Media of Vancouver
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This is an overview of media in Vancouver, British Columbia.
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[edit] Newspaper
Vancouver has two major English-language daily newspapers, The Vancouver Sun (a broadsheet) and The Province (a tabloid). Both are published by CanWest MediaWorks Publications, a division of CanWest Global Communications. There are also two national newspapers distributed in the city: The Globe and Mail, which began distribution of a "national edition" into BC in 1983, and in more recent years launched a three-page B.C. news section in an effort to increase its readership in the city. The National Post, also owned by CanWest, entered city markets only in the last few years but has very little British Columbia content, being primarily a newspaper of the Central Canadian moneyed classes.
During the Solidarity Crisis of 1983, when both Pacific Press papers were on strike, The Globe and Mail found its new "national edition" to be the only daily on Vancouver newsstands. A bit innocently, they invited on-strike or locked-out reporters to write and edit a new British Columbia section to be inserted into the national edition, and gave them free rein as to content. Many reporters and readers who remember these events feel that the tenure of the original "BC Edition" of the Globe was the only time that Vancouver has had a truly free press unfettered by the political biases of publishers and owners. The new BC edition's coverage is a thinner version of the same content found in the Sun and the Province.
Vancouver has three Chinese-language daily newspapers, Ming Pao, Sing Tao and World Journal. Ming Pao and Sing Tao cater to a Cantonese-speaking readership whereas World Journal targets Mandarin speakers.
Two free daily newspapers, 24 Hours and Metro are published in the city from Monday to Friday. Both contain a small number of local news stories and 24 Hours occasionally breaks news stories. Neither is long-established and both tend to concentrate on celebrity news and gossip. The Georgia Straight is a weekly 'alternative' newspaper, though in addition to left-leaning news and opinion it also features upscale advertising for products such as condominiums and has lifestyle articles on topics such as health and style. Its most extensive sections are entertainment and music, and its extremely thorough music and event listings are comparable to those of Time Out and similar publications. The Georgia Straight began as a counterculture newspaper in the 1960s, full of controversial politics and occasional "obscene" cartoons and pictures, including the hippie classic comic Harold Hedd. During this period "the Straight's" owner and publisher Dan MacLeod was repeately harassed by the city and its fanatically anti-hippie mayor Tom Campbell, and his offices repeatedly raided and himself beaten by police. During the 1970s MacLeod converted the publication to a much more entertainment-oriented publication, and avoided political content until the mid-1980s, when it began to return.
The Express is the title used for an occasional union-published newspaper published by the press unions when they are on strike.
[edit] Neighbourhood Papers
The Vancouver Courier, a free community newspaper, is distributed to most households in the city every Wednesday and Friday. The West Ender, a free weekly paper that used to be distributed primarily in the city's West End neighbourhood, has recently been trying to compete with the Georgia Straight as a weekly alternative newspaper for the entire city covering civic news and opinion (it does not try to compete with the Straight's exhaustive entertainment coverage and listings).
[edit] Television
Global BC is the most popular evening newscast in the city by a wide margin, though CTV British Columbia, currently a distant second in the ratings, has aggressively been trying to increase its market share -- including the recent purchase of a news helicopter known as 'Chopper 9'. In 2006 Global BC purchased a news helicopter to compete with CTV bringing the number of television news helicopters in Vancouver to two. CBC also has local newscasts though they are far back in the ratings.
See Also: Television stations in Vancouver, AM Radio in Vancouver, and FM Radio in Vancouver.
[edit] Radio
There are three main news radio stations in Vancouver: CBC Radio One, CKNW and News1130. There are several other talk, information, and sports stations, primarily on the AM band, and a variety of music stations, mostly on FM.
[edit] Media Ownership
Vancouver has some of the most concentrated media ownership in all of Canada. The Vancouver Sun, The Province, the National Post, Global BC, the Vancouver Courier, and a share of Metro (in Vancouver) are all owned by CanWest. Partly in response to that concentration, a group of journalists -- many of them ex-Sun employees -- started up an online news publication, The Tyee, that posts news and opinion pieces on a nearly daily basis.
