Turning a page at the Daily News

A surprising development on the local media scene this Friday as Black Press, the current owner of the Northern View announced that it had purchased the Daily News from Glacier Media.

The purchase of the Daily News was but one of a number of media changes for the newspaper chain which picks up a number of newspapers from the  Glacier group, both here in British Columbia and in Alberta.

A short story on the Northern View website outlines the variety of papers  and websites now under new ownership.

A similar themed story appeared in Alberta a few days ago upon the purchase of the Red Deer Express from Great West Newspapers, though  not much detail was provided as to what the change of ownership may provide for that community.

Likewise no additional details as to the future plans for the Prince Rupert Daily News were announced locally, so only time will tell if the paper remains in its daily format or changes its printing routine,  not to mention if the current editorial and sales staff remain, as well as if the current roster of writers and other employees remain within the new corporate structure.

One thing of interest to note will be the status of the Daily vis a vis the Northern View, The Daily News operates within a unionized environment and features a larger staff than the weekly paper does, The Northern View however has evolved over the years to provide some real competition to the Daily and makes better use of its footprint on the internet, with a frequently updated and user friendly website.

The competitive nature of the news gathering business will also suffer a setback with the lack of competition now in place with the purchase of the Daily by its competitor.

With little public comment on the change, which happened on perhaps one of the slowest of days in a news cycle, (between Canada Day and a weekend), we will have at least three or four days to ponder as to what the changes, if any may be to the local media scene.

Whether this heralds a turning of the page for the Daily News, or perhaps the turning off of the lights for the long time daily journal of information for the North coast remains to be seen.

It will be with interest as locals read about any changes and track developments from the print media, one thing seems certain though, things most likely will look a little bit different on the local scene once all the i's are dotted and the t's are crossed.