Read All About It! (Or Don't)
T h e M a t r i x
2
015 may mark the end of the two-newspaper town in B.C. Declining ad revenue has
led to rapid consolidation in the industry, with B.C.'s two newspaper conglomerates
(Surrey-based Black Press and Vancouver's Glacier Media) trading community papers
like game pieces. The strateƒy is simple: one company takes over both papers in a
given community and then shuts the least-pro…table one down. The last two years have been
particularly Survivor-esque for B.C.'s ink-stained wretches—as the death toll below indicates.
BCBUSINESS.CA NOVEMBER 2015 BCBusiness 21
GLACIER
BLACK
PRESS
2013 2014 2015
Four online-only
news sites that are
popular with locals
Vancity Buzz
(VANCOUVER)
Castanet
(KELOWNA)
250 News
(PRINCE GEORGE)
Energeticcity.ca
(FORT ST. JOHN)
Two newspaper empires divide and conquer the remains of B.C.'s
battered industry by Trevor Melanson
X
Abbotsford/
Mission
Times
North Shore
Outlook
South Delta
Leader
Bowen Island
Undercurrent
Chilliwack
Times
Tri-City
News
Burnaby
NewsLeader
Richmond
Review
New
Westminster
NewsLeader
Maple
Ridge-Pitt
Meadows
Times
Nanaimo
Daily News
Tofino-
Ucluelet
Westerly
News
Langley
Advance
Cowichan
Valley Citizen
Surrey
Now
Comox
Valley
Echo
Alberni Valley
Times
Harbour
City Star
(Nanaimo)
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
ALsO sHuT DOWn In 2014, Glacier's Kamloops Daily News (leaving only Black Press-
owned competitor Kamloops This Week); and Glacier's Dawson Creek Daily News, which
was rolled into the Alaska Highway News. In 2015, Glacier's Tri-Cities Now.
X
sold to
Black Press
sold to
Glacier
shut
Down
Life After Print?
Oceanside
Star
(Parksville)
Campbell
River Courier
Islander
