Dear Editor
It came as a shock. The news of the closure heard over CBC Kamloops. That the Daily will no longer be published.
Mel Rothenberger, former editor and former Mayor of Kamloops was shocked too. Somehow or other, though rumours were flying in all directions, most of us on the “outside” were not “inside” the vortex. So it came as a particularly difficult blow.
Okay, closing newspapers has become a fact of life. A fact that has scarcely been hidden or underscored. Newspapers like the Sidney Review, for example, that had been published for years, and a whole host of other regional newspapers have bitten the dust. But still, it hurts. When it’s so close to home. When the daily habit of picking up the news, or getting it hung on the front door knob when its delivered early enough in the morning to enjoy over the morning coffee, is no longer part of the daily routine.
It wasn’t an absence of talent that was missing from the Kamloops Daily. There have been prize winning writers on that paper. It was a paper with heart. Their human interest articles, in particular were appreciated. The Daily told all sides of the story. Mel’s opinions were not always agreed with. But they were always respected. Mike Youds, Cam Fortems, Jason Hewlitt were no strangers to Ashcroft. They wrote about our medical problems. They promoted our cultural events.
Don’t be afraid to speak up when events are happening that are a loss to the community. That was what the news staff at the Kamloops Daily never swept under the golden carpet of political expediency.
For that, and for other good reasons, the loss of the Kamloops Daily News, like the loss of the Kamloops Daily Sentinel before it, will always be a regional as well as a community loss.
Esther Darlington MacDonald
Ashcroft