Farewell to an old friend, the Now newspaper in Coquitlam

Final edition of The Tricities Now, formerly Coquitlam Now was published today. It rose from the ashes of The Columbian newspaper, which itself closed in 1983 after 122 years of publication.
http://issuu.com/coquitlam-now/docs/coqthu20151001

I wrote a tribute farewell letter that is published on page 10. It got edited down due to space constraints. Here's the full version, complete with references to the late great Larry Rose and Norm Wright, the Blue Mountain Royals, and young aspiring writer Annie.

Dear Editor:

The Tri-Cities Now and I go waaaay back. Back to the beginning. Back to when it was the Coquitlam Now.

When I was 17 back in 1983, I was an aspiring journalist, working on The Catalyst newspaper at Centennial Secondary and heading down to The Columbian newspaper after school to work as a file clerk.

Much to my dismay, The Columbian shut down in 1983 after 122 years. Not an auspicious start to my career!

Within the year though, I saw hope for the industry. Displaced Columbian reporters, ad sales people, and editors joined forces to start Now Newspapers in Coquitlam, Burnaby, New Westminster, and Surrey.

Norm Wright, the former sports reporter for The Columbian, was the founding sports editor for the Now Newspapers. He had covered the emerging sport of girls’ soccer and had often written about my team, the Blue Mountain Royals, and other local powerhouses. The coverage continued in the new Now format and we graced those pages several times.

When I was in first-year university at SFU in 1984, he offered me a stringer’s job of reporting on SFU sports in On The Hill, my own column in the Burnaby Now (sometimes also picked up by Coquitlam Now). In those pre-email, pre-internet days I would go interview the SFU coaches on Monday morning, write up the results on my electric typewriter, and drive them over to Now Newspaper headquarters in New Westminster in time for the Tuesday deadline.

Sadly, Norm passed away from cancer in 1986. He was a great mentor to me. My generation of girls’ soccer pioneers all appreciated his coverage of our sport as we broke boundaries and claimed our right to be in the spotlight. I gave a special shout-out to him in June of 2015 when three Blue Mountain girls teams were inducted into the Coquitlam Sports Hall of Fame.

I continued to appreciate Coquitlam Now from afar when I moved to Chilliwack to begin my career in university communications in 1990. I would always make sure I read it when visiting my in-laws. Larry Rose, my father-in-law, was a big community booster in Coquitlam and local public relations consultant, so we always had lots to discuss about Coquitlam politics and events during our visits.
When Larry passed away in 1999, then-editor Pat Cooper devoted a whole page of the Coquitlam Now to a tribute to Larry. The Dogwood Pavilion was filled to overflowing at his service, and many there read and appreciated her heartfelt tribute.

With the advent of the Internet, I was able to keep up with The Now via its web version.
I’ve been gone from Coquitlam for more than 25 years now, but it will always remain a special place in my heart, my core home. I lament the loss of the many community newspapers that are closing these days, and hope that we can find a way to continue to have “papers of record” for our communities.
Sincerely,
Anne Russell

Photo of one of Norm’s stories on us:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/rosedaleannie/16780827711