Terminal City's Last Stop

Posted by Sean
Filed in City
November 1, 2005

Unless it's a particularly cruel Halloween trick, Terminal City Weekly publisher John Kay announced the immediate suspension of publication. The website gives no clue as to the reason why, but one can't help speculate that last year's rift with several key writers who went on to start The Only has something to do with it.

Kay said the October 27 edition, which hit the streets last Thursday, will "probably" be the paper's final edition.

"It's a sad day for all of us at Terminal City," said Kay. "We worked incredibly hard to give Vancouver a different kind of weekly newspaper -one that wasn't afraid to take bold risks in its reporting".

Its Ironic that media democracy day just passed and now we witness the death of one of the heavyweight alternative weeklies, suffocated by the piles of trashy free dailies like Dose, Metro, and 24Hours. While the rift with the Only was surely a blow, it was more likely that advertisers have decided to toss their cash at these commuter rags.

I first turned to Terminal City when I grew tired of lugging around the ad-heavy Georgia Straight just to read the Timeout Listings. It was at TC where I remained connected to local artists and musicians. I even contributed a couple of interviews, not to mention a couple letters to the editor. Brian Salmi's election coverage and subsequent foray into politics challenged the way we think about BC politics. Heather Watson's acerbic wit made me cringe and giggle simultaneously. Ian King's feisty muckraking made polticians quake with fear with his finely tuned Bullshit Detector. Recent addition Barbe Saez provided an essential roundup of the local music scene. Jenn Wong, Jason Grimmer, Saelan Twerdy, Julie Colero, and Tony Newton gave us the best music reviews and interviews in the city. I use to scan Jeff Lee's Eye in the Sky with child-like elan. The recent addition of Christa Min's sports column Balls provided some serious entertainment. Week In Review/on Fire with Josh Byer was a semantic romp through bizarre news tidbits. Jada Stark recently gave the Style section a much needed makeover. Mystery Mopho was fun, even though the pictures were such shitty quality. The Vanguard Awards were a unique addition to the ubiquitous Best Of Vancouver awards that we Vancouverites are obsessed with. Robert Dayton was...well Robert Dayton. There was some rad comics over the years, most notably Magic Teeth and Keith Jones' surreal tapestries. Chris Eng was a G33k. And of course the Victory Square Block Party proved that not all teenagers are drunken buffoons.

Another dreaded black hole of creativity and cutting edge journalism has ripped through the cultural fabric of Vancouver. It is same vortex that swallowed the Sugar Refinery, Blinding Light, The Starfish Room, The Vogue, The Granville Book Company, the first Blim, Greek Days, the PNE parade, night busses, the Cobalt et Al.

No Fun.

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What a bummer. TC has long been my favourite local read. Great article Sean, can you lend me ten bucks?

Posted by: Tony Newton at November 1, 2005 11:12 AM | Quote Comment

i really doubt Only had anything to do with TC's demise. it had been floudering for years, and even before the staff walked out, it had huge debts due to years of apparent mismanagement. i think this has more to do with the fact that there were less and less ads on their pages, and they eventually couldn't sustain a publication targeted to such a niche market with ad support. Shame though, either way.... also i'm pretty sure we still have greek days. and night buses.

Posted by: lmnop at November 1, 2005 11:45 AM | Quote Comment

Things change...

The Vogue? Did I miss something?

The GBC died because rents were jacked by greedy landlords looking to build condos... Arguably there was a decent amount of mismanagement on the part of the staff as well.

The Cobalt died because the crowd was pretty static, and the landlord wanted more money than the crowd would allow... The difference here is that the crowd and the promoter went to a different bar, and things continue as before.

Blim has also relocated, and they died because they tried to have a party spot in an office building (more or less)...

TC may return, or maybe they'll all get together and start a group blog... lower overhead.

Much of the problem is shadey landlords and not a culture of fun repression per se.

Posted by: richard at November 1, 2005 1:50 PM | Quote Comment

sux regardless. Now i feel guilty for the many weeks i didn't read TC. i guess it did cater to a small niche market: us. very very sad indeed.

wiL

Posted by: wil at November 1, 2005 5:48 PM | Quote Comment

Yeah, the Vogue is being turned into some sort of weird concept restaurant.
Anyhow, it's a shame to see Terminal City gone but I have to say, I won't be missing Ian King...

Posted by: 10-4 at November 1, 2005 8:23 PM | Quote Comment

Terrible news. I'm going to miss the bullshit detector. Where are all of TC's tenants going to go?

Posted by: Jackie Chaulk at November 1, 2005 8:27 PM | Quote Comment

"i really doubt Only had anything to do with TC's demise. it had been floudering for years, and even before the staff walked out, it had huge debts due to years of apparent mismanagement. i think this has more to do with the fact that there were less and less ads on their pages, and they eventually couldn't sustain a publication targeted to such a niche market with ad support. Shame though, either way.... also i'm pretty sure we still have greek days. and night buses."

Posted by: lmnop at November 1, 2005 11:45 AM

Just to clarify, I meant that the things that drove those writers to walk out were the same things that ultimately killed the paper. They weren't getting paid a whole lot.

I also did mention the lak of advertising, due mainly to the saturation of the market by the free dailies.

I don't know about greek days, but the night busses that we have now are an attempt to save face after there was a outcry when they took them away. They aren't really the same.

Posted by: sean orr at November 1, 2005 11:47 PM | Quote Comment

"Things change...

The Vogue? Did I miss something?

The GBC died because rents were jacked by greedy landlords looking to build condos... Arguably there was a decent amount of mismanagement on the part of the staff as well.

Blim has also relocated, and they died because they tried to have a party spot in an office building (more or less)...

TC may return, or maybe they'll all get together and start a group blog... lower overhead.

Much of the problem is shadey landlords and not a culture of fun repression per se."

Posted by: richard at November 1, 2005 01:50 PM

Yes of course things change richard, thats a platitude. What is important about this change however is the lack of alternatives we have to Terminal City in Vancouver. I have posted about Vancouver's media climate before. To put it simply, Canwest owns it all. Now there is one less voice opposing the media monopoly.

All your examples are moot because 'greedy landlords' are not exempt from the No-Fun label, indeed they generally are the primary impetus.

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