1991:

Vancouverites awaken to the sight of newsboys in droopy caps, period vests, and cloth shoulder-bags, as, after close to 80 years, the Vancouver Sun makes the switch to morning publication.

“Good morning, British Columbia.” reads a sidebar on the front page. “Today The Sun shines in the morning around B.C. And if the weather office’s forecast is correct, even the elements have co-operated. Your four-section morning Vancouver Sun is crammed with news, features, business and sports. You’ll find some old friends and a few new additions today, and throughout this first week of our rebirth as a morning paper.”

The newspaper carriers are the final part of a $700,000 media campaign, orchestrated by public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller, notable for their work with Exxon, Tylenol -following a poisoning scare, and the government of Argentina, to assist with covering up gross human-rights violations.

The Sun, founded in 1912, with a mission to “consistently advocate the principles of Liberalism” , and brought to local prominence by owner Bob Cromie (who came to own the paper through mysterious circumstances), has been suffering for years from declining circulation, and the change to morning publication comes after months of delays, technical problems, and friction with printer’s unions. In addition, the switch to mornings has put the Sun in direct competition with The Vancouver Province -even though both are owned by Toronto-based Southam, Inc, which, according to industry insiders, risks putting undue strain on the company’s resources.

“To get both papers on subscribers’ doorsteps by 6am, copy deadlines for both papers have shifted to as early as 3 o’clock the previous afternoon,” notes an article in the Globe and Mail. “Anticipating Province readers’ concerns, editor-in-chief Brian Butters wrote in a column, ‘if a particular story or sports result is not in the edition you get… it will be published in the following day’s paper.’ Critics are calling that delivering yesterday’s news tomorrow.”

The Sun’s choice of Burson-Marstellar is heavily criticized in the media, the firm even having once been derided in the pages of the Sun itself for “[making] the world think better of a government widely known to be butchering its own citizens.”

However, an editorial in the Prince George Daily News praises the combination, noting: “After all, the paper has been butchering its readers for years.”

After being sold several times, the Sun and Province will eventually become part of CanWest Global Communications, and remain part of a media monopoly into the next century.

 

IMAGE: Vancouver Province newspapers being delivered during the printer’s strike of 1946. Image Courtesy of the Vancouver Archives.