About Northern News Services

Northern News Services

Northern News Services Limited (NNSL Media) is a Yellowknife-based news and media company serving the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. Founded in 1972 by J.W. (Sig) Sigvaldason, it is one of Canada's few remaining independent newspaper companies, producing all-original content with little to no reliance on syndicated news. From a main office in Yellowknife and news bureaus in Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit, it publishes a family of weekly newspapers — including the Yellowknifer, News/North and Kivalliq News — and operates the nnsl.com and nunavutnews.com news sites. In March 2021 the company was acquired by Black Press Media.

Overview

Northern News Services is the dominant news publisher of the Canadian North. Its papers cover 58 Northern communities across two territories, from Fort Liard to Pond Inlet, Arviat to Tuktoyaktuk — reporting on territorial politics, Indigenous affairs, resource development, justice, education, health and community life in regions where few other media operate. The company's model is distinctive in modern Canadian publishing: all-original reporting, produced by its own staff, with minimal dependence on wire copy or syndication.

The newspaper family has included the twice-weekly Yellowknifer (Wednesday and Friday editions) covering Yellowknife, Dettah and Ndilo; News/North, published in separate Northwest Territories and Nunavut editions (the latter with articles translated into Inuktitut and printed in syllabics); Kivalliq News, based in Rankin Inlet; the Hay River Hub; and, until recent closures, the Inuvik Drum and the Deh Cho Drum. The publications feed into two websites, nnsl.com and nunavutnews.com, updated seven days a week, and the company produces special editions on social issues — from seniors to health, recreation to agriculture — plus annual publications including Opportunities North, the pan-territorial report on Northern industries now in its 37th year, and dedicated mining and construction titles for the NWT and Nunavut.

History

The company traces its origins to March 22, 1972, when J.W. (Sig) Sigvaldason published the first issue of the Yellowknifer — after leaving the rival News of the North in 1971. The early years were improvisational: initial print runs were produced at home, with the bathroom serving as a darkroom, and the paper was kept afloat by income from Sigvaldason's wife. The paper's mission statement — "having a ball and making a buck" — captured its irreverent spirit. By 1978 the paper had become a financial success, and Sigvaldason purchased News of the North itself, renaming it News/North.

From that base, Northern News Services grew into a Northern media group. News/North — originally the News of the North, first published May 1, 1945 — became the elder publication of the Northwest Territories, reporting on the Dene and Inuit NWT before the territory's division in 1999 and the creation of Nunavut; Nunavut News was born shortly after division, and the two publications now cover the subarctic and arctic regions in parallel editions. Kivalliq News began in 1994 with an office in Rankin Inlet, covering Baker Lake, Chesterfield Inlet, Coral Harbour, Naujaat, Whale Cove and Arviat. The Inuvik Drum, first published January 6, 1966, had been owned by the company since 1988; the Deh Cho Drum ran for 23 years before ceasing publication in March 2017. News/North celebrated 75 years of publication in 2020. The twice-weekly Yellowknifer turned 48 in the early 2020s, covering the capital, Dettah and Ndilo, as did the Hay River Hub, covering Hay River and the K'atl'odeeche First Nation. The Inuvik Drum spent 56 years covering Inuvik and the Beaufort Delta — Ulukhaktok, Paulatuk, Sachs Harbour and surrounding communities — before its closure in January 2025. The company's publications feed news into nunavutnews.com and nnsl.com seven days a week, and its special editions take on social issues from seniors to health, recreation to agriculture, while the annual Opportunities North report — now in its 37th year — surveys the full range of Northern industries, from furs to fish to rock.

After almost 40 years of independent publishing, Northern News Services was sold: in March 2021, Black Press Media — the Canadian publisher of more than 170 newspapers in Canada and the United States — acquired NNSL and its printing subsidiary Canarctic Graphics, with the deal closing March 31. NNSL Media publisher and CEO Bruce Valpy told staff the tradition would continue: reporting the news and expressing opinions about local affairs. In January 2025, NNSL shuttered the Inuvik Drum after nearly six decades, the latest in the industry-wide contraction of community newspapers.

Black Press itself soon faced turbulence. On January 15, 2024, the Surrey, B.C.-based company entered creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act and announced it would seek a buyer for its assets — including NNSL Media's northern papers, which Nunatsiaq News reported had been purchased by Black Press in 2021. The proceedings put the northern titles' long-term ownership in question even as the papers continued publishing.

Content

NNSL's papers practice community journalism at its most essential: city council and territorial legislature coverage, court reporting, school and health stories, profiles of Northerners, and coverage of the industries — mining, exploration, construction, fisheries, furs — that drive the Northern economy. News/North's Monday edition carries a different front page for Yellowknife distribution, and the Nunavut edition's Inuktitut translations in syllabics serve Inuit readers. The Yellowknifer focuses on local community news in the capital, with occasional coverage of wider Northwest Territories and Northern Canada issues, and is published in English while retaining a significant Indigenous readership. Its mission statement — "having a ball and making a buck" — has survived from the Sigvaldason era. Reported circulations for the Yellowknifer were 3,911 (Wednesday) and 4,082 (Friday) in 2015; the paper's ISSN is 0844-0697, and Mike W. Bryant has served as editor. The Yellowknifer is printed in compact format, as is News/North, and the company produces separate editions where the market requires it — News/North's Northwest Territories and Nunavut editions, and the Yellowknifer's Wednesday and Friday editions.

The special and annual publications extend the model: Degrees of Success on education in Nunavut and the NWT; Opportunities North, the thick annual survey of everything from furs to fish to rock; NWT and Nunavut Mining on the mining industry, production and exploration; and NWT and Nunavut Construction on the projects building the two territories. Reported circulations (October 2022) were 2,059 (Wednesday) and 2,148 (Friday) for the Yellowknifer and 4,252 for News/North.

Coverage & Audience

Northern News Services covers the Northwest Territories and Nunavut — 58 communities from the Mackenzie Valley to the High Arctic — through its main Yellowknife office and bureaus in Inuvik, Hay River, Fort Simpson, Rankin Inlet and Iqaluit. Its print audience is the readership of its weekly papers across the two territories; its digital audience is measured in the hundreds of thousands of monthly sessions across nnsl.com and nunavutnews.com. In regions with limited media choice, NNSL's papers are often the primary — and sometimes the only — source of original local journalism.

Ownership

Northern News Services Limited was founded in Yellowknife in 1972 by J.W. (Sig) Sigvaldason, who remained publisher for decades. In March 2021, Black Press Media acquired NNSL Media, including its newspapers, websites and the Canarctic Graphics printing subsidiary. Bruce Valpy has served as publisher and CEO. Wikipedia lists nnsl.com as the company's website.

Digital Presence

NNSL Media operates two news websites — nnsl.com and nunavutnews.com — fed seven days a week by the reporting of its newspapers across the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, alongside an array of social media channels. The sites carry the papers' journalism to readers beyond print distribution, serving Northerners wherever they are and a wider audience interested in Arctic and Northern affairs. The company's papers are also distributed in digital replica editions, and the Black Press group's digital infrastructure supports the sites' continued operation.