How can you support local news?
And this week in bear photos
With the loss of newspapers in Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and Kamloops over the past week, things are looking grimmer than ever for the health of local media. In the comments, Jessica W asks:
The news about the news in Kamloops is definitely worrying, and has me thinking how do we prevent the same from happening here? Are there concrete ways we as individuals can support our local news? I'd love to support our local news but don't really know how.
I don’t know the financial situation for any of our local outlets BUT I am able to put together some concrete ways of supporting them because they are available on their websites (albeit, somewhat hidden).
Subscribe
The Citizen is the only local news outlet that lets you give money directly. They have a support page where you can pledge a monthly or one-time contribution. I should note that this is really an investment in saying you want the paper to stick around since they continue to put their content online for free. You can think of it as the old patronage model of doing things, where you are paying for something as a public good. I know various people have their various qualms with the Citizen (as they do with all news outlets) but it has the longest history in the city and has continuously, and continues to be, the primary source of investigative journalism — the sort that takes beat reporters, time-consuming freedom of information requests, etc. I wrote here about a few of the stories that simply would not have existed without them in the context of Prince George being named Canada’s most secretive city, if you want a sense of how different things would be without them existing.
I’ve had several people say they are willing to pay me for this newsletter and for a variety of reasons, I won’t be taking that, so if this applies to you I would suggest putting your money in their direction — I utilize their reporting a lot to put this together so it’s supporting this letter in an indirect way, too.
Advertise
This only really applies if you have something to advertise but hey, if you have a budget, it’s an option. The broadcast outlets, especially, are ad-reliant but so is the Citizen. Here are the advertising pages for the Citizen, Prince George Daily News, CKPG and My Prince George Now.
Read and share stories, and visit the website
This is one you can do and will make outlets more attractive to people who do have advertising budgets: Visit the websites. Now that Facebook isn’t a source of traffic, everyone is seeing their numbers drop off, and that has been cited as a reason for the closure of the Kamloops paper. I have all the news sites bookmarked and I visit them regularly to help write this newsletter — you can do the same! If you don’t want to do that, but you read this newsletter, click through on the links to the stories that I post. Again, I want to emphasize — this newsletter is largely built on other outlets publishing stories and I would like to be a driver of traffic to them, too!
P.S. I have a list of local news outlets on the right-hand side of this newsletter’s homepage.
Be nice to reporters
This doesn’t help financially but does it ever help with the spirits. Generally speaking, people only reach out to reporters when they are angry at them for some reason or another and even if those reasons are valid it can be disheartening to only ever get negative feedback. If you read something that is interesting, or just generally appreciate a beat or story being covered, send the person who wrote it an email or DM — it can really buoy spirits and with things being what they are, it’s needed.
This week in bear photos
Lots going on in Mackenzie. Click through for more!
Some posts:
Click through at your own risk.
Quick news:
Two years after a downtown business had $47 stolen, the thief returned it — with interest.
A pair of Prince George RCMP officers are suing the independent investigations office and B.C. Attorney General for “negligence and malice” over a 2016 arrest incident caught on video.
With snow in the forecast, B.C. Transit is reminding riders to expect delays. And for gardeners, it’s probably time to start preparing (weeks later than usual).
Yesterday, I said Kevin Falcon’s visit to Prince George would likely focus on who is running in Prince George-Valemount. Reader Karen Muir reminds me that there will actually be a new riding extending into Prince George, with the Cariboo region currently represented by Coarlee Oakes extending into part of College Heights — so she could be involved as well.
The owners of London Drugs have been on a media campaign this week complaining about crime in various cities. Here they are on Prince George.
Prince George couple walking across Canada to raise awareness around missing and murdered Indigenous people.
A UNBC prof has co-written a book on the impact of Canadian mining on Guatemala.
No magic mushrooms stores coming to Prince George, I guess? IDK, we’ll see.
This has nothing to do with Prince George but the Wikipedia entry for the guy who invented the saxophone is wild — especially the “early life” section. This is your reward for reading to the end.
Today’s song is because I’m an aging millennial and the new blink album is out soon and is tugging my nostalgia strings:
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Send feedback by replying to this email. Find me online at akurjata.ca.
Thanks for the kick in the pants Andrew. I've signed up to support the citizen.
re: Be nice to reporters - that’s not a problem in FSJ. People have always been nice to me. They were nice back in 1994 when I was a young green reporter, and they’re still nice. If only we had a paper to support. FYI everyone I’ve talked to around town is sad about the AHN closing.