Editorial
Unless you’re in the news gathering business, it’s hard to relate to the ‘daily’ challenges of operating a ‘weekly’ newspaper.
Making all the pieces fit on deadline day is quite a feat. In fact, it’s like a game of Snakes and Ladders; you roll the dice and go up seven rungs, slide down four, win another 10, and fall down 12 on your way to the end goal.
Last-minute changes, late ads, corrections, and oddball spaces to fill are par for the course. Letters need editing, breaking news takes precedence, and stories get ‘bumped’ until the following week (or two). It’s a mad, mad world, but a labour of love.
What makes the Columbia Valley Pioneer tick like clockwork are its weekly advertisers and contributors, not to mention its dedicated staff who really try to keep it a community-minded product.
You won’t see sensationalistic headlines, shocking accident photos, or fake news. Just local stories, features and pictures highlighting what’s happening in your community.
The Pioneer loves it when readers send in their photographs and letters to the editor. If an issue weighs heavy on you, get it off your chest. If you have a solution to a problem, people want to hear (read) about it. Maybe a local politician will pick up on it and start the wheels of change.
Not surprisingly, letters that stray into unfair criticism, racial discrimination or hate of any kind will be filed in the do-not-publish folder. It’s not censorship, it’s social responsibility. Yes, you really have to watch what you say today for fear of being politically incorrect or insensitive. To read what was published in newspapers years ago is quite shocking.
As one can imagine, producing a newspaper is a lot of work, both in print and online (don’t forget to check out the Pioneer’s website at columbiavalleypioneer.com).
But sometimes in the pursuit of perfection, there is imperfection, which proves that we are all human. Just know that we would never use the headline: ‘Police begin campaign to run down jaywalkers.’
While numerous media outlets in Canada have folded over the past few years, the Pioneer has flourished primarily because of local support and its strong sense of community.
Lyonel Doherty, editor
