CBC to fill the Crowsnest Pass news hole
The "news hole" is the newspaper space left for stories after all the advertising has been placed. In Crowsnest Pass, the news hole is filled with, well, nothing.
Is it a fish wrapper? Is it a birdcage liner? No! It’s Northbag Rag!
With the self-abasement of the Crowsnest Past Herald to foreign coal grubber Gina Rinehart, the black hole of local news coverage is pulling in serious competition.
Pincher Creek’s Shootin’ the Breeze has evolved from airy trivia to serious journalism covering the wider region, expressly adding Crowsnest Pass to its front page banner.
Then, today, January 15, CBC News announced that it will use some of its share of Google’s $100 million annual news payment to Canadian media to hire 25 new reporters to expand local news coverage in media-starved communities. Crowsnest Pass is specifically identified as one of them. The additional regional reporter will work from the CBC’s existing news bureau in Lethbridge.
As the Conservatives are promising to defund english cbc after the next election, I fear this will make little difference. I find Radio Canada coverage of the province is more widespread.