Valerie Durnin has a long history with the media industry.
Now she is joining the team at the Humboldt Journal as the new publisher of the Journal and the East Central Trader.
This is an innovative time for newspapers, especially small city papers, Durnin says.
“There’s talk of newspapers being dead, but they’re not. People are consuming news in greater number than ever before, they’re just doing it differently.”
Community newspapers have been grappling with moving into digital world for a long time, says Durnin.
“There is a place where technology and news delivery meet that is still untapped,” she says. “It is a time of great opportunity.”
It is the people on the ground who are going to make the difference, she says. New ideas are going to change the landscape.
What we do with that is our challenge and privilege, she adds.
“To be in this industry at this time means that you are watching new and different things happening, and you’re constantly developing new ways to reach people.”
Meeting and working with the people of Humboldt is going to be an exciting part of starting this new position, says Durnin.
“So far I see it as a vibrant city, and one of the best things about this job is that I get to participate in the community.”
Durnin started her media career in New York City, working in retail marketing as a brand manager for Lady Foot Locker, before moving on to become Director of Visual Merchandising for Kids Foot Locker in the late ’90s.
“With Kids Foot Locker we opened 100 stores a year, so it was quite the job,” she says.
After leaving New York, she fell into the newspaper industry by volunteering to create a community newspaper for a community club in Lund, BC, a tiny community north of Powell River.
“I wrote all the stories, took all the pictures, and I did all the layout and ads, sent it to print, brought it back in my car – and had a moment of panic,” she laughs.
With the paper in hand, she realized that people were actually going to be reading it. “It was stage fright,” she says.
After about eight months Durnin joined the staff at the Powell River Peak as a copy editor.
“They knew about my volunteer paper so they contacted me and I’ve been in the newspaper industry ever since.” She went on to work as production manager for the Peak, and as an ad designer for the Coast Reporter in Sechelt, BC.
Durnin is coming from the Flin Flon Reminder, where she remains publisher, and will also serve as publisher for two newspapers in Tisdale.
Durnin says she has a real love of the industry and the communities that she serves.
“I love what we do, I love what we do for communities, and the longer I stay in it the greater my passion is for this industry.”
Reporting on local government, industry and business means reporting on how small communities are impacted both positively and negatively, says Durnin, and that can influence people and their choices.
“We stand by the information we publish,” she says, adding it sets journalists apart from social media in important ways. “There is a difference in the quality of information when you say ‘I read it in the newspaper’ as compared to ‘I saw it on Facebook.’”
Durnin believes that the work done by her and her teams makes a difference.
“That’s why I get up in the morning,” she says.
