This has been the most challenging seven months of journalism I have experienced since I started in this career many decades ago now.
The year started out like so many before, but as the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic dawned on us, I have to admit I wished it were “fake news.”
Instead, Pique’s newsroom (indeed, all the staff) soon realized that this was a story that would take every skill we possessed, all our dedication, passion and commitment to tell.
Our lives and our communities have changed in profound ways.
Our kitchen tables, coffee tables and spare rooms became our newsrooms—but while our office location changed, our mission to tell you the stories that mattered has not. We helped you understand the virus, but we also shared stories about its impact on restaurants, local businesses, Whistler Blackcomb and our frontline workers in every sector.
We understand that you are under threat—because we are, too. Pique staff took wage rollbacks, we’ve had to let staff go permanently, and with freelance budgets frozen, our columnists and other contributors are in jeopardy (a huge salute here to our columnists and travel writers, many of whom have written for and continue to contribute to Pique without financial compensation—though beer donations are gratefully accepted!).
But we’ve never wavered in our commitment to cover the stories that matter to this community, from keeping the spotlight on local government to telling readers how to access our local community services to telling the stories of the people who are the backbone of our town.
I am deeply committed to the role of community newspapers and I am humbled by the support Pique has seen from the Sea to Sky corridor and far beyond. I am grateful to every business and individual that has chosen to advertise with us and/or become a subscriber, and all those who pick us up each week to read, and the thousands more who read us online all day, every day.
My most ardent thanks go to those who allow us to tell their stories.
It’s been tough on all of us.
And we are nowhere near out of the woods.
B.C. now faces an election at a time when the fifth estate, which has traditionally acted as the watchdog, has seen scores of reporters terminated and newspapers shuttered.
Already under siege from falling advertising revenue, the sector is teetering at a time when it is more important than ever to have trustworthy sources of information.
This is not a time to rely on unknown sources for information and news about your world. It is a time to support media with proven track records for truth and accuracy and which operates with a moral compass.
Media outlets and reporters are investing in bringing you the information you need to vote in the Oct. 24 election, they are keeping you up to date on how to stay safe in his pandemic, they are helping us all understand how to navigate in this ongoing crisis from things as simple as grocery shopping to the more complex concerns of how Canada is going to weather the economic challenges brought on by COVID-19 in the decades to come.
No doubt, you are wondering why am I discussing all this. (It’s not just because I was shocked by the horrendous U.S. election debate, and some of the outrageous social media supporting President Donald Trump’s more than 50 misleading statements, or outright lies—see the Washington Post for more on that).
This week marks the 80th annual National Newspaper Week, which recognizes the service of newspapers and their employees across North America.
In longtime journalist Margaret Sullivan’s 2020 book, Ghosting the News— Local Journalism and the Crisis of American Democracy, she writes: “Some of the most trusted sources of news—local sources, particularly local newspapers—are slipping away, never to return. The cost to democracy is great.”
With the news this week that Powder magazine is shuttering, too, after printing for more than 48 years, it is clear that the entire spectrum of storytelling is threatened.
Pique will continue—without doubt. We will remain your trusted, No. 1 source for local news, a fact supported by our local government’s own community survey.
But as you read us and the other sources of information you use, please consider the value and importance of community newspapers and keep supporting us, and most importantly, please keep telling us your stories.
