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LangleyAdvance

COMMUNITY NEWSPAPER

Advance helped inspire aspiring young journalist

ROXANNE HOOPER
rhooper@langleyadvance.com

s a kid, all I ever

remember wanting
to do in the way of a
career was write.
While I loved reading fiction, I
was not much for writing it. So,
being an author seemed impractical, to say the least.
Not many other writing opportunities appealed to me, either.
And I remember spending the
better part of a year thinking
seriously about how I could
possibly earn enough money to
survive as a scribe for the rest of
my life.
Back then, after my chores
were done, my spring breaks
and rainy days during summer
vacation were spent typing
up my own newspaper on my
manual Corona typewriter. Any
spare moments were devoted to
writing stories and dreaming of
being a community journalist.
By the time I was 15, and
required to do work experience
for class credits, I had already
formulated a career plan and
clearly articulated to my school
counsellors my intent to attend

the journalism program at

Langara College in Vancouver.
In the meantime, I wanted
(although I held little hope) to
work at the local newspaper. I
asked for my counsellors help
in making that possible, and she
did.
It was 1980, and my first
day walking into the Langley
Advance community newspaper office was one of the
most intimidating and
exhilarating of my life.
Since those early
days, when I was
introduced to every
facet of the business
from editorial and
display advertising,
to classifieds and
subscriptions, paper
delivery to accounts
payable, and even
darkroom developing
and janitorial duties,
Ive been hooked.
In that era, the Langley Advance
was an independent newspaper,
and the publisher and owner,
Jim Schatz, took a chance on
me, taking me under his wing.
Ive grown and learned much
since those early years in the
business, when the editor of the
day (recently retired editor, mentor, and friend Bob Groeneveld)
encouraged my journalistic drive
and let me rewrite a few press
releases, chase down a few community event announcements,
and take a few photos.

Roxanne Hooper
Langley Advance editor
But, while I can credit both
these men for giving me an
invaluable understanding of the
business, and journalism school
for giving me some helpful tools,
it was the people I interviewed
who truly solidified my dreams
of being a reporter.
It wasnt the politics or the
sensational crime and court stories that were most appealing. It
was the opportunity to meet so
many people (everyday people,

neighbours, friends), to learn

about their lives, and to share
their stories with the world
around me.
Thats what proved addictive
to me. I couldnt get enough,
and I still cant.
Ive never left the newspaper
business in the subsequent 36
years. Ive worked with a few
newspapers in B.C. through
those years, and a decade ago
I came full circle returning
home to Langley again, and
rejoining the Langley Advance
team.
This industry, like many,
has changed dramatically
through the decades, and
continues to evolve.
Gone are the days when
the audience came to us,
paying us through subscriptions once a year to
deliver our words of wisdom, personality profiles,
political coverage, and
community happenings.
Now, its our job to find our
readers, inform them, give them
something they cant get elsewhere, and keep them engaged.
I remember during those initial
years at the Advance, when we
packed the old lead press into
storage to make room for a
cutting edge fax machine and a
Linotype typesetting system.
I honestly didnt think, back in
those early days, that wed see
such significant transformations
to how people chose to get their

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news and how dramatic a shift

there would be in our roles of
gathering and sharing that information.
Amid all the industry transformations, I remain optimistic
actually downright excited
about the future of community newspapers especially the
Langley Advance, which is rich in
community history and remains
truly devoted to the people of
Langley.
I can proudly say that we
do something no one else can
do: We still deliver Langley to
Langley.
By focusing our teams attention on being hyperlocal, I feel
our group of highly trained,
dedicated journalists will keep
playing a major role in the lives
of the people of Langley and
continue bringing our local readers engaging stories about their
community and its people.
In this evolving media world,
we will still strive as we did
30 plus years ago when I came
aboard to be resilient, relevant,
and reflective of our readers.
Thanks to all those Advance
readers who have been along on
our adventure for any part of the
past 85 years that weve been
serving as your devoted community newspaper.
And welcome to those new
Langleyites who are just joining us, those who we hope will
become regular Langley Advance
readers moving forward.

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