Tuesday December 12, 2023 | LANGFORD, BC
by Mary P Brooke | Island Social Trends
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Over the 2023 Christmas break, the holiday elves will be working on the print edition of Island Social Trends, for launch in 2024!
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People like paper in their hands. They like being away from computer screens after a long day at the office. People like to ponder things as they read. These are just some of the reasons print is making a comeback!
Online there is no shortage of news. But people like to know it’s local or regional, reliable, and professional.
Online and print:
- The IslandSocialTrends.ca news portal will continue with daily news posts — all of it searchable, we love the database!
- The Island Social Trends print edition will be issued bi-weekly. You’ll be able to find it in coffee shops, rec centres, libraries, and some retail shops around the west shore (Langford, Colwood, Metchosin, Sooke) and also in some new spots in View Royal and Saanich.
- Premium digital subscribers will receive a PDF of the bi-weekly print edition by email. | Request your subscription by email
Independent news:
Island Social Trends brings a wealth of experience in independent news coverage. Founder and editor Mary P Brooke has been covering news in the west shore region since 2008, and also at the BC level in recent years.
Island Social Trends was launched entirely online in mid-July 2020 during the pandemic. Now it’s expanding into print as well.
Precursor print publications by Mary Brooke were West Shore Voice News (2014-2020), Sooke Voice News (2011-2013), and MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010) — published by Brookeline Publishing House Inc.
To learn more about advertising in print edition, please request the 2024 advertising rate sheet.
Deeper insights:
For over three years Island Social Trends has been expanding the online scope with daily news posts and deepening the journalism. An archive of categorized news has been established at IslandSocialTrends.ca. This is a major cultural contribution to societal discourse on south Vancouver Island.
Island Social Trends specializes in news insights — the stories behind the stories, if you will. We know the players, we know the issues. The combo is effervescent!
Not quite ‘local’ news:
While published in the west shore of Greater Victoria, the Island Social Trends media mission goes well beyond geolocation.
Issues that impact lives, lifestyles and well-being… the stuff that matters… this is the main thread of Island Social Trends.
We are here to respond appropriately to the readership so that quality journalism is maintained in local communities. In the print edition, deeper insights will be tracked in our core socioeconomic news coverage areas including food security, health, education and politics.
Against the tide:
In these times of the closure of small newspapers in many locations across BC and Canada (at least three such closures mentioned in the BC Legislative Assembly over the past week), it’s with great enthusiasm and sense of purpose that Island Social Trends returns to putting news literally into people’s hands. The print edition might be counter-trend, but that’s the way things roll around here.
Driven by Editor Mary P Brooke:
The Island Social Trends news stream is driven by the passion and commitment of Mary P Brooke. As editor and publisher, Ms Brooke has built a series of news publications for now over 15 years, based in the west shore area of Greater Victoria, on South Vancouver Island since 2008.
The series began with Mary’s vision for MapleLine Magazine (2008-2010) — a full-colour magazine published quarterly and distributed free in Sooke. The muse for that publication was in observing and experiencing the clash of ‘old and new’ in a small community that decided it wanted to be part of the larger municipal landscape but had no roadmap. That expanded into the weekly print newspaper Sooke Voice News.
Relocating to Langford in 2017 was part of expanding the news reach, and getting back to a more urban environment with the weekly print/PDF publication West Shore Voice News.
After covering the daily COVID news conferences during 2020 and 2021, Ms Brooke has expanded into covering provincial news with the BC Legislative Press Gallery. She will continue to report at the provincial level, bringing deeper insights to a wider readership.
In 2023 Mary Brooke was nominated for a Jack Webster Foundation award for contributing to her community through journalism.
Social media presence:
Island Social Trends extends into social media.
- X: Island Social Trends has a follower demographic on X (formerly Twitter) that reaches beyond geographical location. Our followers are interested in news developments as they happen. Island Social Trends posts daily, sometimes minute by minute! Check out @IslandSocTrends (news platform) and @MaryPBrooke (editor, food resilience advocate, education commentator). There is also a hyper-local legacy stream at @SookeVoiceLOCAL.
- LinkedIn: We’re on LinkedIn with news directed to more of a business audience, as well as academic streams and other journalists.
