Three Metro Vancouver Newspapers Shut Down For Good

Photo Credit: Joel Law/CBC

Three local newspapers have recently shut down in Metro Vancouver — Tri-City News, Burnaby Now, and New West Record — marking a significant blow towards local journalism. On Feb. 21, the newspapers’ parent company, Glacier Media, posted an official statement on its website announcing the closings. The company reasoned that they “explored all possible options to maintain operations,” but “the industry’s ongoing financial challenges” made it impossible for them to continue.

For decades, the three news outlets distributed printed publications, but transitioned to an online-only format in August 2023. According to Tri-Cities Dispatch, 600,000 Metro Vancouver residents will now lose valuable local news resources, leaving small communities like New Westminster without a local publication to report on significant community events. Two online newsletters are the only remaining publications specifically covering New Westminster, making it more difficult for residents to access reliable news.

According to CBC News, New Westminster Mayor Patrick Johnstone is concerned over how the newspapers’ closures may impact his community. He is especially worried about social media algorithms replacing news outlets as people’s primary source of information.

“I don't know what it means when a community can't tell its stories anymore, when there's no record of our day-to-day, never mind the history of our city,” he said. "I don't know what the solution is here, but we have to rethink what media means to us and what journalism means to us as a country and as a community, because this is not sustainable.” 

Richard Dal Monte, the former editor of Tri-City News, believes that “the loss is huge.”

“I don’t know if Glacier has a sense for the importance of these publications in their communities. It’s just their bottom line,” Dal Monte told Tri-Cities Dispatch.  

Beyond a loss for information-sharing in the community, the job market for journalism in these regions has been significantly impacted. According to Tri-Cities Dispatch, the shuttering of these three newspapers alone will eliminate 60 per cent of journalists' jobs across five cities and two villages. 

However, the closing of these three publications only represents a small fraction of a much larger trend as the closure of small newspapers becomes more frequent. According to the Local News Research Project, since 2008, more than 499 local news outlets across Canada have closed for good. In BC, there has been a net closing of 35 local news outlets.