The Alaska Highway News is returning to British Columbia’s northeast.
The Fort St. John-based newspaper first published in 1943 was shuttered by Glacier Media last October along with the Dawson Creek Mirror, just weeks after another northern publication, the Fort Nelson News, closed.
It meant the only community paper left in northern B.C. was in Tumbler Ridge, which only prints every other week.
Reporter Todd Buck had been working at the Alaska Highway News for a couple of years when he learned the paper he’d come to care so deeply about was going to disappear.
“It was heartbreaking,” he said. “For something that meant so much to not just my family, but a community here, to find out that it wasn’t going to be something the next day was heartbreaking.”
But now, Buck is hoping to give the newspaper a new life.
He’s established a media company and purchased the Alaska Highway News name and masthead. Slowly, but surely, he’s populating a website with stories about B.C.’s northeast. And in less than two weeks, a print edition is set to return.
While he grew up in a small farming community outside Prince George, Buck’s family has lived in Fort St. John for generations. He said his grandmother even worked with founding publisher Ma Murray.
“I learned to read with the Alaska Highway News,” Buck said. “It was on my [kitchen] table five days out of the week.”
Buck, 31, came to the newspaper after working in the trades. He had loved writing in high school, and as his family grew, he felt he needed more stability than his job at the time offered.
The managing editor at the time took Buck under his wing, and thus began Buck’s love for community news.
Print edition returns June 6
Buck said he’s poured his own money into getting the print edition going.
It will be a family-run operation, as his wife will help with circulation while his kids bundle flyers.
The new News will be run out of the office in Buck’s home, which happens to be next door to the old paper’s office.
Buck said he plans to launch the weekly print edition of the new Alaska Highway News on June 6 with 4,000 8-page tabloids that will be delivered to community boxes throughout Fort St. John.
Mayor Lilia Hansen said she has always been an avid reader of the newspaper, and is looking forward to the new version.
“Local media is the heartbeat of communities like Fort St. John,” she said in an emailed statement. “It provides vital information, fosters community spirit, and ensures that the voices of our residents are heard and valued.
“Perhaps now more than ever, we welcome new media outlets to enrich our community with diverse perspectives and enhanced coverage.”
Buck said he’s excited to be able to write again and serve his community at the same time.
“I was trying to think of how I can continue writing and covering my community, how I can continue being a contribution to the community I live in and I’m raising my children in,” he said.
“The best thing I could do is to try to restart a paper.”
LISTEN | Todd Buck explains why he wants to resurrect the Alaska Highway News:
Radio West10:44Local journalist and former heavy equipment operator Todd Buck is the new owner of the Alaska Highway News
Local journalist and former heavy equipment operator Todd Buck is the new owner of the Alaska Highway News. The paper is being revived after it was shut down back in October.