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Advance View: Advance has new editor

Langley Advance editor Bob Groeneveld has announced his retirement.

“After 38 years of liaising between Langley’s newsmakers and news readers, I decided it was time to explore some of my other interests,” Groeneveld said. “My garden has been getting short shrift the past couple of years and my guitar and sax have been sitting far too idle for far too long.”

Groeneveld stressed that his retirement is not connected to the recent sale of the Langley Advance to Black Press, “except that I thought this was a good nexus to explore an opportunity that had been sitting at the back of my mind for some time. What started out as an idle chat slowly evolved into a real possibility, and a very happy reality for Donna and myself.”

Groeneveld is stepping down as editor of both the Advance and of the Maple Ridge & Pitt Meadows TIMES – a position he assumed in September of 2010. Assistant editor Roxanne Hooper is moving to the editor’s chair for both papers.

Groeneveld started his community journalism career as a reporter with the Advance in February 1977, and became news editor and then editor in the 1980s.

“Bob’s contributions to the Langley Advance go further than most of us can imagine,” said Ryan McAdams, publisher of both the Advance and the MR&PM TIMES. “Bob’s retirement is a bittersweet day at the Advance, and I personally wish Bob and Donna all the best in this new chapter of their life.”

McAdams was pleased to announce that Hooper accepted her promotion at both newspapers: “Roxanne brings a lot of experience and goodwill to the position,” he said, “and I’m confident that all of our readers will appreciate the commitment that she has to community service.”

Groeneveld said he was pleased to be succeeded as editor by Hooper: “I have a great deal of respect for Roxanne’s abilities as a journalist and editor, and she has a tremendous understanding of the concept of community.”

Hooper grew up in Langley and went on to attend journalism school and establish herself as an award-winning journalist in the B.C. Interior and at the Maple Ridge& Pitt Meadows News, before returning to the Langley Advance in 2006.