After four years, a newspaper returns to Haida Gwaii

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Two former reporters have swum against the rising tide of local news closings to launch a new community newspaper in Haida Gwaii, returning a regular print product to the remote B.C. archipelago for the first time in four years.

The free, biweekly Haida Gwaii News published its first issue on June 6, circulating 3,000 copies that were quickly gobbled up by fewer than 5,000 full-time residents of the sparsely populated islands – accessible only by boat or plane – off B.C.’s northern coast.

“It seemed like everybody and their dog was reading the paper,” publisher Stacey Brzostowski said with a laugh. Soon after, she started receiving cheques in the mail with thank-you notes for the paper’s coverage of everything from missing cats to a new martial arts gym opening.

The Haida Gwaii News is one of only a handful of new community outlets to have opened in Canada since the start of 2023, according to the Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University, while 31 community newspapers have shuttered in the same period, largely driven by plummeting print and online ad revenues.

Mrs. Brzostowski and editor Andrew Hudson say they launched the paper, now up to three issues, with their own money to combat a rising disconnect between communities on Haida Gwaii’s two major islands. That disengagement seemed to solidify after the Haida Gwaii Observer, where the two co-founders previously worked together, ceased printing in 2020. It was one of more than 400 Canadian community papers to have shuttered since 2008.

Mrs. Brzostowski and Mr. Hudson say the overwhelming community support has illuminated the effects of Canada’s beleaguered print media industry on small communities, but the paper’s early success isn’t necessarily replicable or even desirable elsewhere.

Lower costs of living on Haida Gwaii and other employment mean the co-founders and contributors can afford to work for free. Furthermore, a combination of ad revenue, 29 monthly Patreon subscribers and one-time donations cover the $2,000 it approximately costs to print and ship each issue with only a bit extra to spare.

“I’m not sure that we have the secret sauce yet that everybody is looking for to start a sustainable business in print,” Mr. Hudson said.

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Unlike many news start-ups, Haida Gwaii News sees print as the bedrock of its success because of the communities’ challenging geography. Cellphone and internet coverage is still limited or nonexistent in many parts of Haida Gwaii, and the co-founders wanted to ensure service and price weren’t barriers for locals – nearly half of whom are members of the Haida Nation, an Indigenous people.

But now the founders feel like they are trying to gain traction and also catch up on four years of missed stories, such as the ins and outs of an entirely acclaimed village council in Masset, and a major 2023 report outlining the likely hazards in the event a tsunami strikes Haida Gwaii.

“I still meet people that haven’t heard of the report, and they’re building homes without that safety information,” Mr. Hudson said. “A lot of stories don’t even make it by word of mouth from one end of Haida Gwaii to the other.”

The co-founders write, edit, layout and publish the paper from their homes with help from a handful of volunteers, including Mrs. Brzostowski’s husband, Vince Brzostowski, who also created a popular local community forum app.

After the paper has been printed in a Metro Vancouver suburb, driven to Vancouver’s airport and flown nearly 800 kilometres to Haida Gwaii’s southern Moresby Island, Mrs. Brzostowski picks it up at the ferry terminal to distribute. She then takes the ferry back to Graham Island to hand them off to Mr. Hudson for his portion of the route.

All told, the paper is more work than a full-time job for both Mrs. Brzostowski, a veterinary administrator who has a one-year-old at home, and Mr. Hudson, who works at the library and volunteers as a firefighter and with search and rescue.

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Sheri Disney, mayor of Masset on Graham Island, feels the paper has already become “the heart of the community.” She herself ran around town for a copy of the first issue featuring her son’s soccer team so he could cut out the clipping for his baby book.

The first Haida Nation member to serve as Masset mayor, Ms. Disney says the paper has also launched at a pivotal time, as B.C. legislation recognizing Haida title over Haida Gwaii takes effect. However, what that transition of more than half a million hectares of Crown land to the governing Council of the Haida Nation will – or should – have on daily life, logging and protected areas is not yet clear to many Haida and non-Indigenous residents alike.

“My hope is that the paper will help unify a voice for Haida,” she said. “Not everyone right now is saying the same thing, but having the paper gives more opportunity for us all to hear each other.”

For the founders, keeping the paper running until its first birthday is the goal at the moment; in the meantime, they are trying to enjoy the less tangible successes. Mrs. Brzostowski and her husband were taking a walk on a beach near Masset in early June when they spotted two people sitting on a picnic bench holding the paper’s first issue.

“There’s no cell service where we went, but they were reading the newspaper, and it was just fantastic,” she said.

“It was like, wow, that’s something you have not seen in a long time.”