VancouverReview Spring 2005

Noted & Quoted by: Gudrun Will, Ethnic Media: Gudrun Will wonders what all the headlines mean

"Colourful as well as serious, The Asian Pacific Post hits a level of professionalism mostly unmatched by the little-league, smaller format ethnic press."

 ...The inter-cultural tectonics are reflected in what I find the most integrating--and intriguing--ethnic mewspaper around: the English-language The Asian Pacific Post . To me, it's only the herald of an interesting future. Ever since its appearance in news boxes on street corners two years ago, the paper's unique and grabby headlines, Couple flees to BC after $30 million swindle in China have certainly caught my attention. Colourful as well as serious, the Post hits a level of professionalism mostly unmatched by the little-league, smaller format ethnic press, which generally seems run by semi-amateurs. Another interesting aspect is its choice to focus on not one but many Asian communities, delivering news of and relevant to Indonesians, Malaysians, Singaporeans, Japanese and Philippinos, as well as Chinese and Indians.

In the late 1990s founding publisher Harbinder Singh Sewak worked with fellow Malaysian emigre Fabian Dawson (a long-time Province staffer and now deputy editor-in-chief, who had taken a leave of absence) to turn the Post into a serious contender, said editor Jagdeesh Mann. Dawson and Mann co-authored an article that put the slim fold tab, and perhaps ethnic media as a whole, on the journalistic map: It won the 2003 Jack Webster Award for Best Community Reporting (Sikh Sect Scandal Erupts at BC Temple). Mann added that the paper regularly breaks news that gets picked up by the mainstream press.