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...

Frank Bucholtz photo B.C.'s Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley area is one of the most beautiful and blessed areas in the entire world, in my humble and far from objective opinion. This photo of the Golden Ears mountains, covered in fresh snow, was taken Dec. 29.   A happy new year to everyone. Thanks for checking out my blog posts, if only occasionally. I appreciate the support and feedback. I've posted 57 times this year, with almost all of them coming after retiring from The Langley Times as editor on June 30. I wanted to keep an oar in the water, and like almost all writers, I'm happiest when putting something together. Blogging offers the previously unparalleled opportunity to put your thoughts together and post the completed item online for anyone to see. You then find out, in a very specific way, if what you write and think about strikes any chords with people. Most of the subjects I've posted on are quite local in nature. That's my area of experti...