About Chilliwack Progress

Chilliwack Progress

The Chilliwack Progress is the weekly newspaper of Chilliwack, British Columbia — the longest continuously published newspaper in the province, first published on April 16, 1891. Founded by William Thompson Jackman, who shipped a printing press from Toronto to the fledgling agricultural community, it has published for more than 130 years under its motto: "Published in the interest of the fertile Chilliwack Valley." Owned by Black Press and published Fridays in broadsheet format, with a circulation of about 16,000, it is the Fraser Valley's paper of record. (Wikipedia lists theprogress.com as its website.)

Overview

The Chilliwack Progress is British Columbia journalism's elder: the longest continuously published newspaper in the province — older than the province's modern cities, publishing since 1891 through the railway age, the agricultural boom, the suburban explosion. For 130+ years it has been the Chilliwack Valley's record: the farms, the floods, the growth, the community. The valley the paper serves is one of Canada's great agricultural landscapes: the fertile floodplain between the Fraser River and the mountains, the dairy farms, the corn and berry fields — and the floods that periodically reclaim it, most catastrophically in November 2021, when the atmospheric river drowned the valley and the Progress covered the disaster in its own backyard. The paper's motto — "in the interest of the fertile Chilliwack Valley" — has never been more literal: the fertility and the vulnerability, the harvest and the flood.

The paper's distinction is its unbroken run: founded when Chilliwack was a frontier agricultural settlement, still publishing as a diverse Fraser Valley city. Its first issue's salutatory promised to serve the citizens of the "beautiful Chilliwack Valley" — and a century later, a story about new potatoes could still make the front page: the agricultural paper, then and now.

History

Seeing a need for a newspaper, William Thompson (W.T.) Jackman purchased a printing and newspaper press in Toronto and shipped it to Chilliwack. He set up shop at 39 Yale Road East (now 46169 Yale Road East) and published the first edition of the Chilliwack Progress on April 16, 1891. The paper stayed at that location until 1974 — 83 years on Yale Road: the press in the same building through the railway age, the wars, the Depression, the post-war boom. Generations of Chilliwack residents knew exactly where the Progress was: Yale Road East, the paper's home, the valley's printing house.

The first issue set the template: the salutatory message promising to serve the interests of the citizens in the "beautiful Chilliwack Valley" — the founder's pledge, kept for 135 years; the agricultural news (new potatoes on the front page); the poultry fattening station update; the city council's exception to a false report; and the weekly feature "News of Chilliwack of Twenty Years Ago" — the paper documenting its own valley from the start.

In 2013, several newspapers were swapped between Black Press Media and Glacier Media, leaving both Chilliwack community newspapers — the Progress and the Chilliwack Times — owned by Black Press. In December 2016, the Chilliwack Times was consolidated into the Progress, its last edition published December 26, 2016: the valley's two papers becoming one — the day after Christmas, the quiet end of the competition. The Times had been the Progress's rival; Black Press's 2013 acquisition of both papers made the rivalry a formality, and the 2016 consolidation made it history. One valley, one paper: the Progress, 125 years old, carrying the whole community's news. On March 23, 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic moved the paper to one print edition per week.

The Progress also publishes the Agassiz Observer, the weekly community paper of neighbouring Agassiz — the small town's own paper, under the Progress's roof — and Today's Home, a weekly real-estate magazine serving the valley's hot property market: the papers multiplying to cover the valley's niches, the Progress as the flagship of a small local group.

Content

The Progress covers Chilliwack and the Fraser Valley: local government, education, sports, business, community events — the agricultural valley's news. Its beats are the valley's perennial stories: the farms and the floods, the growth and the farmland preservation, the schools, the sports. The paper's industry recognition for journalism and community engagement reflects the commitment: quality reporting, local connection — the awards that mark the Progress as not just the oldest but among the best of B.C.'s community papers.

The Progress's longevity is the story of community journalism itself: the 1891 hand press, the linotype, the offset press, the computer, the internet — every technology of the newspaper business adopted in turn, the paper modernizing without ever missing its rhythm. The broadsheet format — the big pages, the classic newspaper look — preserves the 19th-century dignity: the Progress still looks like a newspaper is supposed to look.

The Progress's watchdog role matters in a growing city: the development decisions, the farmland controversies, the flood-protection debates — the valley's future argued in its pages. The 2021 flood coverage was the paper's finest modern hour: the disaster in its own backyard, the farms drowned, the community mobilized, the Progress documenting it all — the 1891 paper covering the 21st century's catastrophe.

Coverage and Audience

The paper serves Chilliwack, Agassiz and the broader Fraser Valley — the fertile valley between the mountains: the dairy farms, the corn fields, the suburbs, the growing city. Chilliwack itself has grown from the agricultural town Jackman knew into a diverse Fraser Valley city — the retirees, the commuters, the young families priced out of Vancouver — and the Progress has grown with it: the farm paper become the city paper, the 1891 weekly covering the 21st-century suburb. Its readers are the valley's people: the farmers, the families, the entrepreneurs, the nonprofits, the civic groups. Circulation: about 16,000 (July 2026). Publisher: Tara Hiebert. Editor: Jessica Peters. ISSN: 0839-2986. The newsroom that produces B.C.'s longest-running paper works under the same name Jackman gave it: the Progress, the valley's paper, the province's elder.

Ownership

The Chilliwack Progress is owned by Black Press. Its lineage: W.T. Jackman (1891), the Toronto press-buyer who founded it; through a century of local owners who kept it publishing on Yale Road; to Black Press — the province's community-newspaper chain, the steward of B.C.'s longest-running paper. The 2013 Black Press/Glacier swap and the 2016 Times consolidation made it the valley's sole paper.

Digital Presence

The paper publishes online at theprogress.com (Wikipedia lists theprogress.com as its website) — the digital edition of B.C.'s longest-running paper: the valley's news, updated for the digital age, carrying 130 years of the Chilliwack Valley online. The digital Progress is the 1891 paper's 21st-century form: the same valley, the same mission, the new medium.

As of 2026, the Chilliwack Progress continues — more than 135 years after the April 1891 founding, still published in the interest of the fertile Chilliwack Valley, still the province's longest-running paper. From Jackman's Toronto press to the Black Press digital present, from Yale Road East to theprogress.com, it remains what it has always been: the valley's own paper — the valley's news, the valley's voice, the valley's record, yesterday, today and tomorrow — still and always the valley's own paper, still and always the valley's own paper, still and always the valley's.

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