Vancouver Courier

Vancouver Courier
Vancouver Courier Logo
TypeFree weekly/bi-weekly newspaper
FormatTabloid
Owner(s)Glacier Media
PublisherAlvin Brouwer
EditorMichael Kissinger
Founded1908 (1908)
LanguageEnglish
Ceased publicationSeptember 2020 (2020-09)
Headquarters1574 West 6th Avenue
Vancouver, British Columbia V6J 1R2
Canada
Circulation265,000[1]
ISSN1195-731X
Websitewww.vancourier.com

The Vancouver Courier was a Canadian semi-weekly local newspaper published in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, by the Van-Net chain owned by Glacier Media Group.[2] In 2007, it was Canada's largest distributed community newspaper,[3] with a weekly distribution of 265,000.[1] The circulation estimate included the Vancouver Courier, the Vancouver Courier Downtown, and the Vancouver Courier Westside, along with the Vancouver Courier Eastside on Wednesdays.

Delivered to homes, the paper is distributed from UBC to the Vancouver proper boundary at Boundary Road.[3]

The newspaper began as an independent in 1908 as the Eburne News. From the late 90s to 2007, it had several owners: first, the national Southam Inc. chain, then Hollinger, CanWest, Postmedia, and finally Glacier Media. It expanded from being a neighbourhood newspaper to its current citywide circulation area after acquiring the Vancouver Echo and the West End Times.[4]

The paper was twice named "Best Community Newspaper in BC"[clarification needed] and was the second runner-up in the Canadian Community Newspaper Association's general excellence competition.[5]

Unlike most community newspapers, which feature several news stories on their front pages, the Courier's Friday front page featured a single, lengthy feature that ran over several pages. The paper also frequently published material on local Vancouver history, usually written by Lisa Smedman. Columnists included Geoff Olson, Allen Garr, Fiona Hughes, and Keith Baldrey. The poet Earle Birney worked at the paper in the mid-1920s as a summer reporter and editor.

In April 2020, the Courier announced that they had ceased publication until further notice due to a lack of advertising revenue associated with lower business activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.[6][7] In September 2020, this temporary publication halt was made permanent.[2]

  1. ^ a b "Vancouver Courier". Villagelynx Media Ltd. 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  2. ^ a b "Vancouver Courier makes temporary closure permanent after 112 years in print". Yahoo! News. September 10, 2020. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
  3. ^ a b "General Newspaper Information". CanWest MediaWorks Limited Partnership. 2006. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  4. ^ "The Vancouver Courier" (PDF). Van Net Newspapers. Retrieved 2007-04-25.
  5. ^ "About Us". CanWest MediaWorks Publications Inc. March 14, 2007. Archived from the original on 2007-05-20. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  6. ^ "Local newspaper, magazines forced to make cuts in light of pandemic". CBC News. April 9, 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2020.
  7. ^ "Vancouver Courier temporarily ceasing publication". Vancouver Courier. Glacier Media. April 2, 2020. Retrieved 6 September 2020.