The Interior News was surprised, and honoured, to receive a special award at the Smithers and District Chamber of Commerce Business and Community Awards on March 9.
As the longest-standing member of the organization, which originally went by the name Smithers Board of Trade, the current board felt we deserved some special recognition during its centennial celebrations.
This newspaper pre-dates the Chamber by 17 years and our founder and first publisher, L.B. Warner, was one of the founding board members.
The paper has been through various owners, but we started publishing in 1907. Although we could find no reliable data on the oldest newspapers still publishing in B.C., after 117 years, The Interior News is definitely among a very small group from that era.
That also says something about Smithers. Few towns support local enterprises like Smithers does.
These days, that support is more important than ever. It is no secret community news is under duress.
Most recently, the news was about Bell Media gutting its community news capacity with layoffs and the sale of 45 local radio stations. There has been no shortage of such stories in recent years.
An old Joni Mitchell song springs to mind.
“Don’t it always seem to go, you don’t know what you’ve got ‘til it’s gone…”
Despite all the pressure on community newspapers specifically, and traditional news media in general, a recent study by the research group Proof Strategies indicates traditional media is still Canadians’ most trusted source of reliable information.
We are doing our very best to keep delivering reliable, local information and reflect the communities we serve.
We are grateful to the Chamber for the recognition.
And we are grateful to our readers for their ongoing support.