Kamloops Daily News closes doors

The Kamloops Daily News published for 80 years. (Photo: Courtesy Kamloops Daily News)

The Kamloops Daily News published for 80 years.
(Photo: Courtesy The Kamloops Daily News )

Adapted from The Vancouver Sun
Level 3

The Kamloops Daily News was the only daily newspaper in Kamloops. It published for 80 years. The paper had 27,000 subscribers.

The Kamloops Daily News stopped publishing in January. Fifty-five employees lost their jobs. They got two months’ notice.

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The cost to produce the newspaper was too high. The amount the newspaper earned was too low.

Newspapers still have an audience for the printed newspaper. The problem is income. The Kamloops Daily News tried to cut costs enough to continue publishing. They did not succeed.

Kamloops has another newspaper, Kamloops This Week. Kamloops This Week plans to start publishing three days a week.

There is still an audience for printed newspapers.
In British Columbia, the number of newspaper readers was steady over the past five years. Half the population of BC read a printed newspaper every day. Three-quarters of the population read a newspaper at least once a week.

Website readership of weekly newspapers increased 20% over the past five years. Income from local advertising decreased. Labour costs increased.

The Kamloops Daily News flows off the press. (Photo: Phil Carpenter / Postmedia News

The Kamloops Daily News flows off the press.
(Photo: Phil Carpenter / Postmedia News

“All newspaper companies are struggling. The world has changed. Consumers have changed. Technology has changed, but you still have readers. Isn’t that the bottom-line? The audience is there.”

There are other daily newspapers in BC. Twenty-one English language newspapers are published. These include the Alaska Highway News in Fort St. John and The Vancouver Sun.