Nanaimo Daily News closing after 141 years

The Nanaimo Daily News is shutting its doors after 141 years in the Vancouver Island city.

A notice posted on the paper's Twitter account in the late afternoon today (January 22) stated: "After 141 years, the Nanaimo Daily News will close its doors on Jan. 29. We thank our loyal readers and advertisers for their support."

https://twitter.com/NanaimoDaily/status/690691902438408193

The publication's website lists 10 employees in the editorial department, including three reporters, four editors, a photographer, creative-services manager, and a publisher.

The paper, which had an audited daily circulation of 5,394 in 2012, was bought by B.C.-based publishing company Black Press in December 2014 from Glacier Media.

The two companies own most of the newspapers on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland and have been involved in deals in recent years that included swaps and sales of properties that solidified their respective dominance and lessened competition in distinct B.C. territories.

Black Press also owns the twice-weekly Nanaimo News Bulletin.

The Nanaimo Daily News was started as a semiweekly called the Nanaimo Daily Free Press by George Norris in 1884, and it became a daily paper in 1888. In modern times, it was owned by the Southam chain up until 2000, when Canwest took over. Postmedia assumed ownership in 2010, then sold it to Glacier Media the next year.

Black Press, which is owned by David Black and bills itself as the largest independently owned Canadian newspaper company, acquired the paper from Glacier in the late-2014 deal. Of the properties involved in that swap, four Lower Mainland papers and three more on Vancouver Island have since shut their doors.