Times Colonist Publisher Buys Okanagan’s Castanet News & Radio Station

A popular Okanagan-based online news outlet has a new owner.

Glacier Media announced Friday (April 5) it has acquired Castanet Media, a leading source of local media and related information in the Okanagan region of British Columbia.

The $22 million acquisition of the digital brand allows Glacier to expand its online community news sources in B.C.

“Castanet’s growth and market position, as well as the growth of Glacier Digital Media’s operations, demonstrate that a long-term digital business model exists in community media that offers attractive growth in audience development, revenue and profitability,” said Glacier in a statement.

“The Company (Glacier) is building its digital media business through a combination of local community websites, digital marketing services and specialty products & services. The combination of these three offerings allows the company to develop its own audience and products and satisfy the comprehensive marketing needs of its customers.”

Glacier also purchased, for $2 million, Avenue Radio, which operates a station in Kelowna.

The sale of the station, as usual, is subject to Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission approval.

Castanet.net operates newsrooms in Penticton, Kelowna and Vernon and has about 50 staff members.

Glacier’s presence in the Interior expands from its existing Kamloops newsroom KamloopsMatters.com. Glacier’s largest B.C. news presence is in the Metro Vancouver and Victoria regions with newsrooms such as Business in Vancouver, Vancouver Courier, Burnaby Now, Richmond News, North Shore News and the Victoria Times-Colonist.

READ THE REST OF THE STORY  HERE  AS PUBLISHED IN THE RICHMOND NEWS