Siba back at helm of Optimist
Former publisher and longtime Tsawwassen resident comes out of retirement to lead community paper again
Tom Siba, who returns as publisher after 11 years, joked with the crowd at the Optimist's Readers' Choice reception this week that Glacier Media believes in recycling.
Photograph by: Chung Chow , Delta Optimist
There's a familiar face back at the helm of the Delta Optimist.
After an 11-year absence, Tom Siba has returned as publisher.
"I'm happy to be back working at the Optimist," Siba said Wednesday, which was also his first day back on the job after two years in retirement.
He replaces Lori Chalmers, who will now shift all of her attention to the Optimist's sister paper, the Richmond News. Chalmers was brought on board as publisher of both the Optimist and the News in 2008.
"We thank Lori for all her work at the Optimist and wish her good luck in Richmond," said Peter Kvarnstrom, vice-president of Glacier Media's B.C. operations.
Glacier purchased the Optimist and the 11 other community newspapers that make up Lower Mainland Publishing from Postmedia about seven months ago.
One of the priorities of the new owners has been to focus on supporting its staff at each of the papers to enable them to produce the best community papers possible. To that end, a decision was made to return a full-time publisher to the Optimist.
Siba has lived in Tsawwassen for more than 30 years. He started the South Delta Today and took over as publisher of the Optimist when the two papers merged in the early 1990s. He remained at the helm for 10 years until 2001. Siba spent another nine years at Business in Vancouver before retiring in 2010.
Always an active member of the Delta community, Siba is currently a board member and treasurer for the Delta Community Foundation, he was a Scout leader for a decade and is a member of the Ladner Rotary Club.
