SOME PEOPLE tead to look at the North Shore News asa business that has always been successful. Those who remember the days (and years) when we starled pub- lishing, particularly the early 1970s, know that certainly wasn't the case in the beginning. As mentioned in an earlier cal- umn, fear of failure was my con- stant companion, Starting a news- paper with no money was very hard work, but a year or so later it occurred to me that starting it was nothing compared with keeping it afloat. Life quickly became a never- ending round of deadlines and pay- days. As Norman, Mailer said of his newspaper days, the newspaper business reminded him of owning a goat. Regardless of whether he felt like it. the goat had to be milked and. whether he had food for it or not, the goat had to be fed. 1 was also the chief advertising salesperson, the bill collector and the weneral ofa vers sedi ary. rn addition tea eddtornd duties. Tose a small example of de pressure, P wrote a weekly column abthe vers kescauinute, Sunday night, genectily ana portable pe. writer balanced on my Ktves, before DP went to bed. | often wrote it sitting on the bed. {owas vers hard te concentrate on editorial matters, While | toved to write. there were many things Inore pressing to de Yhe North Shore News was growing, despite the two conipeting hessspapers in the market and the AuMbers were geting larger, Payelays were always a challenge. And after paydays there wis the printer and ailes that, the carrier payroll. Pawas on a treadmil!, and there was no getting off. Psold advertising. collected mony. sold more advertising, col- lected more money. wrote paycheques. col- lected money to meet the pay- cheques. paid the printer, wrote the carrier cheques, filled in for zoie managers and sometimes repaired the equipment. Lalso wrote many of the stories. did paste-up, set type. designed advertising, did the hiring and fir- ing. and stood in for the janitor. Peven built some of the produc- tion and display advertising equip- ment thatis sul) in-use at the North Shore News. The newspaper was by no means an overnight success. It was seven forz, hard years before we made any money, a }and-to- mouth exis- tence this hard to describe. With very littl: capital, we were forever faced with a nountain of debt. On one particularly horrendous day the expected cash flow did not [FFERENCE ALL VEHICLES HAVE 50 POINT SAFETY CHECK ” vw v ” B.C.'S LOWEST PRICES EACH & EVERY DAY LARGEST SELECTION IN WESTERN CANADA TRUST MORE WARRANTY DEMAND MORE CARTERS OWN NO HASSLE 1FOR YOUR MONEY * IMMEDIATE DELIVERY YON APPROVED CREDIT B+ TOP DOLLAR FOR TRADE IN B+ WARRANTY ON MOST VEHICLES H+ ON THE SPOT FINANCING 299-0123 fEllil 299.01 matenabze and the bank bounced 4 ore Cheques, That day atid the neat were at Highton ob phone calls from: par: ents About halfod the parents were very Gnderstanding atl gave us the tiie necessary to sort out this glitch inour cash flow. bat the otter half Were nol so understinding, “How confd seu do ts to my chal" was a common refrain, and pretty hard one to answe On another infamous occasion, tiny cheque to Revenue Canada for the part of the payroll that f had to remitto hem on behalf of the 66\Myv great advantage and my biggest disadvantage were the sume. | had no money. $9 empfos ves did not clear the bank. Revenue Canada charged me, forthovith, with “failure to remit employee deductions.” and [had a court case Co complicate things. Barry Innes aad Stu Thampson were partners in Sievon Furniture, iti HO bast Isc Sto in Nocti Vancouver. and ong oF eur culy advertisers. _ Barry, now deceased, reminded te afew years age of the tintes | would come in out of ihe rain and cut myself anew pair of cardhoard insoles for my shoes with bis scis- sors and a salvaged piece af card- board from tis wastebasket, while we talked advertising. I remember holes ia my shoes and the smeti of iny wet sports jacket. E had neither umbretha nor raincoat in those days. Come to think of it, there was NCE 1964): =; ONLY 5 MINUTES FROM 2ND NARROWS at 4550 Lougheed Hwy. al Willingdon Sunday. June cahboard in any car, toc, ander the carpet where the Moor panels were rusted oul My theory is that many bust- tesses doo't go broke just becatse they dont have enough mtoncy. They go broke because of the rie- fon that comes with having very Hitthe money. Ws hike having a fading battery one’s car. Nearly everyone can cope voll that fora while. when there SAG Mones fora new battery, You learn to never leave the lights on even for afew seconds. Then sou tearn to park on hills and do pump starts, But sooner or later, especially as the weather gets colder, there comes the day when the cur gets to the boom of the hill and SUH doesn't start, Thats the diy of gresttest danger. My great advantage ind ay hingest disad- »were the sume. Phad ao money. The disadvantages were obvi- ous, and some of them I've men- tioned bere. Bur the advantages were of great importiuice. One was that | had no other place to go, When you're on the bottom, there isi’t far to fall. And when your havk is to the wall, it's hurd to run away. There was another great advan- tage. [ could not go down the tube the way so many publications do: publications with a big start-up budget and a specific idea of what the market wants. By the ume nny of these find 117-949 W. 3RD STREET - NORTH VANCOUVER (Bahind.Capliane Mail) Specializing In Blinds and Draperies for over 9 years | 1.7.92 North Shore News 45 our that what thes have is what the Inarker dousn't want, they have spent there wad and lost their momentum, and they don’t know what todo nent. Here's a Hitt: example: | went into the bank | wits dealing with at the dine, My banker asked me to come into his office (never my favorite moment in those days). He held up y of the North Shore News, “You're running tree classi- fieds!" he said. [told hint of my strategy, to give away free chissifieds ull we had estitlished the paper as a chas- sified inedium beyond compare, and then to charge for them, “You can'taltord to do that.” he suid to mesover his Ben Franklin glasses. Ftoht him that {had to do it, there was no other way. He told me blundy that be was carrying my operating loans at their dimit and then some. and if f thought he was going to Finance free classifieds | had beter get myself another banker, f rarely had had things explained so plainly to me, and T took the tint. . The North Shore News prompt- ly dumped the “free ad” policy, and J expected the bottom to drop out of ified volume. (t lidn’t happen. tastead, to my amazement, we went froma half-page of free ads to a full page of paid ads, and we have never looked back, There seems to be a clear under- standing in the minds of the readers that in order to get something of value, you pay, and that is that.