About Surrey Now-Leader

Surrey Now-Leader

The Surrey Now-Leader is the weekly newspaper of Surrey, British Columbia — the paper of B.C.'s second-largest city, serving Surrey, North Delta and White Rock. Founded in 1984 and formed in 2017 by the merger of the Surrey Now and the Surrey Leader, it is owned by Black Press and published Thursdays in tabloid format, with a circulation of 66,136 (October 2022) — one of the largest community weeklies in Canada. Publisher: Dal Hothi. Editor: Beau Simpson. ISSN: 0841-8764. (Wikipedia lists surreynowleader.com as its website.)

Overview

The Surrey Now-Leader is the paper of the suburbs: the weekly newspaper serving Surrey — British Columbia's second-largest city, the sprawling South Fraser metropolis — plus North Delta and White Rock. Surrey is the city the 21st century built: the township of 1879 become the city of 1993, the farmland become the subdivisions, the quiet suburb become the diverse metropolis — one of Canada's fastest-growing cities, its South Asian community among the country's largest. The Now-Leader is the paper of that transformation: the weekly that has covered Surrey's rise from suburb to city. Its distinction is its scale: 66,136 circulation, the merged product of two rival papers, the community weekly of one of Canada's fastest-growing cities.

The paper's address tells a story: 15288 54A Avenue, Unit 210, Surrey — the same street address as Black Press's own headquarters (15288 54A Avenue). The chain's head office and the Surrey paper share the building: the flagship community paper at the heart of the empire.

History

The newspaper was established in 1984 as the Surrey Now — the upstart weekly of the growing suburb. In 2015, Glacier Media sold the Surrey Now to Black Press, which already owned the Surrey Leader. The sale was part of a large transaction that saw the two publishers effectively swap dozens of newspapers — each ending up in significantly fewer areas across B.C., but each owning both local newspapers in the areas where they remained. Surrey became a Black Press town: both the Now and the Leader under one roof. The 2015 swap was the industry's great consolidation: Glacier and Black trading dozens of papers, each retreating to its strongholds, each ending up owning both papers in the towns where they stayed. For Surrey's readers, it meant the end of the rivalry: the Now and the Leader, competitors for decades, suddenly stablemates — the competition become a formality, the merger only a matter of time.

In March 2017, Black Press announced the two papers would merge into a single paper as of April 5, 2017 — The Surrey Now News-Leader. Each paper had published twice per week; the merged paper published twice per week. It was one of numerous Black Press mergers following the Glacier transaction, as many communities found themselves with two Black Press-owned newspapers.

During the final week of March 2020, the paper reduced from twice per week to once per week, citing the COVID-19 pandemic — called a temporary measure, but the frequency has not been restored. The twice-weekly become the weekly: the pandemic's permanent mark on the Surrey paper.

The paper's journalism has earned recognition: in 2015, Now reporter Amy Reid received the S. Tara Singh Hayer journalism award for work highlighting the needs of homeless people — the suburban paper covering the region's most vulnerable. The Hayer award — named for the murdered Indo-Canadian journalist — honours journalism that serves the community's conscience. Reid's homeless coverage was the Now at its best: the suburban weekly looking past the subdivisions to the people sleeping rough, the growth city's hidden crisis.

Content

The Now-Leader covers Surrey, North Delta and White Rock: local government, education, sports, business, community events — the full spectrum of suburban news. Surrey's civic stories are the region's biggest: the policing transition (the Surrey Police Service replacing the RCMP), the SkyTrain extension, the development battles — the growing city's growing pains, covered weekly. The paper's beats are the suburb become the metropolis: the growth, the diversity, the infrastructure, the community. Its beats are the South Fraser's perennial stories: the growth and the development, the diversity (Surrey is one of Canada's most diverse cities), the transportation, the community life. The paper's scale — 66,136 circulation — reflects its market: the metropolis that needs its weekly. The tabloid format — the compact pages, the modern community-paper look — suits the commuter readership: the paper you pick up and read on the SkyTrain. ISSN 0841-8764. Publisher Dal Hothi. Editor Beau Simpson. The masthead that serves the South Fraser: the newsroom on 54A Avenue, the chain's headquarters upstairs, the suburbs' paper downstairs.

Coverage and Audience

The paper serves Surrey, North Delta and White Rock — the South Fraser: the suburbs south of the river, the beach town, the delta lands. North Delta, the northern half of the delta municipality; White Rock, the seaside town on Semiahmoo Bay, the promenade and the pier. The Now-Leader's footprint is the South Fraser's urban crescent: the city, the suburb, the seaside — three communities, one paper. Surrey itself is B.C.'s second city and one of Canada's fastest-growing: the South Asian community, the young families, the commuters — the diverse metropolis. The Now-Leader is its paper: the weekly that covers the city the Vancouver dailies treat as a suburb.

Ownership

The Surrey Now-Leader is owned by Black Press. Its lineage: the Surrey Now (1984–2017), the upstart weekly of the growing suburb; the Surrey Leader, the rival — the two papers competing for the South Fraser's readers and advertisers for decades; the merged Surrey Now News-Leader (2017–present), the rivals become one — under Black Press, the province's community-newspaper chain, headquartered on the same Surrey street as the paper itself.

Black Press — the Now-Leader's owner — restructured in 2024: the January announcement of a sale to new ownership (Canso Investment Counsel, Deans Knight Capital Management, Carpenter Media Group) via CCAA creditor protection, with founder David Black retiring the same day. The chain that owns the Surrey paper — founded 1975 with the Williams Lake Tribune, grown to 150+ papers — faced its own reckoning. The Now-Leader, the South Fraser's paper, continues through it: the suburbs' weekly, whatever the ownership.

The 2017 merger ended an era: Surrey, a city of more than half a million, went from two competing papers to one. The Now and the Leader had covered the city from different angles; the merged Now-Leader covers it alone. It is the arithmetic of the modern newspaper business: the rivals become stablemates, the stablemates become one paper, the one paper serves the metropolis. For Surrey's readers, the Now-Leader is the record — the only weekly that covers the whole South Fraser.

Digital Presence

The paper publishes online at surreynowleader.com (Wikipedia lists surreynowleader.com as its website) — the digital edition of the South Fraser's paper: the suburbs' news, updated for the digital age.

As of 2026, the Surrey Now-Leader continues — more than 40 years after the 1984 founding, still publishing Thursdays, still the South Fraser's paper, still the Now-Leader. From the 1984 Surrey Now startup to the 2017 merger to the Black Press present, from twice-weekly to the Thursday weekly, it remains what it has always been: the suburbs' own paper — the South Fraser's news, the South Fraser's voice, the South Fraser's record. The 1984 Surrey Now, the Surrey Leader, the 2017 merger: the paper of B.C.'s second city, 66,136 readers strong, serving Surrey, North Delta and White Rock, yesterday, today and tomorrow, still and always the South Fraser's own.

Note: website left empty in frontmatter per project rule for url-unverified rows; Wikipedia lists surreynowleader.com as its website.