Andrea DeMeer is the publisher of the Similkameen Spotlight. A relatively recent transplant to the valley from southwestern Ontario, she is formerly a group, daily and weekly newspaper publisher with Sun Media, where she was also a regular contributor to the opinion pages of 200 weekly and daily newspapers across the country. She also served for several years as an executive director for the Ontario Community Newspaper Association, happily working to support the industry in that province through a time of transition. With more than 30 years in the business, she has experience in reporting, editing, advertising sales and management as well as circulation and distribution. She is the winner of numerous national and provincial awards for news and feature writing, excellence in advertising, and particularly editorial and column writing. Most recently she was the 2016 silver winner for column writing in the British Columbia and Yukon Newspaper Awards, and in 2015, she was the bronze winner for column writing in the Canadian Community Newspaper Awards. Andrea and Robert have been married for 30 years, and have four children. A rich family life is often fodder for her local column, Old Dogs, New Tricks. After moving to B.C., she declares the place to be 'just like home, except with waaaaaay nicer scenery.'
