To our Readers and Advertisers:
It is now more than a year since we sent our staff home to work, crossed our fingers they would stay safe, and proceeded day-by-day through a twist-and-turn pandemic that has taken so many lives, infected so many others, and sent a once-in-a-lifetime shock through our community's well-being.
Our own operation was hit hard with advertising cancellations and deferrals, our in-person events were wiped from the calendar and took a significant piece of our business with them, and it was necessary for us to reduce staff, hours of work and salaries to sustain. We are far from recovered.
Our staff responded as most everyone has in coronavirus, working harder under trying circumstances to preserve and to perform service. We have not been alone in doing so, of course. We see it every day as we report.
We have been grateful for the support during this period from donors who answered the call when we asked. Their support made a big difference in our business, and while I acknowledge we are behind schedule in forming a new approach to subscriptions and developing a new program to reward them and other loyal readers, no one will be forgotten when we at last catch up.
We are weeks away from unfurling a new biv.com website. Following that we will reveal a BIV Insiders initiative that will provide exclusive access to several new journalism features, to live sessions with newsmakers, and to incentives and discounts with many vendors. I believe it will be worth the wait, but again, I sincerely apologize that it has taken this long and I appreciate your patience.
We recognize that to save our journalism, we will need to add to it to keep your business. After all, we live in an era of abundance. While I am confident no one reports on British Columbian business as BIV does, we need to provide excellent value for the support we seek.
That being said, I also believe that the pandemic has been instructive in guiding us to recognize and support trusted sources of journalism. It has demonstrated that journalism excellence, independence and integrity depend on subscription support in larger measure as it becomes more challenging to secure advertising. And the disruption to our business model has left no other choice but to reduce what we provide free of charge as we increase what we provide of value.
I hope to share details very shortly on what we have in store. I also hope that if you haven't provided us ongoing support to date, you will see this next step as the right time to help.
Thank you, stay tuned, and stay safe and well,
Kirk LaPointe
Publisher and Editor-in-Chief, BIV; Vice-President, Editorial, Glacier Media Group.
