Our Story 

In 2015 my community was in crisis. We were in the middle of a recession, people were fearful for their jobs, business owners were floating their payroll on credit, and bank loans and the end wasn’t in sight. 

A small group of locals organized a peaceful protest, to demonstrate their dissatisfaction with federal policy that led to this breaking point. This attracted provincial news outlets.

Journalists who fly into a community weave a narrative then fly out. Well, the narrative wasn’t positive, nor was it complete. This event was followed by radio interviews, and national coverage.

More high level stories that didn’t reflect the community.  

Amidst this crisis there was extreme generosity. There were free family dinner nights, there were business owners taking on debt to keep people employed. On a micro level the community was supporting one another through an incredible hardship but no one was telling that story.

The newspaper had been gutted to a shell of its former self with only one reporter, in an empty building. Eventually that would close as well.

I was on town council at the time and involved in the Chamber of Commerce and it broke my heart to see rural news take a beating only to be replaced with a collection of sound bites and shallow stories. I felt our community deserved more. 

In-depth community reporting by a rural newspaper who cared was the philosophy that gave birth to the Drayton Valley and District Free Press. This is what journalism was when I was a reporter.

While the Drayton Valley and District Free Press is geographically local. We are one of many independent rural newspapers across this nation that makes up a third of small community reporting.

We are there to report on the stories closest to Canada’s rural population; municipal government, high school sports, rcmp reports, birthday celebrations, long standing businesses. Our community stories make the building blocks for community growth, community discourse and grass roots democracy.

Many rural newspapers get by on coffee, grit and a whole lot of heart. We are proud to be one of these businesses.

-Brandy Fredrickson, Publisher