Who is this tiny newspaper man?

Peter Worden always wanted to write for a big newspaper, or own a small one, he tells me.

Unpacking this statement teases out the off-kilter thought conclusions that riddle our conversation; it makes sense, sort of. You get it, but …

You see, Worden wanted to work at a big newspaper — meaning one with lots of staff and a big circulation. Barring that, he wanted to own a newspaper that was physically tiny.

For the record, Peter is of average height and weight with a kind smile. If you asked me  to describe what stands out about the 31-year-old journalist, I’d say it’s how his face reflects his emotions. With a glowing expression, he talks about his time pioneering a tiny newspaper in smalltown Nanton, Alberta. His focus relaxes as he retreats into a little reminiscing.

But when I wonder if others might find the concept of being a tiny newspaperman a little — well, unusual — his eyes recoil, his lips curl down. Like I had gleeked on him across the table at the Modern Bakeshop & Cafe.

As I mentioned, the tiny newspaper empire started in Nanton, Alberta, where he was lured to work for the ailing Nanton News. In the end, he didn’t take the job and started the Nanton News Experiment, a tiny-sized, occasionally-published newspaper that blurred the lines between fiction and fact, settling on an unusual hybrid of humorous comment.

(As an aside, he tells me it earned him a cease-and-desist from his former employer. “Sun Media tried to sue me. They sent me a cease-and-desist letter that was riddled with typos,” he said. “I published their letter in the next issue.”) You can Google past news coverage of these incidents, some of which date back five years.

Since then, he’s intermittently published the Nanton Experiment, while continuing working on other journalism jobs. He got a posting with CBC in Iqaluit, where he covered stories like marauding polar bears, the courts, bowhead whale hunts, the environment, and resource stories, Worden said.

But, like other jobs he’s held at the Alberta Views or at a Lloydminister newspaper, it was a grind. Most people are somewhat aware that traditional media business models have been made redundant by everything the Internet can do better, faster, and cheaper. They’re fighting a rearguard action, hoping whoever is leading the retreat has a transition plan. He was tired of the layoffs and gloomy gallows atmosphere, so he switched to his Plan B of carving out his tiny newspaper empire, he told me.

Which led him to Reved, a Revelstoke arts and culture quarterly that was up for sale earlier this year. Its former owner, Heather Lea, had lived in Vancouver for several years and was selling Reved before heading on an extended motorcycle expedition around the world, Worden said.

He bought the paper from Lea and is set to publish his first issue of the revised Reved this week. It will be a full sized paper, with a tiny newspaper insert.

It is called the Reved Quarterly Quarterly, a gag on the fact that you have to fold it up into quarters, and that it’s a quarter of the quarterly. Ha!

“You have to squint to read it,” Worden proclaims of the new insert, which has lots of unusual gags, games and mini-features. The paper folds up into small squares so that you read it by folding and unfolding on the scored lines.

It brings along the unusual humour from the Nanton Experiment, including lots of Worden himself featured in the paper. There’s an origami-like feature, spot-the-difference photos and lots of other time killers — he tells me the classified section could be a guffaw-inducing ‘catsified’ section that features lots of pictures of cats. Checking back on my notes I’m not clear if that’s actually happening or was part of an old Nanton Experiment issue, but that would be funny.

Choosing my works carefully, I asked him about his “self-reflexive” style — the Nanton Experiment carried lots of photos of Worden himself, often Photoshopped right into the paper.

“Some people might say [self] indulgence,” he replied. “I think I appear 16 times in the paper. The reason for that is I paid for it so I can do anything I want.”

He adds: “This might be getting a little esoteric for the purposes of this story, but I love fourth-dimensional journalism.”

It’s an obscure reference to Back to the Future. Thinking in the fourth dimension, challenging the space-time continuum. To be truthful, I don’t quite grasp it.

Anyway, in the journalism world, there is a movement afoot that questions the traditional, opinion-less viewpoint, derided as the ‘view from nowhere’ by its detractors. It’s a multi-sided argument, but essentially he-said-she-said accounts of the news don’t get as much trust or traction as ones with a clear viewpoint. They aren’t shared online, where liking something on social media is a key traffic generator. (Who ‘likes’ a story about a fatal MVI?) For the downside of it all, start with cable news pundits, whose trade is affirming the prejudices of their audience, rather than trying to inform.

The upside? There are many, including prying journalists away from the safety of a straight-up-the-middle approach. It’ll always have a place in the mix, but is losing predominance. And that’s where Worden is trying to eke out a niche in his own unique way.

“This issue you will see me in there joking around with ads and story,” he tells me. “That’s what I am trying to do now is have fun with news.”

He tells me he’s a big fan of Bob Edwards, the rabble-rousing editor of the Calgary Eye Opener which was active in the early 1900s. Edwards was known for his drinking and skewering the powers that be. One of Edwards’ eccentricities was publishing the Eye Opener on an occasional basis — waiting until his hit list was long enough, and his cup was full. Here’s a Bob Edwards quote from the Eye Opener: “I know what a statesman is. He is a dead politician. We need more statesmen.”

(Regionally, a legendary editor from the late 1800s is Colonel Robert Thornton Lowery, founder of the Nakusp Ledge, and most well known for his work at the Sandon Paystreak, where he devoted his time defending the interests of miners in the region. Lowery was an eccentric and a serious drunk, who was also known for frequent leaves from work, often alcohol-related. Here’s a taste: “The good have nothing to conceal and have only admiration from a trenchant editor. It is only the sneaking, cowardly, dishonorable, back-biting and black-mailing curs that writhe in mental agony when the editorial harpoon tears away their masks, exposing their detestable acts to the gaze of an outraged and indignant world.”) That’s heavy!

As I spoke with Worden earlier this week, the first edition of Reved under Worden as the editor and publisher was at the press in Vancouver. I haven’t seen it yet — just tidbits of proof pages — but it sure seems like Worden will put his stamp on his new publication. To be forthright, I am not sure how the Bob Edwards vein of rabble-rousing fits into the tiny newspaper gag, but I am looking forward to the synthesis. Peter seems like an intelligent and creative guy who is putting himself out there.

Update: I talked to Peter again yesterday, and the first issue should be here Friday.

Correction: Worden worked at Alberta Views, not Alberta Review as previously stated.