Kamloops Daily News shutting down after more than 80 years
Glacier Media, the parent company of the Kamloops Daily News, says it will close the newspaper within the next 60 days for economic reasons.
By Tamara Baluja, Associate Editor
The Kamloops Daily News is shutting down after more than 80 years of publication.
Glacier Media, the parent company of the Kamloops Daily News, said it will close the B.C. newspaper within the next 60 days for economic reasons.
“[R]evenues have declined and the Daily News has been unable to reduce expenses sufficiently to continue as a viable operation,” the company said in a statement.
“Personally I am very saddened to make this announcement,” said publisher Tim Shoults in the statement. “We have struggled for the last several years, worked tirelessly and taken many difficult steps along the way which were designed to ensure our future. Unfortunately the realities of our industry, our local advertising market and our labour situation were too great for us to overcome.
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Shoults said the laid-off staff will get counselling to cope with their job losses. It’s not clear how many people will lose jobs as a result of the closure.
[node:ad]Glacier Media owns the Victoria Times-Colonist. Last year, it sold the Chilliwack Times and the now defunct Abbotsford/Mission Times and to Black Press, and bought the North Shore Outlook, the Westender, Bowen Island Undercurrent and South Delta Leader.
Here is some of the reaction on social media to the closure of the newspaper:
sad news for the Loops MT @jsource: Here’s the story on Glacier Media closing Kamloops Daily News @KamNews http://t.co/q6FEGiYEhz
— rob mcanally (@ctvrob) January 6, 2014
🙁 RT @jsource Breaking: Glacier Media ceasing publication of Kamloops Daily News. #cdnmedia #journalism #BC
— Ben Parsons (@bfaparsons) January 6, 2014
The latest bad news in medialand: RT @jsource: Breaking: Glacier Media ceasing publication of Kamloops Daily News. #cdnmedia #journalism #BC
— Diamond Isinger (@diamondisinger) January 6, 2014
@jsource @Norm_Farrell Sad news, and will also leave a gap in the interior for wire services.
— Jeremy Nuttall (@jeremy24hours) January 6, 2014
*Image courtesy of Eric Mark Do
Related content on J-Source:
- The future of community journalism spells economic survival of rural communities
- Why sustaining an advertising-driven business model is difficult for community newspapers
- Why we should care when a community newspaper shuts down
Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.