Things are about to get more interesting at The Prince George Citizen.
When Terresa and I purchased The Citizen 10 months ago, I made a promise to our community that The Citizen would provide comprehensive and balanced coverage of local and regional issues and serve as a reliable source of information. I believe we have achieved that. The newspaper edition has doubled in size, from 24 to 48 pages with some weeks reaching 56 and 64 pages. Starting next week, we will be unveiling a series of updates to our news website inline with the improvements to our paper.
Our newsroom is providing great community coverage and has broken some amazing stories which have been picked up across our province and nation.
In days gone by, The Citizen was recognized provincially and even nationally for its award-winning journalism thanks to the investigative reporting that was done. Our highest recognition was the Michener Award in 2006 for Gordon Hoekstra’s series on truck drivers in the logging industry.
Those days are now returning.
Over the last two weeks, we have hired three new reporters. This will allow us to not only provide better news coverage for our city and surrounding communities but also dedicate the time required to once again do award-winning investigative journalism.
The first is Colin Slark, who grew up and graduated here in Prince George before obtaining a master’s in journalism. He is joining us from The Brandon Sun, where he has been for the last five years. His primary focus will be covering city hall, the school board, regional district, and our elected officials at all levels. His in-depth investigative reporting will primarily be in these areas.
The second is Matthew Hillier. As a new journalism graduate, he will be everywhere learning the beats and our community as he joins us from Calgary. He will be working with our existing staff to gain real-world experience and introduce him to our community at large. This will include Ted Clarke introducing him to sports organizations, Christine Dalgleish and Chuck Nisbett to our community groups and Mark Nielsen on court reporting. When you see him out and about, please feel free to introduce yourself.
Our third new reporter is Bob Mackin. Bob is an award-winning journalist with over 25 years’ experience from the lower mainland. He will be joining us as a Local Journalism Initiative reporter covering the provincial court system from Prince George north to Fort St. John. Along with his LJI coverage, Bob will also be a freelance investigative reporter for The Prince George Citizen. He will be digging into issues critical to central and northern BC that directly affect Prince George.
At a time when misinformation dominates social media, digital algorithms are creating echo chambers, and fake, AI created, pictures and content are becoming more common, independent journalism is needed more than ever.
By growing our locally focused news team, we will be doing our best to keep you up to date with factual information on what is happening in our community.
My continued promise to you is to provide outstanding news coverage for you, our readers.
Please join us in welcoming these additions to our staff who will help make it possible.
