Thinking through the end of a daily newspaper
Way back then…. different fashions, different technology, but always fun.
ARMCHAIR MAYOR SAYS — I’m searching for some deeper meaning in today’s announcement that The Kamloops Daily News will soon close, and I’m coming up empty.
I’ve been asked several times what this means for Kamloops. What’s the significance? Is it just a sign of the times? Are newspapers doomed?
These things are debatable. To put it simply, I think Kamloops is poorer for it. But my thoughts are confused — am I so saddened because so many people I worked with are losing their jobs, and because Kamloops will lose an important voice?
Yes, of course, but I also feel a personal loss. I suspect a lot of people at The Daily News are working their way through it in the same way I am.
Our jobs, after all, define us to a very large degree. When you work at a place for a long time, watch it grow, work with the same people, respect them, trust them, and are proud of what you do, it’s not easy losing that.
The Daily News newspaper is a big part of who I am. Its existence was a constant in my life. Six days a week, it re-affirmed my own identity, even sense of self-worth. I think it helped define our community, too.
So I’m feeling rather bereft of poignancy at the moment. But I dread the prospect of driving by an empty building.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
I am a former staff writer of the former triweekly Kamloops News, in the 1979/80 time frame. Mel took a chance on me, a Toronto-born, 24-year-old neophyte at the time, and despite a turbulent and somewhat uneven performance on my part, working with Mel Rothenburger and his excellent news editor at the time, John Carter, was a worthy experience. Mel was more engaged in his community than any journalist I have ever worked with. I also recall the rookie on the staff at the time, Jack “school of hard” Knox, and certainly hope he can get through this.
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Bob, it’s nice to hear from you, and thanks for your comments. Since Jack is a Kamloops kid, we fortunately still see him quite often when he comes home for a visit from Victoria.
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I am unbelievably saddened by this event. As a Kamloopsian The Daily News was a part of my life. But, in truth, it was more than that. It was a powerful voice from the BC interior. The reporting was excellent, the editorial comment was insightful and the sentiment of the community could be felt in the public letters. Where do those “things” go now? What public organ will stand for the one city that was a major crossroads of the province?
When the city of Vancouver arbitrarily pronounced that they would deposit their expanding coyote population in the Kamloops region, The Daily News sent the message that we were not a dumping ground for their vermin.
When Gordon Campbell tried to sell the Coquihalla highway into private hands and forever subject the southern interior to a life of increasing tolls when we had been promised they would be removed, The Daily News was the messenger that carried the documented anger of the interior to the insulated crew on the steps of the legislature.
The loss of a daily in a city the size of Kamloops will create a wilderness. It is a wilderness this province can ill afford as the power to govern a massive province concentrates around a ten block radius of downtown Vancouver.
I know this must be something personally devastating for you. I can but offer my sympathy for the loss you must feel right now. You were one hell of an editor. You guided one outstanding crew. Hell, you mentored Jack Knox.
It’s just not right.
Dave Tyre
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Hi Mel – tough day. I wonder if there is any hope of keeping the Daily News alive and well in our community.
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I live in Vancouver & come up often with my son to snowboard at S-Peaks. We are just getting over the fact our favourite steakhouse in north Kam at the Fortune Centre is no more. We ate there whenever in town. Now we hear the local daily paper is going the same way. This is terrible news, but not really unexpected. Craigslist has killed the classified section, a big part of the revenue for a paper. People want things fast, and more importantly, FREE these days. When attending the KISS rock concert at Interior Savings Centre in 2011, the next day we saw the pics & review in the Daily News and bought 3 copies. There is (was ??) something different (read: better)about a tangible paper rather seeing something on a glowing screen. Now its gone soon, our favourite paper in Kamloops. With Canada Post facing huge change, the price of a stamp rising to a buck each soon, all I can say is this: “what the heck is next to go ” ???
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