About Peace Arch News

Peace Arch News

Overview

The Peace Arch News is the community newspaper of White Rock and South Surrey, on the Semiahmoo Peninsula in British Columbia's Lower Mainland, a short distance from the Canada–United States border crossing that gives the paper its name. Published by Black Press, it appears in print once a week, on Thursdays, in tabloid format, and publishes continuously online at peacearchnews.com. The paper remains in active publication in its fiftieth year: Black Press's digital edition archive holds complete Thursday editions dated January 1, February 5, February 12, February 26, March 12, April 9 and April 16, 2026, carrying current reporting on White Rock council business, Surrey affairs, the Peace Arch border crossing and community life on the peninsula. Its publisher is Steve Scott, appointed by Black Press in December 2023, and directory listings name Brenda Anderson as editor.

History

The Peace Arch News made its debut on Tuesday, February 10, 1976, under the name Peace Arch News and Consumers' Guide. According to the paper's own 45th-anniversary account, published on February 4, 2021, it was the brainchild of White Rock-based publisher Roy Jelly, who launched it as a competitor for the venerable White Rock Sun, the peninsula's established weekly, whose own lineage ran back to the Semiahmoo Sun, first published in 1939 and renamed when White Rock incorporated in 1957. Jelly introduced the paper to readers in a one-column item on the first front page, writing that while there had been many problems in getting a first edition to press, "it has been a thrilling experience in that so many of our friends have given us both moral support and real show of confidence by the advertisements that have been placed." The first edition had a circulation of some 13,000 copies, in the paper's own account, selling for 15 cents a copy. In its earliest years it was a twice-a-month publication: reporter Eileen Toumaala doubled as editor until Graham Evan McDonnell joined as full-time editor in September 1976. Jelly's venture ultimately became the newspaper of record in the White Rock and South Surrey area and, as the anniversary account records, an award-winning community newspaper. The paper joined the Black Press chain in January 1997 and has been owned by Black Press since. A related but separate daily product, the Peace Arch News Daily, was shut down in 2014. The paper marked its 45th anniversary in February 2021 and reached its fiftieth anniversary in February 2026.

Programming and Content

The Peace Arch News covers the civic and community life of White Rock and South Surrey. Municipal coverage is a staple: its January 1, 2026 edition carried City of White Rock public notices on zoning bylaw amendments alongside its annual review of the previous year's most-read stories, in which — the paper reported — stories about the Douglas, or Peace Arch, border crossing and about Canadian–U.S. travel topped the list for 2025. The border is one of the paper's defining beats. Its March 12, 2026 edition reported on the first anniversary of the "Peace, Love and a Handshake" gatherings at Peace Arch Park, at which Canadians and Americans had met every second Saturday since March 2025 in a cross-border show of friendship amid increasingly divisive comments from the White House; reporter Tracy Holmes covers the community and border beat, and staff photographs are credited to Anna Burns. Public safety reporting is also prominent — the February 26, 2026 edition reported on the slowing rate of extortion reports in Surrey and a meeting between Prime Minister Mark Carney and the senior leaders of the B.C. extortion task force. Alongside news, the paper publishes opinion and letters, sports, arts and community coverage, obituaries and classifieds for the Semiahmoo Peninsula, and its most-read stories of 2025 — from border roadblocks that seized drugs and ammunition to the fortunes of a retired White Rock nurse — show the local character of its agenda.

Audience and Reach

The paper's market is the Semiahmoo Peninsula: the City of White Rock, a small seaside municipality, and the South Surrey area of the City of Surrey that surrounds it, a fast-growing suburban district of the Lower Mainland. Its circulation was listed at 28,769 in Black Press's media kit as of October 2022; that is the most recent figure the company has published for the title, and no newer audited figure is asserted here. The paper's own history records a circulation of some 13,000 at its launch in 1976, when copies sold for 15 cents. Since the closure of its historic rival, the White Rock Sun, the Peace Arch News has stood as the peninsula's printed newspaper of record, and its website serves the same communities daily.

Digital Presence

The paper publishes online at peacearchnews.com, the address printed across its front pages, where stories appear daily within the Black Press digital network. Complete digital replicas of the Thursday print edition are preserved in Black Press's online pages archive, which holds the paper's editions through 2025 and into 2026 — including those of January 1, February 5, February 12, February 26, March 12, April 9 and April 16, 2026 — and constitutes the clearest public evidence of its continuing weekly publication. The site carries news, opinion, sports, obituaries and classifieds for White Rock and South Surrey, and readers can vote in online polls and follow the paper's coverage between print editions. Its ISSN is 0700-9003.

Ownership and Organisation

The Peace Arch News is owned by Black Press, the British Columbia community newspaper group founded in 1975 by David H. Black with the purchase of the Williams Lake Tribune. The paper became part of the group in January 1997, and its mastheads have long carried the line "Published at White Rock by Black Press Ltd." Black Press filed for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act on January 15, 2024; its sale to Canso Investment Counsel, Deans Knight Capital Management and Carpenter Media Group was completed on March 25, 2024, and the company emerged from the restructuring Canadian-controlled, with Glenn Rogers as chief executive officer and David Black retired. Within the group, the Peace Arch News sits among the Lower Mainland titles alongside the Surrey Now-Leader, the Cloverdale Reporter and the North Delta Reporter. Steve Scott was appointed publisher of the Peace Arch News and the Cloverdale Reporter in December 2023, and directory listings name Brenda Anderson as editor; an earlier masthead, in 2010, named Linda Klitch as publisher and Lance Peverley as editor, with Rita Walters as sales manager and Marilou Pasion as circulation manager, working from an office at 200 – 2411 160 Street in Surrey. The paper's pages have long explained to readers how to raise concerns about its coverage, directing them first to the editor or publisher and then, if unresolved, to the B.C. Press Council within 45 days — a small but telling marker of the accountability culture of the community press it belongs to. The paper has been a member of the British Columbia Press Council, the self-regulatory body whose complaints process its pages have explained to readers.

Contact and Availability

The Peace Arch News is published weekly on Thursdays in print and continuously online at peacearchnews.com. Directory listings place its head office at Suite 202 – 15850 24 Avenue, Surrey, British Columbia, V3Z 0G1; an earlier masthead printed the address 200 – 2411 160 Street, Surrey. The paper's published telephone number is 604-531-1711. The publisher is Steve Scott and the editor is Brenda Anderson, as named in the group's announcement and current directory listings.