Last week I wrote about the Prince Rupert Daily News and how working there in the mid-1970s had a major impact on my life. Shortly after posting that article, I heard from a few other former staffers who shared their own memories of working at the newspaper – Marlene Burry who started in “the back shop” in 1978 and worked at the Daily News for 24 years, and Monica Lamb-Yorski, a reporter off and on for about 10 years until the newspaper closed.
Scott Crowson, editor from 1991 to 1998 and now editor of The Calgary Herald, sent in a link to a Facebook page he created that’s dedicated to the newspaper. I enjoyed browsing through the photos and was amazed at how familiar the newsroom looked, especially the old oak desks which I could swear were the same ones we used in the ’70s.
More recollections are posted here on the blog, A Town Called Podunk, along with a partial list of employees put together by Ann Ferguson who I remember was head of the sales department when I was there.
One article I found particularly interesting is by Bruce Wishart, former editor of Prince Rupert This Week, who wrote a tribute to Iris Christison, longtime publisher of The Daily News. Iris became publisher in 1971, just four years before I joined the paper, and was a strong proponent of keeping the “community” in local news, as Bruce points out. A sentiment that we all believed in. In addition to the “hard news” of the day, I remember covering FolkFest performances, Rotary luncheons, Lions Club dinners, and the All-Native Basketball Tournament; taking pictures of ribbon-cuttings, playgrounds and parks, school science projects, and local dignitaries.
We constantly monitored the community events noticeboard for story ideas. And they were often our most interesting stories.
Things overheard while walking around the Coal Harbour/Stanley Park seawall, from a family of European tourists.
“I think we’re going to have to re-think our decision about Vancouver Island,” said the father. “It costs too much to get there.”
Last week, I learned that the Prince Rupert Daily News was shutting down after nearly 100 years in business. Normally, I would take a moment to lament the loss of yet another newspaper, and then move on. Except that this time the news was personal.
I worked as a reporter at the Prince Rupert Daily News in the mid-1970s. It was my first job out of university, and it shaped who I am today. I can remember my time there vividly, even though it was 35 years ago and I have been and done many things since.
Prince Rupert was booming then. It was a busy, thriving port town in northern B.C. The pulp mill was running two shifts a day. Half a dozen or so fish plants worked around the clock to process the tons of salmon and halibut and herring that landed on the docks during the fishing season. Cannery workers flocked to the city from First Nations villages up and down the coast, and from eastern Canada, places like Thunder Bay and Montreal and Nova Scotia, where jobs had all but dried up. Freighters sat in the harbour, sometimes stacked up two or three at a time, waiting to load up with grain coming in from the wheat fields of Alberta and Saskatchewan and Manitoba. The rail yard was filled with the sound of freight trains, and there was talk of building a new terminal on Ridley Island to ship out coal from the northeastern coal fields.
There was nothing more exhilarating than being a reporter in that town, at that time. And there was no better training ground for a writer than having to pound out two or three stories a day to meet the morning deadline.
We were passionate about our jobs, and did our best to bring our readers the stories we thought they wanted – and needed – to hear. And yes, sometimes we thought we could change the world. Not by our opinions, but because we believed that we could make a difference by the simple act of bringing people information, by telling the stories that might not otherwise have been told.
Working at the Prince Rupert Daily News gave me a chance to see and do things I wouldn’t have done in most other jobs. I travelled to Old Masset on the Queen Charlotte Islands (now Haida Gwaii) to cover the induction of Chief Oliver Adams. I sat in Florence Davidson’s kitchen as she and other women from the village prepared the massive amounts of food needed for the community feast in his honour; met her grandson, Robert Davidson, as he put the finishing touches to a ceremonial feast paddle he’d carved and painted for the occasion. I interviewed Bill Reid in his carving shed where he was working on a new pole, sipped herbal tea with his wife, Martine, in their house overlooking the strait.
I flew to the tiny, remote village of Kincolith for the swearing-in of the first Tribal Council police officer, returning later that year to cover the first land claims meeting between Nisga’a Chief James Gosnell and the federal government.
I covered school board meetings, city council, and the Chamber of Commerce; attended Rotary luncheons and Lions Club dinners; reported on Native Brotherhood conventions and All Native Basketball tournaments. I interviewed politicians, business owners and labour leaders, from the Mayor, Pete Lester, to Angus Macphee, president of the PPWC; from local MLAs and MPs to visiting cabinet ministers. I learned the importance of the five Ws – the who, what, where, why and when – and how to uncover the things that mattered, the “lead” that takes you to the heart of a story and makes it come alive.
I learned about the fishing industry. Talked to fishermen and dock workers and cannery workers. Toured one of the first factory boats on the coast. Flew in the new Sikorsky helicopter. Attended services in the Sikh temple where women sat on one side, men on the other. Ate fried oolichans and roe on kelp.
I could go on. But most of all, the Prince Rupert Daily News gave me my start, and spoiled me for other jobs.
