Editorial on paper’s shutdown like déjà vu all over again

Came across this story and old editorial yesterday. Sounds familiar. Think I probably wrote the editorial but don’t remember for sure. “Paper’s closure is a sad day.”

FROM THE CLIPPINGS FILE (Kamloops Daily News, Dec. 2, 1987) — Kamloops lost one of its newspapers today. For more than a century, The Sentinel served the interior of the province, originally in Yale, later moving to Kamloops.

It survived early challenges from other publications, growing at one point several years ago to a jazzy, seven-day-per-week tabloid. It underwent several format changes in an effort to bring back readership and advertisers in the last few years, most recently becoming a morning-distribution, thrice-weekly paper.

The end came with a strike by the Sentinel’s mailroom employees, members of the Communication Workers of America. Only one day after the strike began, the Thompson newspaper chain announced this morning that it was permanently closing the doors on the paper.

The Sentinel had not been  a profitable venture for quite some time, and the strike — along with the wage demands of the union — apparently was something Thompson management did not feel it could weather.

Whatever the complex reasons that went into the decision to close, this is a sad day for the city. One might think the Kamloops Daily News would be cheering the demise of its competitor, but there is a genuine sense of sadness at this newspaper today, a feeling that a member of the family has been lost.

As well, there is sympathy for the employees who are suddenly without work. Many have families to support, some have poor prospects for immediate re-employment, some will undoubtedly have to leave the city.

Kamloops has always been well-served by its media, having a higher proportion of newspapers, radio stations and television stations than many cities its size or larger. New newspapers, shoppers or other publications may well appear on the scene (there has already been an indication that a Sunday paper will be established), but the closing of The Sentinel puts a tremendous responsibility on The Kamloops Daily News.

This newspaper has always considered itself a true community newspaper, from the time it was a primitively produced weekly more than 50 years ago, to its current Monday-through-Saturday publishing schedule. The Daily News will continue its commitment to quality news coverage and to serving its readers and clients, no matter what the competitive situation happens to be. That is our pledge.

The Sentinel’s presence will be missed in Kamloops. The Sentinel was a part of our province’s history and a part of the fabric of Kamloops for too long for there to be anything but a sense of sorrow over its closure.