Brad Alden, publisher of the Burnaby NOW, and its sister paper, The Record, is retiring this week after 21 years of leadership in both the city of Burnaby and the newspaper industry. Editor Pat Tracy asked him to look back and share his thoughts before riding his Harley into the sunset.
Q:As a newspaper publisher for more than 20 years, you’ve had a unique view of the community. What do you want readers to know about that role?
A:It’s the best job in town; there is not another role in the community that allows a person greater ability to get to personally know the townspeople. There is also a very fine line between doing it credibly and making missteps. Publishers have three masters: the reader, the story and the advertiser. The newspaper cannot exist without a heavy dose of all three, and often two or three of the elements become intertwined and at times in conflict with one another. Without trust, a newspaper has nothing. Finding that line that allows the reader the most enlightening and timely information while not betraying a source or inappropriately taking advantage of inside knowledge is difficult and not for the faint of heart. I challenge myself often with the questions: what is right, what is ethical and how should I proceed. With great authority comes great responsibility.
Q:What is the highlight of your time here?
A:It’s hard to pick out just one highlight as there have been many experiences and many people I will remember and think about forever. Without question the last 20-plus years has been the window in time for the greatest change in the newspaper industry since the invention of the printing press.
The personal computer was the impetus of it all. Twenty years ago we manually printed and glued up to full size on a large sheet of cardboard every detail of every page of our newspaper – almost as an art student would create a collage project in class – then we would photograph it and the negative of the photo was used on the printing press to create the printed page.
Today the page is built on a computer screen, sent to and placed on the press digitally with nearly no paper, physical or mechanical intervention; it is all virtual. Learning the technologies, adapting to them, attempting to remain on the leading edge of them certainly has been one of the highlights.
And now, this same technology in a 21st-century iteration, has almost re-created the origins of the newspaper: the town crier. We’ve gone from the chap who would bellow through town the news and rumours of the day with resultant town hall or town pub amplification turning into what really became “the news,” to the invention of the printing press and the resultant profession of journalists, editors and publishers who with minor exception unilaterally pushed down what and how you would read the news, to today and full circle again with blogs and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter allowing an instantaneous version of what used to require people venturing together to the town hall or pub to discuss. Now this can be accomplished though keystrokes on a computer or smartphone.
This is having a dramatic effect on the newspaper business, and its acceptance and integration to what we are and are becoming has been another fabulous learning opportunity and had developed into another highlight.
Q:Newspapers are in a rapidly changing information environment. They are not merely newspapers anymore, but sources of information and opinion in numerous forms (websites etc.). What keeps a newspaper such as Burnaby NOW relevant to Burnaby residents?
A:Community newspapers are unique in that they gather and report the news and information specific to one town if they are doing it well. No one else in the news and information business does what we do. It is very seldom you will see a reporter from another media type where we regularly go to source news that is important to the residents of our communities. In Burnaby and New Westminster, for instance, we have reporters assigned to and who regularly attend meetings scheduled for city council, parks and rec, library, minor sports and many other local events of importance to our residents. As one example that all can relate to: who else has a photographer out covering youth soccer games on the weekends? The answer is no one. And except for the occasion when there is something salacious or of national import that is going to be considered at a city council meeting or the like – and how often does that happen – you won’t see reporters from television, radio or the dailies there. So, we have unique information that matters to local folks, especially once they become a parent or property taxpayer.
How we use it is changing dramatically. Traditionally we reported on it in an objective, detached manner; hopefully with all sides of the situation reflected. That is still how you will see hard news reported in the paper or on our website.
But more and more, our digital media streams – our website, Facebook pages, Twitter feeds and blogs – have become two-way modes of communicating even more detail that we could gather on our own and that is shared with us. We solicit opinion, we further circulate this opinion through our various social media channels, particularly when it is hyper local.
This process has created even more of a community feeling within our towns and presents a great opportunity for community newspapers to become even more vital to the communities we serve.
Q:A newspaper publisher is not just a business leader, but also a community leader. If there is one quality that you think is indispensable in a good business leader who is active in the community, what would that be?
A:The notion that community service is all-important. Frankly there is nothing more important for a business leader outside of one’s direct business responsibilities than to give back and help build a healthy place for all residents to work, live and enjoy. If we are not invested in this, who will be and why should they be if we are not?
Q: As publisher of Burnaby NOW, you’ve been a champion of many causes in this city, many of them helping people who have hit tough times in their lives. Do you think this is part of a newspaper’s responsibility?
A:I’m not sure, but I’ve chosen to see it as a legitimate offshoot of what I do professionally. In order to be a great community newspaper, it has to be fully engaged with and reflective of the community. Not just the healthy, progressive and successful components of the community but also the parts that can use a hand in favourable development.
I’ve tried to be helpful in both arenas and certainly have unleashed the resources of the newspaper in efforts to help too. It seemed the right thing to do.
Q:You’ve said you’ve learned many things from people in the community and people in the newspaper industry. What is the biggest lesson of your career?
A:There are actually two guiding principles I’ve followed in the last 30 years or so. The first is: constancy of purpose. Completely understand, precisely as you can, why you are there and what it is you are to achieve and then attach an undyingly disciplined focus to its achievement.
The second is: it is in team building and collaboration that sustainable business success is created. The right idea, the concept and the direction is necessary but only the start. Getting your people to do the things that you want and need them to do because they desire to do them may be the most important objective in achieving long-term business success.
Q:Your role has changed over the decades, from publisher of a single newspaper to publisher of two newspapers and most recently, regional publisher of three newspapers? How do you juggle so many roles, and how do you determine what is a priority in your job?
A:I’d like to say I’ve mastered it, but I haven’t. In the last couple of years there has been only the very odd day that I’ve felt my work was satisfactorily complete at the end of the day. But, I start with a daily review and becoming certain of what exactly my role must be that day and what are the tasks I must accomplish to operate successful businesses. It’s a combination of a strategic thought process and a to-do list. Business and stakeholder relationships and effective communication with my direct reports are 1 and 1a. But this is a multi-faceted business, all phases of which require constant attention. If our business relationships are tight and the department heads are on point with the delegation strong and responsible, then we’re moving down the right track and I can extend to priorities two through ten.
Q:You are known as a boss who stays calm in the midst of stormy times. Where did you learn this from, your parents?
A:I was one of the fortunate ones who had great parents that were loving and took their parenting roles responsibly. I owe much, if not most, of who I am to them, and certainly that includes some of my calm demeanour in the face of crisis. I might have been born with some of it; growing up and going to university in California in the ‘60’s didn’t hurt – there’s a bit of “the Dude” in me – and somewhere along the way I learned that no matter how bleak the current circumstances are, the sun will come up tomorrow and having a clear head and being analytical in a crisis effectively trumps hysteria, blaming or wringing your hands.
Q:What are you personally most proud of during your career with the Burnaby NOW?
A:Burnaby NOW was still in its infancy when I joined it. It was a baby; a blank canvas. We were able to turn it into a thriving business, a market leader, a force for good in our community and a terrific and award-winning community newspaper. The paper has made lots of friends in the intervening 21 years, done lots of good, reported the news fairly, and provided increasingly timely and important information to our citizens in increasing volumes and now by the most current media streams beyond newsprint. Through snowstorms and power outages, we’ve never missed an edition or delivery day. And we provide our advertising clients absolutely great bang for their buck and unquestioningly favourable results. Basically I am proud of being a newspaper publisher and doing what they do as well as I knew how.
Q:If there was one thing you would have done differently in your career, during or before the Burnaby NOW, what would that be?
A:It’s hard to nail it down to one. I have made mistakes and wished for do-overs when there were none to be had. Thankfully, I have had a mostly successful career, and when I look back at the forks that were in my road I have almost no regrets in which ones I chose, but I do wish I’d developed two tendencies earlier in my career that remain weaknesses and which I still work on to this day. Firstly, I wish I were more nimble in my decision-making. I analyze, search the 360 degrees of a situation and ponder many situations too much. This does come from a proper motivation, wanting to be certain the right decision is taken, but there are there are times when simply making any rational decision is the better choice for that moment. The second – and it has relationship to the first – is that “you got to know when to fold ‘em,” as the lyric goes. Being ever the optimist comes with a price, and in business the most costly one is that situations do not always improve regardless of the best thought, intention or actions. It’s always been hard for me to cut my losses and move on to the next objective.
Q: What advice would you give the new publisher?
A:This is a wonderful market and a wonderful town. There are great stories to find and tell and fabulous agencies, associations, people and businesses to develop relationships with. You will almost never be disappointed in them. Treat them fairly and as you would want to be treated. You are privileged to be in this role, live it as such.
Q:What are you looking forward to in retirement?
A:I don’t have grandiose goals for retirement. We are going to meet as a family next May in Italy, so that certainly absorbs some thought. I hope to rejuvenate my love of river fishing. I have what I think to be about a year’s worth of projects around the house I haven’t gotten to. I have a great family and a great life and I tell people I am just going to live my life and not go to the office every day. As someone wrote to me: no more Mondays. I have a couple of successful and entrepreneurial children who have asked me to lend a hand in an informal capacity. If a project comes my way that catches my interest, I certainly will consider it. But retirement beckons. It’s time.
ALDEN’S HONOURS
- Canadian Community Newspaper Association President’s Quill, twice. Given for distinguished service to the Newspaper Industry as a director from 2004-2010 and service from 2011 to 2013.
- Silver Quill award, 2014, for 25 years of distinguished service to the newspaper industry.
- Business person of the year in Burnaby, 2005. Awarded to a business person who has made significant contributions to their industry.
- Honorary lifetime membership from the BBOT making him the first and only volunteer to receive the tribute membership.
