Fourteen years ago I decided to start a newspaper. The motive was slightly personal, and slightly existential. But if I muddle through it, I would say it involved a desire to help make this Valley better whilst building a sustainable economic reason to put my University Degree to use without giving up and moving to a city. I succeeded in the former while the latter proved only possible for one partner in the endeavor. It is a small market and a newspaper needs clear leadership in the end. The Robson Valley had always been my home, and even when I found myself living elsewhere, I often dreamt about the day of return.
I recruited Laura for the venture online from journalism job boards. I had over a hundred interested potential partners. I narrowed it down to three. I had a young man of the age of 19 fresh out of Community College, but he knew the town and dreamed of moving here. There was an older British Lady with two selling books behind her name who dreamed of closing out her career in the Canadian Rockies. Then there was Laura, well educated in the field, with a resume that included working for the Ottawa Citizen. The only question was….did I want to partner with a younger man….maybe too young? A foreign national with some passive income who may not enjoy -40 as much as she thought? Or a Saskatchewan girl of the same age who had tasted the city life, lived in Ottawa, and seemed to have the best idea of what she was getting into?
As 26-year-olds tend to do, the details did not matter. The house I owned would be finished inside soon enough. I had a little bit of money, not a lot, but I had a steady job for six months of the year, and the ability to make good resource-economy money in the Winter. I just needed a partner who truly wanted to live and breathe the venture…..and make it their own over time as it grew to the point of financial sustainability.
Thirteen years later, it is time to move on for both of us. When Laura informed me that she was going to actively seek to sell, she gave me the courtesy of proposing selling the majority share back to me first. I thought on it for a few weeks, but knew deep down that I simply did not have the drive or energy to take it back over. I have also opened up different endeavors in the meantime that will take 110 percent of my efforts in the coming years. But I will forever appreciate the respect she showed by asking me first. At this time, a suitable successor and buyer has stepped forth, and the newspaper has officially been sold.
I truly wish Spencer the best in the coming years. I hope he can adjust to life in our town and make it his home fully. In the brief conversations we have had, he has expressed a desire to help re-develop independent local media and play his own role in this much-needed Renaissance. At the end of the day, he will only succeed if you, the local readers, decide to support your local media. In a world of digital globalism, it can be easy to get distracted, but I can assure you that never in my life have I appreciated hard hitting, non-politicized, adversarial journalism more……because there is so little of it left. I hope to read such journalism in The Rocky Mountain Goat twenty years from now, whomever may own it at that time as well.
Best of Luck and Thank You
Joseph Nusse, Co-Founder of The Rocky Mountain Goat weekly newspaper.
