Bad day at Black Press

News today that Black Press has voluntarily entered creditor protection and could be sold to a three-way partnership is the latest in a long string of bad news stories for community newspapers.

David Black, longtime owner and founder of Black Press, is out of the newspaper business after more than 50 years.

It has been a sad day for me. I have spent the past 46 years involved with the community press, mostly as a reporter and editor. I was a Black Press editor for 16 years with The Langley Times, retiring from full-time work in 2015.

I am particularly saddened when I think of the many great people I worked with at various newspapers, most of them now owned by Black Press. Some still work there, some have retired, some have left this world behind.

Community newspapers have been struggling to find an arrangement that works for them, as businesses, and for their readers, for the better part of 20 years. This became a particular challenge when smart phones, notably the iPhone, made their appearances. Things have only gotten worse.

Most community newspapers in more recent years have been free distribution, meaning that advertisers pay the costs of distribution. A few still have paying subscribers, and some have managed to find some readers willing to pay for online access. These revenue streams are small and don’t pay much toward the costs of doing business - notably paying reporters and other staff, and all the overhead costs that any business must pay, such as rent, utilities, taxes, licence fees ad many other mundane items.

Advertising has paid the bulk of costs and helped newspapers make a profit for years, and Google, Facebook and other companies have siphoned much of that business away. What’s left doesn’t go far.

Black Press, like all publishing companies in Canada, has been cutting costs and streamlining all aspects of its business for years. At the same time, it has boosted its online presence and up until quite recently, was still buying newspapers.

David Black, who founded the company in 1975 when he bought the Williams Lake Tribune, has announced his retirement from the business. The creditor protection move is an attempt to transition the business to new owners. He and his family are no longer in control.

At this point in time, all Black Press newspapers offer print editions. It is unlikely that things will stay that way for long. Glacier Media, the other large B.C.-based publisher, has already put a number of its newspapers online (with no print editions) and has closed others completely - notably the two Peace River newspapers in Dawson Creek and Fort St. John.

Kamloops This Week, an excellent newspaper in a town which thrives on local news, shut down last fall. It is part of a smaller group and the owner said that the costs of doing business simply overwhelmed and ultimately doomed the operation.

There is one bright spot on the horizon, from my perspective. Carpenter Newsmedia, a U.S. company which will likely be the operator of Black Press if all goes as planned with creditor protection, sounds like a good operating company and may be a good fit with Black Press. Tyler Olsen, editor of the online Fraser Valley Current (which I highly recommend) and a fine reporter who worked for The Abbotsford News (a Black Press paper) in the past, posted a link to a very interesting story about Carpenter and its former partner Boone Newsmedia. This story (https://www.editorandpublisher.com/stories/boone-newsmedia-and-carpenter-newsmedia-announce-plans-to-separate-the-companies-leadership,246402) appeared in Editor and Publisher, a trade publication, last fall.

We visited the U.S. south a year ago, including in some towns where Carpenter and/or Boone do business. Both are Southern U.S.-based companies. The philosophy they adhere to might work towards at least keeping most Black Press operations alive.

Much will depend on both government attitudes towards the community media, and trends in business. There is as much uncertainty as ever.

For the moment, take stock of what your community newspaper has offered to your community in the past, and if you believe local news is important, keep supporting local newspapers and online news sites. Support from readers is more important than it has ever been.