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TUESDAY
Tuesday, January 7, 2014 X Volume 27 No. 2
Kamloops, B.C., Canada X 30 cents at Newsstands
THIS WEEK
Kamloops Jardine Blazers lose titletilt heartbreaker Page A14 Thompson River Publications Partnership Ltd.
STOP THE PRESSES End of an era as Kamloops Daily News to close Kamloops This Week to expand to three times per week to serve city The Kamloops Daily News is closing. After more than 80 years of publishing in Kamloops, the newspaper will cease operations within the next 60 days. On Monday, Jan. 6, Glacier Media, parent company of the Daily News, served notice under Section 54 of the BC Labour Code to Unifor, representing unionized staff at the newspaper. In an interview with KTW, Daily News publisher Tim Shoults reiterated the point made in the original press release announcing the closure — it is economic. “This was certainly not our first option by any stretch of the imagination,” Shoults said, noting efforts to save the paper from closure simply could not be realized. When asked if there were options other than closure and whether there were any parties interested in buying the newspaper, Shoults said he could not speak on that issue as Glacier Media and the union are still in negotiations on how and when the Daily News
After 83 years in business as a twice-weekly and daily newspaper, the Kamloops Daily News will close within the next 60 days. Parent company Glacier Media cites economic difficulties in making the decision. The closure will affect 43 full-time and 12 part-time staff, in addition to drivers and carriers. Andrea Klassen/KTW
KTW MOVES TO THRICE-WEEKLY With the impending closure of the Kamloops Daily News, Aberdeen Publishing, owner of Kamloops This Week, has announced it will increase its publication dates to three days per week as soon as possible. Watch for KTW to soon land on city doorsteps on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
will be shuttered. Shoults said 43 fulltime and 12 part-time employees will lose their jobs, in addition to a number of drivers and carriers. He said employees will receive counselling as needed and have been told they will be consid-
ered for jobs that open in other Glacier-owned newspapers. Charles Hays, a journalism professor at Thompson Rivers University, said the closure is symptomatic of changes in the industry. “And the Daily has done a lot of things, so
we hear, to try and keep up, but they haven’t managed to find that magic formula.” Hays said the circulation dropping to about 12,500 was a harbinger of the future. “With one paper in eight or one paper in nine people going out in
the broader Kamloops region, to have fewer than 13,000 copies going out to 100,000 people, you can’t survive on that.” Hays noted the Daily News’ online presence had improved through the years. But, he said, to have
a chance at success, a newspaper “has to have a strong multimedia presence. They need to keep it up every day. They need to know the news cycle is shrunk. They need to put up video and audio and links. It takes a lot more work.” Those skills are the
ones his faculty is teaching its students, Hays said, noting when he graduated, “I could write a story — on a manual typewriter — and knew my way around a dark room a bit.” Today’s students are learning to write and do layout, but are also learning about audio, video, photography and social media. With graduates now working for the Kamloops Daily News, Alan Bass, a journalism instructor at Thompson Rivers University, said he is sad to see them lose their jobs. However, he added, a newspaper closure is not unusual anymore. “It’s a brutal economic environment for newspapers now and it’s hard to compete in Kamloops.” While some may question why universities continue to educate students to enter journalism, Bass said there is still a need for them. “The world of news is morphing, evolving, changing into something else,” he said. X See NEWSPAPERS A7
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