Castanet News expands to Kootenays with purchase of The Nelson Daily
Castanet Media is expanding to the Kootenays with the acquisition of The Nelson Daily.
Castanet will acquire the online publication on Sept. 1 as a part of its continued growth in the B.C. Interior. Downtown Nelson will soon be home to Castanet’s seventh newsroom.
“Castanet already reaches over 20,000 weekly readers in the West Kootenays, but partnering with The Nelson Daily plus opening a local brick and mortar location with news and sales staff will provide much more up-to-date local news, arts coverage, webcams and more,” said Chris Kearney, Castanet’s senior vice-president and general manager.
Castanet is in search of a general sales manager to help open the Nelson office and oversee the local expansion.
The Nelson Daily was launched 14 years ago by Bruce Fuhr, Tim Schafer and Peter Sheets as part of Lone Sheep Publishing based in Rossland. It opened in the wake of the closure of the Nelson Daily News print newspaper’s closure in 2010.
“When we started, there was the first day that Tim and Bruce pushed the button to go live,” said Bruce’s wife Deb Fuhr.
“There were six to 10 readers in a couple of minutes, and we were really excited that someone read the story — that was way before anybody thought of online news, especially for this area — then we realized it was all family.”
Since then, The Nelson Daily has grown into a well-read website covering Nelson and the West Kootenays.
“We’re thankful that people decided to support us, not only the readers, but the advertisers that have kept us going for us, and allowed us to do our job, but we needed help from the community to get that going,” Bruce said.
The Nelson Daily’s website will be folded into Castanet’s forthcoming Kootenay edition later this fall. Every week, more than 650,000 unique visitors visit Castanet, allowing the outlet to continue to grow.
Although Bruce and Deb will be working with Castanet to help with the transition throughout the fall Bruce says, “We’re looking forward to Castanet taking over and us moving on — looking forward to Castanet’s on-top-of coverage in the Kootenays,”.
Castanet launched in 2000 and has since grown to include offices in Kelowna, Kamloops, Vernon, Penticton, Osoyoos, Salmon Arm.
“Whether it’s a new business opening up or the most up-to-date coverage of spot news and wildfires, having a Castanet edition for the Kootenays will mean more local stories are being told and the community is more informed,” said Castanet’s content director Colin Dacre.
Have a Kootenays news tip? Email the news team at news@castanet.net.
Have a background in sales? Castanet is in search of a general sales manager to help open the Nelson office and oversee the local expansion.
