Fourth-generation publisher buys Gabriola Sounder

Her father was a publisher. Her uncle was a publisher. Her grandfather and great-grandfather were publishers. For 25-year-old Sarah Holmes of Wainwright, Alta., publishing was bred in the bone.

“ThereÔÇÖs a family quote that wraps it up,” says Holmes, searching for the exact lines her great-grandfather Ed, former publisher of the Provost News in Provost, Alta., spoke some 80 years ago. “‘I still hold that there is no more free and congenial life than that of a rural weekly editor.'”

In mid-October, she and husband Derek Kilbourn will uphold family tradition, taking ownership of the Gabriola Sounder, a community weekly serving Gabriola Island off Nanaimo, B.C.

“We would have gone anywhere,” says Holmes of the move. “It was affordable. They were willing to sell to independents. We just lucked out.”

Holmes is the daughter of Roger Holmes, president of Star Press and publisher of WainwrightÔÇÖs three weeklies. Her uncle Richard, grandfather George and great-grandfather Ed all published the Provost News, making her a fourth-generation publisher.

Her husband Derek Kilbourn, currently associate editor at the Star weeklies, will be president of Gabriola Sounder Media Inc. and editor of the paper.

Holmes, who will handle sales, said she and Kilbourn plan on bringing more colour and photos to the Sounder.