WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 14, 2019
north shore news nsnews.com
13
50TH ANNIVERSARY ISSUE
Olympic Games bring the world to North Shore From page 11
snowboarding and freestyle skiing events – even though the weather was unco-operative. Foot determined the North Shore News would start publishing a daily supplement in addition to its three regular issues. He set up a night shift for reporters and production staff, who could get all the day’s event results written, edited and packaged by 4 a.m., printed and distributed by the next morning. There was a semi-serious offer of cots for staff to sleep on. Foot remembers it as a time of great fun, in the newsroom and out. “To Vancouver, it was absolutely incredible,” Foot said. “The Olympics, as you know, on the North Shore was a frickin’ disaster. At Cypress, they had to close some of the events because it rained and it was so wet and slushy, and they had to haul in all the snow. … Other than that, it was fantastic. It was a big, giant party. It was a party on the North Shore.”
CHANGE OF HANDS Foot was the boss for many years, but even bosses have bosses. In 1989, the North Shore News got its first corporate owner when Speck negotiated for the historic Southam Inc. and Madison Publishing to purchase the paper. Later, Conrad Black’s Hollinger Inc. came along, and through a series of transactions, in 1996 came to own all of Southam’s
assets including Lower Mainland Publishing, of which the North Shore News was the flagship paper. “Those guys went to jail,” Foot said with a laugh. When Hollinger fell apart, its assets were sold to CanWest in the early 2000s. That lasted until 2010 when Postmedia bought bankrupt CanWest’s empire. With each transaction, running a newspaper became a little less fun, Foot said, particularly during Postmedia’s tenure. “That was pretty difficult because it was all about cutting costs,” he said.
“They were fighting a losing battle because every time they cut the costs, their revenue went down and they were chasing it all the way down.” In 2011, Glacier Media stepped in and purchased Lower Mainland Publishing, including the North Shore News and its sister papers, the Burnaby Now, Royal City Record, Richmond News, TriCity News, Surrey Now, and Vancouver Courier.
“I was actually quite happy when we got sold to Glacier because Glacier, that’s what they did. They had a bunch of community papers. We were still in the same industry, facing the same issues, but at least these guys cared about community papers and knew something about them,” Foot said. In January 2015, Foot went corporate and left the News to work in Glacier’s head office. Soon after, Peter Kvarnstrom, who was already the president of Glacier, took over as publisher of the North Shore News. It was something of a homecoming for Kvarnstrom who started in the business as a classified ad sales rep at the North Shore News in 1991 and later founded his own paper on the Sunshine Coast.
Frank Karucz takes part in the Olympic torch relay in West Vancouver. The Olympics were a defining moment for many Vancouverites, as well as the North Shore News. PHOTO PAUL MCGRATH
TOMORROW’S EDITION The changes and challenges in the news business, regardless of medium, are no secret to anyone. Sitting behind his desk, Kvarnstrom said the core of the business doesn’t change. “We as the North Shore News need to recognize that our core asset is our engagement with our audience and our audience continues to engage with us in a significant and relevant way. Both online and in print,” he said. “As long as we continue to focus on an audiencefirst strategy, we will continue to be relevant to our audience, we will continue to serve this community for many, many years going forward. In print and online.” !
WELCOME TO THE 50 CLUB! Congratulations on five decades of telling North Shore stories, from all of us at Capilano University.
WHO KNEW GIVING BACK WOULD FEEL SO GOOD!
HAPPY 50TH NORTH SHORE NEWS! HELPING US CONNECT VOLUNTEERS FOR OVER 40 YEARS IN OUR COMMUNITY
Look for CapU’s new satellite location at The Shipyards, Fall 2019.
Find out how you can volunteer 604-985-7138 | www.nscr.ca
C APIL ANOU.C A /LONSDALE