Former city councillor buys Prince George, B.C.'s only newspaper in an effort to stave off closure

A Prince George, B.C., businessman and former city councillor has purchased the city's only newspaper in an effort to stave off the trend of community journalism outlets shutting down — despite sometimes finding himself the target of the publication's scrutiny.

Cameron Stolz, who owns a local comic and hobby shop and served as a city councillor from 2008 through 2014, announced the purchase of the Prince George Citizen on Thursday. 

"Local media was disappearing off the landscape," he said during the Thursday morning press conference. "I became quite concerned that the Prince George Citizen was next."

Stolz is buying the Citizen from the Vancouver-based Glacier Media, which over the past year has closed or reduced the output of multiple local outlets including Fort St. John's Alaska Highway News, The Dawson Creek Mirror, and Kamloops This Week.

The Citizen was founded in 1916, one year after the city was officially incorporated and for most of the city's history was Prince George's only daily newspaper.

In 1969, it was sold to Toronto-based Southam Newspapers, marking the end of local ownership for the next 54 years. It was later transferred to a company owned by millionaire Conrad Black in 1996, then to Vancouver's Glacier Media in 2005.

In 2019, the paper transitioned from a daily to weekly outlet, in an attempt to adapt to a changing media landscape that saw advertising dollars move toward social media and search engines.

Peter Kvarnstrom, president of Community Publishing at Glacier Media, told CBC News the sale of the Citizen to Stolz represents an "opportunity to return the paper to the community."  

Kvarnstrom added that, despite the challenging nature of the news industry right now, the newspapers that survive are the ones with "strong roots" in their local communities. 

A more 'pro-Prince George' tone promised

During the press conference, Stolz said he's purchasing the paper for the community despite learning it had lost $56,000 last year. 

Having been a newspaper delivery boy for the outlet for two years starting at age 12, Stolz said becoming the owner feels like "it's come full circle." 

Stolz has also found himself in the paper's cross hairs later in life, as a sitting councillor.

In 2013, while Stolz  was chair of the finance and audit committee, the Citizen revealed he had not paid property taxes on his home for three years.

Though he did pay his taxes before the home went to auction, he also stepped down from the committee and failed in his bids for re-election in 2014, 2018 and 2022.

Since then, he has appeared as an irregular columnist in the paper, writing in early 2023 that he would not stand for re-election in 2026, having been disqualified for failing to file his municipal expense report by deadline.

In the column, he wrote that not being able to run for politics "opens the doors for me to be more vocal in our community, without it being discounted as simply campaigning."

On Thursday, Stolz acknowledged his "history as a business person in the community" will influence his news outlook.

He added his past experience as an elected official means the paper will start shifting to a more "editorial," "pro-Prince George" and "solutions-based" tone.

He also said he wants the paper to continue to "hold those in power to account," through "fair and balanced journalism."