By Katherine Gibson (The Cascade) – Email
Print Edition: January 8, 2014
“I wonder if the Abbotsford News will have an obituary this week for the Abbotsford Times,” Paul Henderson, a reporter with the Chilliwack Times, tweeted on December 2 when news of Black Press Ltd. and its decision to close the aforementioned paper was publically announced.
While no obituary was run, the Abbotsford-Mission Times, which had been in circulation for over 30 years, shut its doors early in December.
Black Press Ltd. recently purchased the paper from Glacier Media through a trade agreement that gave the company control over the Abbotsford-Mission Times and the Chilliwack Times, in addition to the competing local papers, the Abbotsford News and Chilliwack Progress, which the company previously owned.
Although Black Press Ltd. did not confirm any paper closures immediately after the acquisition, Christina Toth, a former reporter with the Abbotsford-Mission Times, told the Vancouver Sun that “the staff believed Black would shut the Times since it owns the Abbotsford News.”
Toth also told the Vancouver Sun that “five staff exercised a clause in [a] collective contract that obligated Glacier to offer them a severance package if it sold the newspaper.”
Taking to Twitter, Toth expressed her personal view surrounding the situation, tweeting, “It was a great 12 years for me, 30 years for some. No bad feelings for either company, just financial reality of the times.”
At press time neither Glacier Media nor Black Press Ltd. could be reached for comment.
