NNSL Media shutters Inuvik Drum newspaper

Updated Jan. 23 at 11:40 a.m. ET

An Inuvialuit community in Northwest Territories lost its local paper this month with the closure of the Inuvik Drum.

The weekly paper went to print for the final time on Jan. 9.

“To say I’m saddened by this would be a gross understatement,” said Eric Bowling, the newspaper’s editor, in his final editorial.

“There is so much I’m going to miss about this place. I’m pretty sure I haven’t even rationalized it all yet.”

Bowling explained in the editorial that his paper was shutting down because it was not selling enough advertising to “justify the costs” of keeping him in the community.

Carpenter Media Group-owned NNSL Media, which publishes Inuvik Drum, announced Dec. 19 that the company would shutter its local office and continue to cover news local to the town of roughly 3,000 people from Yellowknife.

Bowling confirmed to Nunatsiaq News that he is no longer employed by NNSL Media but declined a request for comment, directing media requests to NNSL Media publisher Mike Bryant. Bryant also declined to comment.

The first issue of Inuvik Drum went to print Jan. 6, 1966, according to NNSL Media. It was in print for 59 years. The Drum became an NNSL paper in 1988.

NNSL, which covers local and territorial news from across N.W.T. and Nunavut, was independently owned until 2021, when Black Press Ltd. purchased the company.

At the time, NNSL published Nunavut News, NWT News/North, Yellowknifer, Kivalliq News, Hay River Hub and Inuvik Drum. The company also published the Deh Cho Drum, which covered the Deh Cho region of N.W.T., until 2017.

Black Press filed for creditor protection in January 2024 was sold to U.S. newspaper publisher Carpenter Media in March 2024.

Note: Story was updated to include employment confirmation from Eric Bowling