Communications

Local reporters aim to launch first worker-owned co-op news outlet in Western Canada, covering Tri-Cities, Burnaby, New Westminster

By Patrick Penner, Tri-Cities Dispatch, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Four recently laid-off Metro Vancouver journalists have announced a fundraising campaign to establish Western Canada’s first newspaper co-op.

On June 4, ex-Tri-City News reporters Mario Bartel and Janis Cleugh, ex-New Westminster Record reporter Theresa McManus, and ex-Burnaby Now reporter Cornelia Naylor were joined by leaders from Unifor and the Union Cooperative Initiative (UCI) to announce the “Save Our Local News Campaign” at the Unifor BC Western Regional Office in New Westminster.

“We want to put the community back into community news,” Bartel said. “Without local news, we’re just left with gossip, speculation, and misinformation spread on social media. You just have to look south to see what the result of that is.”

The initiative is a response to Glacier Media’s shuttering of the Tri-City News, Burnaby Now, and the New West Record in April and May – three long-standing papers serving a population of around 600,000 people.

The first phase of the fundraising campaign has now officially launched, aiming to create a single worker-run, community-owned publication for readers in Burnaby, New Westminster, Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam, Anmore and Belcarra. It has a goal of raising $100,000.

UCI, a non-profit specializing in building co-op organizations, and Unifor, which represented the journalists while they were employed at Glacier, have partnered to support the project.

Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle said the union – which represents 10,000 media workers across Canada – has seen frequent closures in recent years.

“This is not just a fight against news deserts, this is a fight for democracy,” McGarrigle said.

Cornelia Naylor, a former education reporter at Burnaby Now, said the loss of coverage is already affecting civic engagement. Last week, the Burnaby school board approved $3.3 million in budget cuts – but no local media were there to report on it.

“We live in these communities too,” Naylor said. “It’s broken my heart to see what happens when communities lose their reliable source of local news.”

Bartel echoed that sentiment, citing data from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He noted nearly 2.5 million Canadians now have no source of local news, 25 print publications are being lost every year and newsrooms are being cut to “skeletal levels” so owners can maintain their profits.

He also stressed the cultural cost of losing hometown storytelling.

“The stories we tell help tie us all together. They contribute to a common sense of connection,” Bartel said.“You won’t read about the next great artist or athlete before they become Michael Bublé, Christine Sinclair or Kent Johnson – I covered all three of those people when they were teenagers.”

To kickstart the effort, Unifor announced a $5,000 contribution, while UCI revealed the campaign had already hit 10 percent of its goal within minutes of the launch.

Jonny Sopotiuk, UCI’s managing director, said the union co-op model is relatively new in B.C. but has a long history across North America.

He said the project is taking cues from a similar co-op model in Quebec, where six local dailies were saved in 2019 after cuts were made by newspaper owners.

In that case, a community organizing campaign raised more than $3 million, the provincial government provided interest free financing, and the local business community started buying ads. A total of 300 jobs were saved.

“We’re not going to have to worry about American owners pulling out funding,” Sopotiuk said. “This is going to be a community-owned, community-focused, community-accountable news organization that’s run by workers.”

Sopotiuk said the public should expect to see “an army” of volunteers and organizations raising awareness about the campaign, knocking on doors and visiting businesses in the coming months.

He added further fundraising and ad campaigns are incoming, and the group has already started planning for the return of a physical paper alongside online news.

“So stay tuned. I really see this as being one of the most viable new cooperatives we’ve seen in this province in quite a long time.”

Bartel added that since Glacier announced the closures, it has become clear that residents have missed the print editions, and the group believes there is still space for physical copies. However, he said those considerations will rely on the success of the fundraising campaign.

“We want to do both . . . (but) it’s not cheap to run a newspaper.”

Top image credit: From left to right: Jonny Sopotiuk, managing director of the Union Cooperative Initiative; Mario Bartel and Janis Cleugh, formerly of the Tri-City News; Unifor Western Regional Director Gavin McGarrigle; Local 2000 President Brian Gibson; Local 2000 Secretary–Treasurer Bill Catterall; Theresa McManus, formerly of the New West Record; Cornelia Naylor, formerly of the Burnaby Now. Patrick Penner photo

Sign-up for Cortes Currents email-out:

To receive an emailed catalogue of articles on Cortes Currents, send a (blank) email to subscribe to your desired frequency: