About Kivalliq News

Kivalliq News

Kivalliq News is a Canadian weekly newspaper published in Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, by Northern News Services — "Nunavut's award-winning voice of Kivalliq," published Thursdays. Founded in 1994, the paper publishes content in both English and Inuktitut, serving the Kivalliq region: the Hudson Bay communities of mainland Nunavut — the seven hamlets whose stories the southern press never tells. With a circulation of 1,343 (as of October 2022) and a newsroom led by editor Darrell Greer of the Local Journalism Initiative, the paper is the Kivalliq's own weekly — the region's news in the region's languages, published Thursdays from Rankin Inlet.

Overview

Kivalliq News publishes weekly from Rankin Inlet — the Kivalliq's regional centre on Hudson Bay's western shore, the second-largest community in Nunavut (after Iqaluit), the hub for the region's seven communities, the town where the Kivalliq's government offices, health services, and mining operations concentrate. The coverage spans the Kivalliq: Rankin Inlet, Arviat, Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour, Naujaat (formerly Repulse Bay), and Whale Cove — the mainland Nunavut communities strung along Hudson Bay's western coast and the interior, whose news rarely reaches the southern press. The paper reports on regional politics (the hamlet councils, the Kivalliq Inuit Association — the regional land-claims organization — the territorial MLAs representing the Kivalliq ridings), the mining economy (Agnico Eagle's Meadowbank and Meliadine gold mines near Rankin Inlet — the employers of hundreds, the sources of royalties, the subjects of environmental monitoring), social issues (the housing shortage, health care delivery, the drinking-and-driving toll the paper documents), and community life (the events, the milestones, the life on the land). Published Thursdays, the paper carries content in English and Inuktitut — the bilingual weekly of the Kivalliq, the region's news in the region's languages — English and Inuktitut, side by side, every Thursday.

History

Kivalliq News was founded in 1994 — five years before Nunavut's creation, when the Kivalliq was still the Keewatin Region of the Northwest Territories, administered from Yellowknife. The founding reflected Northern News Services' expansion: the Yellowknife-based publisher building its Arctic network, the Kivalliq getting its own paper rather than sharing News/North's pages — the region's news deserving the region's weekly. Through the 1999 division (when Nunavut was created on April 1, 1999, and the Kivalliq became one of its three regions alongside the Qikiqtaaluk and Kitikmeot), the mining booms (the Meadowbank gold mine opening in 2010, Meliadine beginning production in 2019 — Agnico Eagle's operations transforming Rankin Inlet's economy), and the region's growth, the paper has chronicled the Kivalliq's transformation from a collection of hamlets administered from afar to a mining region with its own regional centre, its own health facilities, its own long-term care home.

The paper is part of the NNSL Media family: Northern News Services, founded in Yellowknife in 1972 by J.W. (Sig) Sigvaldason (1934–2018) — the publisher whose name appears on the Kivalliq News masthead as founder, the northern media legend who built the company from a kitchen-table weekly. NNSL — "one of the few remaining independent newspaper companies in Canada, producing all-original content with little to no reliance on syndicated news" — publishes seven papers weekly: Kivalliq News, the Yellowknifer (Wednesday and Friday editions), and News/North (the Northwest Territories and Nunavut editions). The company maintains five news bureaus: Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Rankin Inlet, and Iqaluit — the reporters stationed across the two territories. In March 2021, Black Press — the Surrey, B.C.-based publisher of over 170 newspapers in Canada and the United States — purchased NNSL, ending nearly 50 years of independent northern ownership; NNSL had reportedly been on sale for over a year. In January 2024, Black Press filed for creditor protection, seeking to sell its assets to a new ownership group and restructure its financial affairs under court supervision; in January 2025, NNSL shuttered the Inuvik Drum (first published January 6, 1966, owned by the company since 1988). Through the turbulence — the sale, the creditor protection, the closures elsewhere in the NNSL family — Kivalliq News continues publishing Thursdays, the Kivalliq's weekly enduring, the region's news uninterrupted.

Coverage and Audience

Kivalliq News serves the Kivalliq region's communities: Rankin Inlet (the regional centre, the mining town, the government hub — the community the paper calls home), Arviat (the southern Kivalliq community on Hudson Bay), Baker Lake (the inland community at the geographic centre of Canada, the artists' hamlet), Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour (on Southampton Island), Naujaat, and Whale Cove. The coverage includes hamlet politics (the councils, the mayors — like Rankin Inlet Mayor Harry Towtongie discussing the community's growth, the housing shortage, the infrastructure), the Kivalliq Inuit Association (the regional land-claims body), the mining sector (Agnico Eagle's Meadowbank and Meliadine operations — the employers, the environmental monitoring, the Inuit employment and training), health and social services (the Rankin Inlet health centre, the new 24-bed Kivalliq Long-Term Care Centre — the first of its kind in the territory, with 22 permanent beds and two respite beds, a country food kitchen, and spaces for sewing and carving — that began receiving elders in May 2025), and community life (the drinking-and-driving toll the paper documents unsparingly, the celebrations, the land). The bilingual content — English and Inuktitut — serves the region's Inuit majority in their language: the news the elders can read in syllabics — the paper honoring the language of the land it covers, the Inuktitut readers served as fully as the English ones.

The Newsroom

The masthead reflects the northern paper's lean operation: Editor Darrell Greer (reporting through the Local Journalism Initiative, the federally funded program supporting local news in underserved communities — the LJI reporter covering the Kivalliq), Associate Editor Jeannie Angilirq, Managing Editor James McCarthy, General Manager Shane Weaver (shane.weaver@nnsl.com), and the Kivalliq advertising representative (advertising@nunavutnews.com). Contact: Box 657, Rankin Inlet, NU X0C 0G0; phone (867) 645-2862, toll-free (855) 447-2584; email kivalliqnews@nnsl.com. The paper is a member of the Manitoba Community Newspapers Association and the Canadian Community Newspapers Association, with audited circulation — the professional credentials of the community press.

Ownership

Kivalliq News is owned by Northern News Services (NNSL Media), a division of Black Press Media since the March 2021 acquisition — the northern papers joining one of Canada's largest community newspaper groups, the Arctic titles under the Surrey-based publisher. The paper operates alongside its sister titles Nunavut News, the Yellowknifer, NWT News/North, and the Hay River Hub — the NNSL family's remaining papers. Circulation was reported at 1,343 (as of October 2022) — the paid circulation across the Kivalliq's seven communities, the papers reaching the hamlets by air — the Thursday edition flown to the seven communities, the news traveling as everything does in the Kivalliq.

Digital Presence

Kivalliq News publishes online at nunavutnews.com/kivalliq-news (also listed as nnsl.com/kivalliqnews) — the digital edition of the Thursday weekly, carrying the Kivalliq's news to readers across the region and beyond: the seven communities, the southern followers of Kivalliq affairs, the mining industry watchers, the former Kivalliqmiut following home. The website extends the print edition's reach beyond the Thursday paper: the digital Kivalliq, the region's stories available wherever the internet reaches. For the Kivalliq, the paper is the region's voice: "Nunavut's award-winning voice of Kivalliq," published Thursdays since 1994 — the news of Hudson Bay's western shore, in English and Inuktitut, the region's weekly — Kivalliq News, Nunavut's award-winning voice of Kivalliq — published Thursdays, serving the seven communities — the Kivalliq's weekly, since 1994.