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...

Allan Dann was toasted and remembered at a celebration of life Saturday at Newlands in Langley. Among those attending were longtime Cloverdale residents, business people, volunteer firefighters, family and many other friends. My father Art Bucholtz enjoyed seeing former colleagues and friends, such as former notary El Fedewich and Alan Davidson, longtime insurance executive at Hugh and McKinnon. Allan Dann was toasted and fondly remembered by a large crowd on Saturday. The longtime Cloverdale businessman died in December at the age of 91. He lived an amazing life. Born in Surrey in 1924, he lived and worked in Cloverdale for most of his 91 years. He took over his father Ernie's radio and electrical business after returning from service in the Second World War, working for many years alongside his mother Doris. Many of those details are contained in a Cloverdale Reporter story , but suffice to say that, when he closed his business in January, 2013, his family had operated it f...

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...