NNSL and its printing company Canarctic Graphics has been bought by newspaper chain Black Press.
Northern News Services Limited has been publishing The Yellowknifer for over 40 years, and expanded to publish newspapers in six communities throughout the NWT and Nunavut.
Black Press has bought all of NNSL’s newspapers – two Yellowknifer editions per week, Nunavut News, Kivalliq News, Hay River Hub, Inuvik Drum, and News/North – alongside the NNSL’s websites and Canarctic Graphics.
Bruce Valpy, CEO of NNSL says they don’t anticipate any paper closures will come from the closure.
“It’s the people who make the newspapers, it’s people who make the news,” said Valpy. “That isn’t going to change.”
Valpy says there had been a couple of layoffs, but most of the staff from NNSL and Canartic were remaining the same.
Black Press publishes more than 170 newspapers in western Canada and the United States. Black Press owns a number of papers in Alberta and B.C. and bought Yukon News in 2013.
“Our experience with community newspapers in Canada’s North has been very favourable with our 2013 purchase of the Yukon News, and we look forward to supporting these newspapers, their associated digital operations and printing plant, as we move forward out of the pandemic,” Rick O’Connor, President and CEO of Black Press Media said in a statement.
Valpy said NNSL would be working with Yukon News and expanding their advertising market via Black Press’ network of papers.
