Newspaper and magazine publishers in B.C. struggle amid postal strike
Publications trying to get print issues to customers and payment from advertisers
Cathy Glover, who publishes a monthly newspaper about agriculture in British Columbia, doesn't know if she's going to be printing her January edition, after the ongoing Canada Post strike stopped her December issue from ever reaching readers.
More than 55,000 Canada Post workers walked off the job on Nov. 15, following a year of failed negotiations to reach a new collective agreement.
As workers announced their job action, the December issue of Glover's Country Life in B.C. was being printed out of Enderby, in B.C.'s Okanagan region.
"We considered suspending production, or combining the January and February papers, but agreed neither were viable," Glover told CBC News.
The publisher of the newspaper, which boasts a circulation of thousands of readers and has run for over 100 years, said they would normally send their January edition to print on Dec. 19.
"But it seems almost dishonest to be selling a January paper when the December paper hasn't reached readers," Glover said.
Editors and publishers of newspapers and magazines in Western Canada say that although news can be read online in the digital age, many readers still prefer to have it in print. With the strike in full swing, though, giving them that option is proving difficult.
The work stoppage has also meant cheques from advertisers have been stuck in the mail for weeks — adding an extra wrinkle for publishers struggling to keep their businesses going.
Tars Cheema, the publisher of the Abbotsford-based, bi-monthly English magazine Western Canadian Dairy News, said "the damage has already been done" to his operations and revenue, just a few weeks into the strike.
"Everybody who's been caught has already paid the price," he told CBC News.
He said his magazine has a circulation of over 2,000 people, who prefer a print product over reading something online.
"Our readers are farmers, who live in rural areas. Reading newspapers after work becomes a source of information, as well as entertainment for them," he said in a Punjabi-language interview.
Struggle getting cheques in the mail
Harbans Buttar, the editor-in-chief of the Calgary-based, Punjabi Akhbaar, said he normally delivers his issues to advertisers through the mail.
"This time, we used other agencies instead of Canada Post due to the strike, which has cost us dearly," he said in a Punjabi-language interview.
Andy Sidhu is the publisher of the Punjabi weekly newspaper Punjabi Patrika, which was founded in 1996 and describes itself as B.C.'s first bilingual newspaper.
Many editors and publishers are also finding it difficult to get their invoices cleared from advertisers amid the strike. Advertising companies and institutions usually pay the publishers through cheques, which are sent in the mail.
Sidhu said they are reaching out to advertisers to get the dues cleared.
"We are requesting them to make the cheques ready for pick up," he said in a Punjabi-language interview.
"Our staff is going to their offices in person to pick up the cheques, which means we have to increase the hours of our staff, resulting in more expenses in terms of their salaries."
There is no end date in sight for the Canada Post strike, more than three weeks into the job action. When a deal is reached, Canada Post has said customers should still expect delays as the postal service deals with a backlog of packages and letters.
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With files from Akshay Kulkarni