Kootenay News Digital Book
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June 4, 1906 The Daily Canadian is established by a local group of June 16, 2006 Conservatives. They buy the Debut of the Kootenay defunct Tribune’s printing press Western Star, published and the Economist’s goodwill. by Black Press, which two years earlier entered the local market July 14, 1897 April 13, 1923 by establishing the Castlegar News. First issue of The weekly Kootenay The Economist, a weekly Times debuts, published by D.M. Carley. published by Elmer Hall. It only lasts until May 3, 1996 2009 November. Debut of the West Launch of the online June 21, 1890 Kootenay Weekender, News in the Koots a supplement to local by the Seed Studio. Debut issue of Sterling Newspapers. Within a year it is The Miner, a weekly complemented by published by John another site, the Houston, Charles Ink, Nelson Post. Both and Gesner Allen. 2019 March 1960 last until 2012. Debut of the Kootenay Graphic 1890 News, a cheeky tabloid run by former Daily News August 1913 reporter Mickey Carlton. It lasts until Launch of Feb. 15, 1963. The Independent, Summer 2010 a tabloid-size weekly November 1988 Dec. 1, 1892 magazine, published The Nelson Daily is John Houston and by J.L. Thomas. It First issue of arts and launched online by partners C.V. Dake lasts until May 1914. culture monthly Lone Sheep Media, and W.J. MacKay What’s On, published edited by former establish a rival by Nelson Becker. Daily News reporter weekly to The Miner April 22, 1902 Tim Schaefer and called The Tribune. sports reporter F.J. Deane buys Bruce Fuhr. the Nelson Daily Oct. 3, 1990 Miner. He renames What’s On goes the paper The Daily weekly and is News and starts the renamed the July 3, 2008 numbering over at Kootenay Weekly Kootenay Western Star Vol. 1, No. 1. Express. Later the renamed Nelson Star and name is shortened renumbered Vol. 1, No. 1. to The Express. The neon sign atop the Nelson Daily News building (bottom) was a local landmark for over 30 years. It was removed in 1968 (top right) and replaced with a projection sign (being unloaded top left, and pictured on page iii). Stop the presses! In February 2008, the Nelson Daily News shut down its Goss Community press after 38 years. At top right, office manager and local historian Greg Scott receives the final issue from pressman Frank Teves. Timothy Schafer photos A TOUCHSTONES NELSON EXHIBIT Nov. 2, 2019 to Feb. 17, 2020 KOOTENAY NEWS The history of Nelson’s newspapers Copyright © 2019 by Greg Nesteroff All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. All images are from the Shawn Lamb Archives of Touchstones Nelson unless otherwise credited. Printed in Canada First Printing, 2019 ISBN 978-1-9990446-1-9 Published by Touchstones Nelson: Museum of Art and History 502 Vernon Street Nelson, BC V1L 4E7 www.touchstonesnelson.ca We are grateful for the funding and support from the following: Contents Introduction ............................................................................................ v CHAPTER 1: THE PAPERS ........................................ 01 EARLY NEWSPAPERS .................................................................. 01 PUNCHING ABOVE ITS WEIGHT ................................................ 03 SALE TO STERLING ..................................................................... 06 ALTERNATIVE MEDIA ................................................................ 07 SIGNING OFF ............................................................................... 08 SWITCH TO AFTERNOONS ......................................................... 09 ENTER THE EXPRESS ................................................................. 10 FINAL EDITIONS .......................................................................... 11 ERROR BY OMISSION ..................................................................13 CHAPTER 2: THE PEOPLE ........................................ 21 NOTEWORTHY NAMES IN NELSON NEWSPAPERING ...............21 GETTING THE SCOOP ................................................................. 28 WOMEN OF THE NEWS ............................................................... 29 CORRESPONDENTS ..................................................................... 30 CHAPTER 3: THE FUTURE ........................................ 33 CHANGING TECHNOLOGY ......................................................... 33 DIGITIZING NEWSPAPERS ......................................................... 33 THE FUTURE OF NEWSPAPERS ................................................. 34 IV –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– The hell-raising and economically volatile news- INTRODUCTION papers of the 1890s gradually gave way to more editorially objective publications and, ultimately in Nelson, to a single voice. “ The Miner is printed on Saturdays For much of the 20th century the Daily News had the field to itself. Its circulation grew larger provided the staff is sober.” than the city it served and it had one of Nelson’s — Masthead, 1893 largest private payrolls. However, there were other papers, most short-lived but a few — such as The Express — lasted decades. Since The Miner published its first edition in 1890, Kootenay News traces Nelson’s newspaper his- Nelson has always had a newspaper (and often tory from a modest weekly to a bustling daily to more than one) to chronicle its evolution. today’s online publications. An active press and a thriving community went It profiles pre-eminent figures in Nelson’s news- hand-in-hand, especially in the 19th century and paper history, along with notable journalists who early 20th century. As proprietors often lamented, got their start here or passed through en route to frontier newspapering was not lucrative. Multiple prominence elsewhere. papers indicated prosperity. If the lone paper went This exhibit comes as newspapers and journal- broke, it didn’t bode well for the town’s future. ism in general face great uncertainty. The Internet Papers of that era were unabashedly biased, has upended traditional models of publishing and politically and otherwise, and invariably presented advertising. In Nelson, this resulted in what would a male, Eurocentric view — although they often once have been unthinkable: the demise of the ven- delighted in roasting each other rhetorically. erable Daily News, a victim of declining revenue By today’s standards, those papers were also rac- and circulation. Other publications have stepped ist, sexist, and classist. They mostly ignored entire in to fill the void in print and online. segments of society, i.e. women or anyone who How much longer printed newspapers will be wasn’t white. They didn’t hesitate to report details around in Nelson is anyone’s guess. But they hav- of gruesome violence, yet resorted to euphemisms en’t disappeared just yet. with anything remotely sexual. My thanks to Touchstones curator Arin Fay and Nevertheless, much of what we know of Nelson archivist J.P. Stienne for their assistance on this and West Kootenay’s history is thanks to its news- exhibit and to Bronwyn Larsen of Hall Printing for papers, which collectively form the largest and the design of the companion booklet. greatest source of information about the city and its environs. — Greg Nesteroff Without them, our understanding of the past would be much worse, even though their contents must be read with a wary eye. Changing social mores dictated what was covered and how it was presented — and what was ignored. Newspapers are windows in time, but their glass is clouded. LEFT A new sign is installed on the Nelson Daily News building in August 1968. It remained there until the building’s sale in 2011. Ron Welwood arranged to salvage it for the Touchstones collection. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– V VI –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– CHAPTER 1 KOOTENAY NEWS OPPOSITE The Nelson Daily News business office in January 1913. Pictured from left, McDonald, H. Cecil Grizzelle, circulation manager E.J. Patch, and accountant the papers Albert J. Dill. One contemporary called him “a trail blazer, a EARLY NEWSPAPERS man of vision, a virile journalist, not always scru- Nelson’s first weekly newspaper,The Miner, pulously correct in conduct or suavely spoken, but debuted on June 21, 1890. It was eight pages and physically and mentally strong.” boasted of being the “Only paper in the Kootenay Houston previously ran a newspaper in New Lake mining district.” Westminster and Donald — a railway town between The Miner’s co-founder and publisher was John Revelstoke and Golden — that he brashly called Houston, who became founding mayor in 1897 The Truth. But after silver was discovered on Toad and also served as MLA. But Houston was a divi- Mountain in the 1880s, Houston moved to Nelson sive figure in his own lifetime, for his journalism, with partners Gesner Allen and the appropriately politics, and personal behavior. named Charles Ink. They barged a printing press down the Arrow Lakes to present-day Robson and then shipped it by pack train to Nelson. The first issue ofThe Miner was true to its name and mostly reported mining news. Advertisers included contractors, packers, hotels, realtors, bar- bershops, blacksmiths, and general merchants. In 1892, Houston sold The Miner to David Bogle and E.C. Whalley. But the new owners should have sought a non-compete clause, for a few months later Houston established a rival paper called The Tribune. In those days newspapers made no bones about their political