PREECEVILLE — A new person is taking over the top job at the Preeceville Progress.
Devan Tasa will be the new publisher of the Preeceville Progress, Canora Courier and Kamsack Times. He will be taking over from Ken Lewchuk, who’s retiring at the end of May after working at the papers for 45 years. Tasa arrived in Canora April 17.
“Right now, I’m learning as much about Canora, Kamsack and Preeceville as I can, meeting as many people as I can,” he said. “Successful newspapers must reflect their communities, so it’s my task in the next month to learn what the community wants to see in their paper.”
Tasa said he got his start in the news business after he graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Northern British Columbia. In between looking for work, he started a blog covering the council meetings of his hometown of Prince George, B.C.
“I liked it so much that I decided to get a journalism degree to learn how to do it properly,” he said.
His first job was working as a reporter at the Assiniboia Times in 2013. Assiniboia, located south of Moose Jaw, is a similar size to Canora, Kamsack and Preeceville.
“That was my introduction to small-town Saskatchewan life,” Tasa said. “Things that people take for granted, like going to the post office to pick up the mail, were so different than what I was used to.
“Yet there’s so much that I liked about Saskatchewan: the friendly people that would help out at a drop of a hat, fall suppers and seeing the willingness of the community to get together to get done what needs to get done.”
Tasa then became editor of the Tisdale Recorder in 2014, which covered Tisdale, Melfort, Nipawin and many communities in between. In 2018, Tasa became the editor of the Humboldt Journal on top of those other duties. In 2019, Tasa then became publisher of those two papers.
The new publisher said he’s excited to start at the Preeceville Progress.
“If you have any suggestions or story ideas, feel free to contact the office or stop me on the street,” he said. “I look forward to meeting you.”
