Lögberg-Heimskringla - 28.02.1986, Page 5

WINNIPEG, FÖSTUDAGUR 28. FEBRÚAR 1986-5
The WorlcTs Toughest Newspaper Beat
News/North is distributed to every community in the Northwest Ter-
ritories. Newspaper carriers in many cases are hush pilots.
Continued from Page 4.
but Horton had borrowed $500 to get
to Yellowknife and couldn't afford to
leave. He struggled along in boom-
town Yellowknife and made the
newspaper click. Horton was a
strong advocate of local news. "If an
atomic bomb landed on Edmonton it
might be a story in News of the
North," he once said, "but then on-
ly if it had passed over Yellowknife."
Sigvaldason came north 16 years
ago as editor of News of the North
from Winnipeg where he had spent
18 years in the advertising agency
business. After an editorial dispute
with the owner of the paper he and
a fellow journalist, Jack Adderley,
were fired the day before Christmas,
1971. Two months later the two
started a competing paper, the
Yellowknifer. "Our editorial objec-
tive was to have a ball and make a
buck. We started with one camera,
one typewriter and a thousand
dollars. The first couple of issues
were produced on my kitchen table
and the very first issue I finished in
my hotel room in Edmonton, the city
where the paper was printed. I had
a hole left to fill so I sold the hotel
manager an ad in exchange for the
cost of my room."
In 1980 Sigvaldason had prospered
enough to buy News of the North
(which he renamed News/North). He
retained ownership of the
Yellowknifer, developed it as a com-
munity paper and changed the direc-
tion of News/North to become a ter-
ritorial newspaper.
With a paid circulation of 10,000
copies the 32 to 40 page weekly
tabloid offers a great mix of material
with emphasis on political and
business news, plus columns and fea-
tures. All copy is locally written with
occasional freelance pieces but no
wire service or syndicate stories.
"We deal with issues that have a fair-
ly broad spectrum of importance. We
don't concern ourselves with the
restricted community activities be-
cause there are. community news-
papers that do the 'brownie fly-up'
type of story. We are more concerned
with social, economic, cultural and
political stories and the causes and
implications of these stories. We also
do a good deal of feature coverage
and individual profiles. I'm sure that
over the year there is no community
in the Northwest Territories that
hasn't received coverage in some
way".
News/North has four reporters —
two in Yellowknife, plus two one-
man bureaus, one in Hay River, on
the south shore of Great Slave Lake,
and the other in Inuvik, near the Arc-
tic Ocean where much of the
Beaufort oil drilling activity is cen-
tered — and a "stringer" in Frobisher
Bay, the Government Administrative
Centre for the Eastern Arctic.
"Our next office will be in Ottawa.
In fact I may go this winter, then
rotate staff from here on a 60-day
basis."
"Why Ottawa? It's still the source
of the vast amount of decision mak-
ing," he says. "The relationship be-
tween the North and Ottawa and the
Provinces and Ottawa is so much dif-
ferent because so many decisions are
made there, especially in the oil and
gas industry. Ottawa is almost a
clearing house for information and
you see people quite regularly (the
decision makers) even though they're
mostly from the north. You have a
hell of a better chance of talking with
an official from Inuit Taparisat in Ot-
tawa then you have travelling'a few
thousand miles around the Arctic.”
He comments that "Northerners
The Ardal-Geysir Lutheran Con-
gregation is well on the way to see-
ing its building program through to
completion. Rising from the site of
the former Ardal Lutheran Church
on River Road West, the new
building is a source of pride to the
Congregation, and to the village as a
whole.
Designed by local architectoral stu-
dent Blair Holm, and two of his class-
mates Tim Borys and Ralph
Buschow, the church features an
open beam sanctuary whose central
support beam rises to a peak above
a broad sweeping lower roof.
Clerestary windows highlight the up-
per section beneath the peak and of-
fer a soft, natural light to the sanc-
tuary. At the street level, the front
wall consists of three planes, giving
are the most pragmatic people in the
world. While Quebec was fighting to
get out of confederation we were
fighting to get in. Northerners are
masters of consensus. If you look at
the North over the last 10 years there
have been some near insurmountable
problems solved involving social,
economic, political and ethnic con-
siderations. We endeavour to reason
with politicians and bureaucrats in
Ottawa. We try to negotiate agree-
ments, to influence, to educate. I
think we are pragmatic because we
win some battles and those we lose
we don't cry about.
"What do I look to from Ottawa?
First the opportunity to control as
many decisions affecting the North
a frontal exposure to the southeast.
Decorative Tyndall stone will finish
the central area of the front wall, and
to either side light brown vertical
siding blends with the brown roofing.
From a practical point of view, the
interior is designed with multiple use
areas. The sanctuary can expand in-
to the hall area and vice-versa, thus
accomodating overflow attendance at
special services without being large,
and costly to maintain.
Local contractor, Brian Eyolfson of
Harbour Builders, is in charge of con-
struction, having tendered suc-
cessfully for the job. Council presi-
dent, David Gislason, says that work
is proceeding on schedule and the
building should be ready for oc-
cupancy by the end of April or as
by people on the scene here in the
North. I think it is extremely impor-
tant that there is a move that way
because decisions made on the scene
are better decisions. . . Ottawa
bureaucrats have a divided interest
because they are responsible for
broader based areas.”
Sigvaldason spent four months in
Ottawa last year "and it took me that
long again to get my head straight —
it's the never-never land. I had to
travel the North for four months to
get back to thinking in a rational
manner."
"I think the most important edi-
torial accomplishment the paper has
made is a better understanding and
awareness of other people in the Arc-
tic. The people of Gjoa Haven now
know more about the people in Fort
Simpson than they used to."
The challenges of publishing a
newspaper in the North are tremen-
dous. Distance is probably the big-
gest single factor, and then the high
cost of operating. "Our labour costs
here are not only higher in general
but the percentage of gross sales that
we spend on labour tends to be
higher because of the high cost of
transportation and communication. If
you have an equipment breakdówn
in a large centre you can pick up the
phone and have a technician in an
hour. Here it may take two to three
days to fly a technician up and it may
cost $1,000."
Sigvaldason is optimistic about the
rewards of his northern business. "I
describe Yellowknife as the biggest
small town in the world. The entire
North is a tremendous hot spot. Far-
reaching decisions are being made
every day in the North. Perhaps the
biggest reward, whether it's as a
newspaper publisher or a politician,
is that you are one very big frog in
a very small puddle. The oppor-
tunities are here to accomplish things
on a large scale."
soon as all services are connected.
The Village of Arborg is proceeding
with plans to extend sewer and water
services down William Street from
First Avenue to provide for service to
the new building.
Designated Gifts
Members and friends of the Árdal-
Geysir Evangelical Lutheran Church
are invited to make specific gifts
towards finishing the new building.
Any contributions will be gratefully
received and receipts will be issued.
A designated gifts committee has
been established to receive
donations.
Contact Mrs. Barbara McCannell,
P.O. Box 106, Arborg, Manitoba, R0C
0A0. Phone no.: 378-5541.
Ardal-Geysir Lutheran
Church in Arborg near completion