I’ve found a fun new way to kill some time in the COVID-19 era: the newspaper Easter egg hunt!
What you do is you take the hard-copy version of your favourite newspaper – correct answer: North Shore News – and you go hunting through it looking for little notes of support and encouragement placed by local citizens. Don't worry if you don't get the hard-copy version of the paper, because you can get that full old-timey feel online by flipping through the pages of our digital editions.
Two weeks ago there was a sweet little ad placed in our classifieds section by a North Vancouver resident who also works in the media industry. Last week there was a BIG ad placed near the front of the paper by a prominent West Vancouver family.
My new favourite Easter Egg hunt is searching for ads like these. Thanks @jackermann! pic.twitter.com/ti459jpNhW
— Andy Prest (@Sports_Andy) April 14, 2020
It’s one of my favourite trends in this weird new world. It’s no secret that many media outlets are struggling to pay the bills while advertising dollars dry up amidst a global pandemic and the subsequent restrictions. It’s necessary for our health, of course, but it’s certainly bad for business.
My favourite response to this has been locals buying ads just to say they value the work we do and they’re happy to make whatever contribution they can to ensure we can continue working.
Recently a woman placed an ad in the Squamish Chief, our sister publication, that said: “The correct spacing interval after sentences is two spaces. Disagree? Take out your own ad.”
She also included a short note below: “In order to win this debate, you must take out a larger ad than mine. All proceeds to support local journalism. Signed, a Sea-to-Sky grammarian.”
Wow. Amazing. How can something that is so wrong, also be so right?
One of the upcoming ads in @squamishchief taken out in response to @hall_IRL's ad last week. I love this so much. #Squamish #savelocalnewswithgrammar pic.twitter.com/XFpqIfwe27
— Jennifer Thuncher (@Thuncher) April 15, 2020
I must admit, I’ve never been one to pay much heed to advertisements. It’s almost like a blind spot. These days, however, I can’t get enough of scanning the ads in the paper, not just looking for Easter eggs but checking to see who is still open, who has put the most hearts in their ad, who has toilet paper.
In a weird way, this pandemic that spread across the whole globe has actually served to make our worlds hyper local.
We are dependent on our immediate neighbours to stop the spread of the virus. The borders are closed – if the good folks of Florida want to hang out at cocaine beach all day and drink bleach all night, their COVID-19 isn’t coming up here. But if someone on my block decides enough is enough, it’s time for a quaran-orgy, they’re putting us all at risk.
On the flip side, if your house-ridden neighbour needs cleaning supplies, or a friendly face over the fence, or someone to scoop a dead raccoon out of their hot tub, who is going to help them with that? Facebook? No! It’s you, ya big lug! (Semi-related note: Like us on Facebook – our page is full of great stuff!)
It’s the same with our newspaper, it seems. Amazon isn’t buying ads or signing up for our voluntary subscriptions (to find out more about our subscriptions, click here). It’s you, our neighbours and friends, who are letting the North Shore News and everyone else in our community know that you’re still out there and you value what we do.
And we want to give that love right back to you! On Saturday I bought a couple of awesome steaks from a local butcher. How did I know they were still open? I saw their ad in the North Shore News.
And then, later that night, our paper roasted the competition at the B.C. & Yukon Community News Media Association’s 2020 Ma Murray awards, picking up 14 awards, including six golds. We work hard to tell the stories of this community, and right now some of the best stories are about this community coming together to help each other out in tough times.
So bang pots, take out a subscription, order takeout, help a neighbour. We will get through this together. And, above all, remember this: NEVER put two spaces after a period.
Agree? Disagree? Have another wonky point to make? I eagerly await next week’s paper for your response.
Andy Prest is sports editor for the North Shore News. His humour/lifestyle column runs biweekly. aprest@nsnews.com
