Hidden Secrets of the Similkameen News Leader
W. George Elliott
Owner/Publisher, Similkameen News Leader 2004-2016
It was ten years ago this week when I put to bed the last issue of the Similkameen News Leader. It was the late afternoon of July 22, 2016, to be precise, and I have to be honest and say it does not feel like it’s been ten years.
It actually feels longer.
For some reason, when I think about it, the News Leader is now so far in my past that it feels like a lifetime ago.
With this in mind, I can share a few “secrets” about what I did when I was the owner/publisher of the independent, weekly newspaper serving Princeton and the Similkameen Valley.
Issue Number
The Final Issue published of the News Leader was numbered Issue #948. That is not entirely accurate. One day, a few years into my term as owner/publisher, I thought it would be a good idea to add the actual individual issue number to the masthead of each publication. We were already listing “Volume X, Number X,” so I figured that one way to make it appear that we had been in business for a while was to add the issue number.
But there was a hurdle.
I wasn’t really sure how accurate the Volume/Number system was and found examples in older copies where the number either didn’t change or skipped a digit. What I knew was that typically, the company did not publish a paper the week of Christmas. So, with a calculator in hand, I did some mathing.
I don’t recall if I accounted for the years with 53 weeks in them or not. I’m sure I didn’t. This means that the Final Issue of the News Leader MAY HAVE BEEN Issue #948.
At least it should be relatively close.
Photo Credits To *
There was a time during my years as owner/publisher of the News Leader when I tried to ensure that all submissions, be they photos or articles, received a byline. A byline, if you don’t already know, is the “by W. George Elliott” or “Photo: Dawn Johnson” that typically appears with each article or photo.
I found many weeks where I was doing the majority of the writing and photography, so I received a lot of bylines in those issues. It got a bit much in my view, so I stopped giving myself credit except for the Editorial and a running feature I called “Saving Downtown Princeton.”
By the way, “Saving Downtown Princeton” originated as an idea to just fill space. It turned into a weekly feature that ran for years. I sometimes wonder how I came up with enough material to keep it running so long, but I did.
Back to bylines.
When I stopped giving myself bylines, I tried harder to ensure others received credit for their submissions. I figured that it would make the paper look like we had a lot of people participating in every issue.
Photos, on the other hand, were a different story.
While I really wanted to keep giving myself credit for the many photos I took, I stepped back and removed my name. In its place, I added a single asterisk. In other words, at the end of a photo caption there would be this: *
I don’t think anyone noticed my name had disappeared, but there was a reason why I used an asterisk.
Probably Princeton’s best-known newspaper was the Similkameen Star. The last owner/publisher of that paper was Dave Taylor. I never met him, as he passed away shortly before I moved to Princeton, but everything he published had a star printed on it. Some of them were hidden in the border of a poster or advertisement, others blatantly in your face.
When I decided to change my photo byline at the News Leader, I thought an asterisk was close enough to a star that I could use it as a nod to a local newspaper publisher who sort of blazed the trail for all the others who followed, including me.
The asterisk became my homage to the Similkameen Star.
The Princeton Spotlight Website Domain
I’m sure many residents who have been in the area for several years are aware that the News Leader competed directly with the corporately-owned Similkameen Spotlight. While we had a mostly friendly relationship (the company that owned the Spotlight also printed the News Leader in their Penticton printing press building), there was tension at times.
As my history goes back to broadcasting in the 1970s and 80s, competition was often viewed as The Enemy. You normally did what you could to get the upper hand in any situation. In the small town of Princeton, competing newspaper publishers and staff were generally respectful. After all, we all knew each other and had known each other for many years.
Then the internet exploded and changed the media landscape.
I found myself buying and selling internet domains on the side, but didn’t do well. But I did see an opportunity to capitalize on my competition, so I bought the “Princeton Spotlight . com” domain and redirected it to the News Leader website.
At the time, I used some SEO tricks and probably pulled some traffic away from those seeking to visit the “Similkameen Spotlight . com” website.
It was meant as a prank, and once it quit being funny to me, I removed the redirect. I don’t recall anyone from my competition calling me about it, but a few customers did.
They seemed to get the joke.
The competition likely didn’t know about it…until now.
Conclusion
Well, ten years have passed since I completed the final page of the final issue of the Similkameen News Leader, which may or may not have been Issue #948. It contained at least one photo credit to someone identified as simply “*” and the issue did not get uploaded to the non-existance “Princeton Spotlight . com” website.
It’s been an interesting decade since the paper ceased publication.
I still come across the odd issue in my home office. When I do, I drop everything and flip through the pages. Usually a flood of memories comes back, and I’m instantly transported back to those days.
Here is a video I shot as I finished the last page of the final News Leader: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBLoY9xZtlc
If you were a customer of ours, either as an advertiser or subscriber/reader, thank you for your support. I will never forget it.