in Tumbler more precarious. It’s hard enough to let potential advertisers from outside of town know that we exist. Now it’s even harder. This issue might seem like it has a lot of ads, but if you look closely, two are for my photography business, one is for my wife, one is for my band, and two are donations for good causes.
Heck, when the story that the two newspapers originally broke, the CBC proclaimed that there were no more newspapers in the Northeast. (After sending them a bunch of notes they’ve changed that to say that “Northeastern BC Cities” lose their last newspapers, with a tiny correction at the bottom saying there’s some newspaper in Tumbler Ridge still publishing.
Even the person from CBC who called after that and talked to me for half an hour said in her article that there were no more newspapers; I had to send her a picture of me holding up the latest issue of the newspaper like a hostage to prove that, yes, we actually print on dead trees.
In addition to that story, I received a call from Phil Johnson at Kelowna 1150 Talk Radio.
Johnson is a big fan of local papers, and, with Kamloops This Week also shutting down in the past week or so, he wanted to talk about why the Tumbler RidgeLines is still a going concern.
“I’m just stubborn,” I told him. More than that, I have no appreciable skills to make a living in a town that is still, despite efforts, mostly a coal mining town. I can write, design, edit, take pictures, even shoot video and host live, multi-cam events from grad to business meetings (and yes, that was most definitely a CV; if you need video for your event, give me a call), but I don’t know how to drive a truck the size of a house or wire up a blast pattern to get at this seam or that.
And it seems to me that local news is still important, even when, like this week, not a lot is actually happening.
Shortly after Johnson called, I got a call from Moose FM in Fort St John, asking if I wanted to talk about the future of newspapers in the Peace.
Sure, says I.
On video, says he.
Great. Remember, face for radio, voice for print. And now that interview is saved for posterity on the Interwebs. You can watch it by going to our Facebook page or our website, at www.tumblerridgelines.com. It’s pretty bad. I was trying to get all fancy but couldn’t get my system to work with his system and so wound up talking to my iPhone.
Anyway. While I focus on the local news, the fact is, what happens outside of Tumbler Ridge affects those of us in Tumbler Ridge. And there’s a chance that this will mean that the newspaper starts to do less well.
But there’s also a chance that it does better. Indeed, I’m hoping what it does is get all those people who keep coming up to me and saying how much they value the paper to put a price on that value.
Because you can tell me that all you want, but that and $3 will get you a cupcake at Lush Deserts, and if you’re not the one providing me the $3, then I can’t afford to buy a cupcake at Lush.
But for $3.50, you can both help me afford that cupcake at Lush, and you can help me pay for a delivery beast to bring the newspaper right to your doorstep and make me that much less dependant on advertising.
You can accost me in the street and toss money at me, send me a cheque (PO Box 847), or sign up to support the paper at www.patreon.com/tumblerridgelines.com.
Pitching in a few bucks a month? Will at least help us have a fighting chance to survive. Me, Lisa and Ma Murray thank you for your support of the local news.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
