If you asked me in August 2024 if I would be helping run our community newspaper, I would have laughed pretty loudly. If you ask me today if I am good at helping run the paper, I would say I am still learning.

As a citizen, I am a huge supporter of trusted local news. As a Kamloopsian, I am fiercely proud of this community — not just out of a blind loyalty but instead because time and again I have seen Kamloopsians stand up for each other in important and noble causes.

It often starts with one person putting a call out for some particular project or cause. In this case, it happened to be me. But, if it had remained me, what we have accomplished as a community with this newspaper would never have happened.

A year into the Kamloops Chronicle journey, we have had over 500 donors, almost 100 advertisers, and dozens of writers and contributors. We have been able to resource a monthly issue. We pay experienced journalists to write important and informative stories. And we are also lucky to get many quality volunteer submissions. We also have an awesome delivery crew. Thank you so much to all these wonderful people!

We have an amazing founding board of directors. These people, most who did not know each other before, committed themselves in ways I have rarely seen to making the paper a success. I am so thankful to have worked with them. The path has sometimes been bumpy but they have steered this effort ably and built a foundation for even greater success.

Just before we send a new issue to the printer, it’s usually our editor Todd Sullivan, our ad designer Moneca Jantzen, and me chatting online about the final tasks. Todd and Moneca have caught my mistakes, and they are very transparent about their own. They also are fine people with great skills they bring to this work issue after issue. Huge appreciation to Todd and Moneca.

So we enter into the second year of the Kamloops Chronicle in a healthy position. We are, however, only part of the way to where our board wants us to be.  I think a lot about how we together make this as solid and sustainable as possible.

The paper needs to publish issues more frequently. We need full time staff eventually. We would like to have at least 1000 monthly donors at a minimum of $10 a month.

The strategy for a paper which will never close down is diversity. A diversity of donors. A diversity of advertisers. A diversity of contributors with a diversity of important stories and opinion pieces.

We all need to feel part of the paper and the paper should reflect Kamloops faithfully.

How can you help this happen?

Consider donating to the Chronicle

Send us article or column ideas or submissions

Consider advertising with us.

The rise of the Chronicle has been an amazing story of community building together. Together, we can ensure our local newspaper lives a very long life and hopefully never dies again.