Requiem for the Arrow Lakes News

Black Press has announced the last standalone issue of the Arrow Lakes News will appear today (July 17, 2025). After that, the paper will be folded into the Revelstoke Review.

Arrow Lakes News nameplates from 1935, 1971, 1992, 1999, and 2010.

Something similar happened to the Rossland News, which was a standalone paper from Oct. 11, 2006, until it became a two-page section of the West Kootenay Advertiser on March 14, 2024, and subsequently a two-page section of the Trail Times, as it remains today. (Until July 2010, the Rossland News was known as the Trail-Rossland News.)

The Advertiser itself became a four-to-eight page section in Black Press’ West Kootenay/Boundary papers on April 3, 2025. It had previously been a standalone publication since it was launched in July 2010, although it was a mix of original and recycled content. Until April 2021, the Advertiser usually had a full-page ad on its front page, which probably resulted in it being immediately deposited into recycling bins at many households.

The Arrow Lakes News had already been undergoing a slow death. It has not had a Nakusp-based journalist on staff for several years, and its content has been mostly, though not entirely, about communities outside the Arrow Lakes. Part of each issue (which cost $1.25) consisted of material produced by Local Journalism Initiative reporters that had already appeared a week earlier in the rival Valley Voice (available for free).

The News lasted a few more years than it might have. When I was acting regional editor for Black Press circa 2018-20, I was alerted that the closure of the News was imminent and began making plans to at least give it a nice burial. But the company changed its mind and decided to keep it going. I don’t know what circulation was like at the end, but it must have been very modest indeed. Its relevance had diminished to the point that I understand at least a few people, upon hearing of its impending demise, were surprised to learn it still existed.

While the Revelstoke Review’s quality has ebbed and flowed in recent years based on staffing levels, at the moment it’s definitely one of Black Press’ better papers. The merger means a vestige of the Arrow Lakes News will limp on a while longer (along with its attendant website) but I expect one day it too will vanish and few will notice.

(When the Boundary Creek Times published its last edition on March 31, 2022, there was no indication it would be the final one. It went out with a whimper. A ghost website lives on, containing stories from other Black Press titles, especially the Grand Forks Gazette, but nothing is written especially for it.)

The Arrow Lakes Historical Society has a history of the Arrow Lakes News on its website, so I don’t need to repeat it in detail. But to cover a few highlights:

• The paper was founded by Frank Rouleau on June 28, 1922. One account says it was initially printed in Kaslo, while another says it used printing equipment that had produced the short-lived Arrow Lakes Advocate in 1914-15. The same press was also used to print the Ymir Mirror from 1901-04 and the Ymir Herald from 1904-06.

• Ralphia MacLean became editor of the News in November 1923, the second woman in the Kootenays to edit a paper. (The only earlier one I’m aware of was Ella King Lamberton, who ran the Creston Review for six months in 1913.) However, MacLean’s tenure was short because the News folded at the end of the year, due to poor finances.

• The paper came back to life in March 1924 and was sold the following month to A.B.S. Stanley of Trail. It remained in the Stanley family for the next 70 years, through three generations, and was run successively by A.B.S.’s son Arthur Jr. and daughter-in-law Marjorie, and by Arthur and Marjorie’s son Denis.

Denis sold the paper to Small Town Press Ltd. in 1994, but came back to run it from 2000 to 2002 after the News was sold again to Cariboo Press, a subsidiary of Black Press.

• The Stanley family also ran a few other local papers: the Slocan Enterprise, which nominally covered Slocan City, debuted on Nov. 19, 1924. On Dec. 14, 1933, it became the Silver Standard, whose content was so similar to the Arrow Lakes News that I’m not sure why they bothered to keep it as a separate title. The Silver Standard published its last edition on May 13, 1954 and then amalgamated with the News.

The Arrow Lakes News is ceasing publication, but the Silver Standard will live on for at least another 925 years, judging from this edition of Dec. 21, 2950.

After selling the Arrow Lakes News to the Stanley family, Frank Rouleau ran the Kaslo Kootenaian until 1940. Allan Stanley took over the Kootenaian in 1954 and kept it up until 1962, whereupon it was sold. But the Stanleys either reacquired or repossessed the paper the following year. Art Stanley Jr. then ran it from 1963-67 and Denis Stanley from 1967 until it folded in 1969.

• The Arrow Lakes News has had many different offices in recent years, but the bulk of its existence was spent at 88 Pine Avenue (now 88 5th Avenue SW), which was built for the newspaper in 1924 and added onto in 1968. The paper moved out following its sale to Small Town Press in 1994. The old part of the building is now home to Spiritwood Cards, Baubles, and Tunes.

The former longtime home of the Arrow Lakes News in Nakusp in 2001 (top) and 2019 (above).

• Since at least 1999, the News’ nameplate has stated “Since 1923,” which makes no sense, since, as we have seen, the paper was established in 1922, suspended in late 1923, and resumed in 1924. The News is either 103 or 101, depending on whether you feel its brief interruption matters. Either way, the paper is more than a century old, although I don’t think its centennial was ever acknowledged — in contrast to its 75th and 80th birthdays (marked in 1998 and 2004 respectively), when commemorative editions were published (seen below).

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The Arrow Lakes News is the third West Kootenay publication to fold in 2025.

Pennywise, a shopper based in Kaslo that published its first issue on June 20, 1975, published its last on April 7, 2025, just shy of its 50th anniversary. The explanation: “Consumer habits have changed considerably over the last 10 or more years and costs of doing business continue to rise. We feel we have met our ceiling and don’t want to pass those costs on.” Additionally: “This week we had a faithful client cancel their ad because of friction with the US.”

The volunteer-run Salmo Valley Newsletter, established Nov. 25, 1983, published its final edition on June 27, 2025. Its closure after almost 42 years was attributed to “the uncertainty of being able to get our paper printed.” At the end it was appearing eight times per year.

Six other print newspapers remain in the West Kootenay/Boundary: the Castlegar News, Nelson Star, Grand Forks Gazette, and Trail Times (all weeklies published by Black Press); plus the bi-weekly Valley Voice and bi-monthly East Shore Mainstreet (both independent). But at least one of those titles might not last much longer (see note at the bottom of this page).

At various times in the 1890s and early 1900s, Nelson, Trail, Rossland, Grand Forks, Greenwood, and Kaslo all had dailies publishing six days per week. For several years, Nelson and Rossland even had multiple dailies.

The Trail Times (formerly the Trail Daily Times) traces its lineage to a weekly called the Trail Creek News, launched in 1895, and renamed the Trail News in 1907. It became the Trail Daily Bulletin in 1925, published six days a week. It was renamed the Trail Times in 1928 and the Trail Daily Times in 1931. The Saturday edition was dropped in 1975, making it five days per week. The name was changed back to the Trail Times on Oct. 2, 2012, when the Monday edition was dropped, making it four days per week. As of April 7, 2020, it went down to two days per week (Tuesdays and Thursdays). Following the Feb. 27, 2024 edition, it reverted to weekly (Thursdays) for the first time in 99 years. (Read more about the early history of this paper in Ron Verzuh’s book Printer’s Devils.)

A much shorter but still complicated publication history belongs to the Nelson Star, which Black Press launched as a regional weekly known as the Kootenay Western Star on June 16, 2006. It was renamed the Nelson Star on July 3, 2008 and its numbering was reset at Vol. 1, No. 1. Following the closure of the Nelson Daily News, it became twice weekly (Wednesdays and Fridays) in July 2010. It reverted to weekly (Thursdays) as of May 3, 2018.

UPDATE: 2025 might claim a fourth local publication too. The Valley Voice, which was the Arrow Lakes News’ chief rival, will close at the end of the year unless a buyer is found. Longtime publishers Jan McMurray and Dan Nicholson, who have operated it since 2003, simply want to retire.