File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Two & Out

PETERS: Kamloops This Week story on closure rumour raises more concerns than it alleviates

Sep 8, 2023 | 11:22 AM

THEY HADN’T MADE THEIR WAY to this part of the world, but apparently there were rumours.

Rumours that Kamloops This Week, the city’s last remaining physical newspaper, was set to close.

At KTW’s Dalhousie Drive office, the rumours were apparently very loud, causing the paper to run a story online this week addressing them.

The newspaper is not closing, according to the story. What is happening is that the newspaper’s ownership, Aberdeen Publishing, is attempting to re-open its collective agreement with its unionized staff in an effort to renegotiate certain aspects of the deal.

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Don’t be fooled into thinking that’s good news for the paper.

Once collective agreements are reached, the negotiations are usually over until the contract is set to expire and the parties need a new one or an extension. Re-opening a collective agreement is only done under the most extraordinary of circumstances.

In this case, if management wants to re-open the negotiations, something big must be going on in the background.

In the story, ownership says no closure is afoot, so the big move in the background may be a sale or acquisition.

The sale, if that’s what it is, could be contingent on Aberdeen structuring the business to run more efficiently — as in, cutting costs.

And here we have the request to look at the contract again, which might allow management to either slash positions, cut salaries or otherwise find some savings.

Owner Robert Doull says management needs to bargain with its employees to “arrive at a mutually agreeable plan to ensure sustainability going forward.”

That’s ominous. It implies the operating plan in effect now is not sustainable.

Four months from now will mark 10 years since Kamloops Daily News shut its doors.

Since then, the local media landscape has continued undulating — with Bill C-18 and the Facebook block the latest spanner thrown into the works.

Reporters and editorial staff at Kamloops This Week have done terrific work in the midst of the many seismic shifts.

It would be a shame to see the paper suffer the same fate as the Daily News a decade ago.

Unfortunately, this week’s piece meant to quell uncertainty may have only stoked it further.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.