Frankly Speaking

The past few weeks have been rough ones for the print media business in B.C. – in particular for the staff of The Surrey Leader , most of whom lost their jobs on Friday, and 54 people at Pacific Newspaper Group (publishers of The Vancouver Sun and The Province ), who received layoff notices on March 24. I had wanted to post some thoughts on this situation sooner, but news of the closure of The Leader hit me in the gut. (It was followed a few days later by hernia surgery, which literally involved my gut, so I guess I have a bit of an excuse). I was on staff at The Leader for 14 years, seven as editor, from 1979 to 1993. My direct association with The Leader goes back to the early 1970s, and longtime editor and publisher Stan McKinnon was the person who pointed me towards taking journalism training at Langara College. That opened the door to get into a business that I loved in the 1970s and still love today. I continued to do a weekly column in The Leader right up to the fi...

It is with both a sense of sadness and excitement that I pass on the news that I will be retiring from my position as Langley Times editor at the end of this month. I have held this position for almost 17 years — far longer than I had initially anticipated. There are two reasons — the terrific people I work with at The Times, and all the amazing people in Langley whom we are privileged to write about and photograph each week. The community newspaper business is very different from most media businesses. Our job is to present news and information to our readers which helps them get to know this community and its goings-on, from information that is just not easily available to them elsewhere. Some people think there is no need for print media any longer, given the advances in technology. There is no shortage of information on the internet, and it is easier than ever to get at, with new mobile devices coming out all the time. However, I challenge them to check out what th...