There is a very old symbol that journalists use to mark the end of a story. The characters “-30-“, when placed at the bottom of the copy, signify the writer is finished.

The origin of the so-called “end mark” has a murky history but some believe it is a modern translation of XXX, the Roman numerals journalists used to type at the end of copy.

In this increasingly digital time the end mark has largely fallen into disuse, an anachronism that like both the typewriter and longhand copy has largely disappeared.

But for me, that -30- has a special meaning. In December I marked 30 years with The Vancouver Sun as a reporter and editor. It is time I place that mark at the end of my own story with a newspaper I have loved and served.

In leaving the combined newsroom that now puts out both The Sun and its sister, The Province I end a daily reporter’s career that has been immensely challenging and rewarding. It is a career that has taken me to extremes, geographically, physically and socially.

All told I have spent nearly 40 years as a news reporter, much of the first decade working in some of B.C.’s more interesting weekly newspapers.

I place a lot of weight for the trajectory of my career on Jack Reid, the publisher of the once fiercely-independent Hope Standard, a weekly at the eastern edge of the Fraser Valley. From the moment Reid, a tall, balding – and on the face of it – perpetually grumpy old man hired me as a wet-behind-the-ears 20-year-old, I have been in love with story-telling and the hard but rewarding craft of journalism.

“It’s the who, what, where, when, why that counts – and don’t forget it is ‘rink’ and not ‘team’ in curling” – Jack Reid, The Hope Standard.

Along the path of my career I have met interesting and unforgettable people. I have had a front-row seat to history in which most people never get to sit. I have watched as technology changed the way we do things and sped up the world. My first stories for Jack as a correspondent from the Fraser Canyon (no kidding!) were written on an old 1940’s Royal KMM typewriter, which I still have. Ours was a tiny hot-metal job shop, with an old Linotype on which Jack would set galleys of type for business forms, which would then be printed on a platen press. Our paper was printed in Abbotsford, and I would deliver copies up and down the Fraser Canyon in an old 1969 Datsun 210.

Long after the computer replaced the typewriter and hot metal gave way to offset printing, I still love the tactile touch of keys and the message it sends to me that I am, once again, crafting a story for people to read.

How could I not love The Sun for sending me to Iraq to cover a war, and finding amidst death and destruction stories of hope sprouting from the ground torn asunder by Saddam Hussein?

Who could not be proud of front-page stories developed from a hunch that righted wrongs and helped put fraudsters and telemarketing crooks in jail? Of writing blogs such as Civic Lee Speaking and my Olympics-themed Red Mittens Diary. (And be willing to leave alone the risque photo that went with it!)

How could I ignore, even as my heart broke, compelling stories told by survivors of tragedy or by their rescuers? And how could I pass by without interest the workings of governments that have profound effect on the people they govern?

And how could I not love this newspaper for instilling in me a profound love for running. I was the Sun Run’s first poster child in 1987 for how to go through a six-week training program to learn how to run. It led to marathons and triathlons, and ultimately to me completing two Ironman Canada events. Now, as I leave the newsroom I am once again a Sun Run guinea pig, writing about running and exercising as a 59-year-old with Type 2 diabetes.

I have covered Vancouver City from Gordon Campbell to Gregor Robertson, with a few interruptions for other beats. I have watched the city grow, and not a few times I have smacked myself in the forehead when some city councilor proposes a “new idea” for fixing an old problem not realizing it was already an old idea best forgotten. The institutional knowledge I carry is both wonderful and a curse.

I leave daily journalism at a perilous time for both the public and the truth. The rise of fake news, reality shows far from reality, entertainment “news” and the wholesale undermining of bedrock trust in journalism by people like the new U.S. president, Donald J. Trump, point to a consequential diminishing of society.

The news industry – and by that I really mean the newspaper business – was already undergoing a seismic shift long before we began to hear words like Trump’s “alternative facts”.

Who would have thought that “Craigslist” would be the first of many digital worms to chew through the pilings holding up society’s news and communications infrastructure, and consequently public trust?

A free ad? It’s not really free. It comes at considerable cost, if felt only years down the road in the loss of jobs, the retrenching of business and the loss of stability in mainstream news agencies.

But I also leave at an important time for the news industry as it reshapes and clarifies its value especially in the era of fake news. Great journalism is now being told in new and compelling ways, through digital methods unavailable when Jack first taught me my craft on my sticky-keys Royal.

Today, you’re able to see news as it unfolds immediately and yet have contextual reporting just as quickly that adds layers to what you know. Videos. Explanatory graphics. Analysis. Commentary. History. All elements that when I started with The Sun in 1986 would have required extra editions and extra days to deliver.

Where do you think the online rip-off artists and “free” news aggregators get their news stories from? Mainstream media agencies like The Sun that employ and pay the freight for people like me. Lose us and you really lose trust.

I have great hope for both my craft and for my beloved Vancouver Sun. In the newsroom work some incredibly talented and engaged people.

We’re not immune to the cutbacks and buyouts that have affected the entire industry. I am, after all, one of those taking a buyout. But I depart firmly believing that those folks left in the newsroom are piloting a pair of venerable newspapers – and their attendant online identities – into a new and secure future.

The Sun may not be the same newspaper that I worked at for so many years, and The Province has lost some of its Tabloidesque habits, but they still are the nervy, solid, in-your-face, trustworthy Western Canadian anchors to this country’s news business.

Thanks for the ride. You’ll find me still writing and commenting on social media such as my Twitter and Facebook accounts and here. And, increasingly, shepherding our Honey Bee Zen Apiaries, producing fine B.C. honey.

– 30 – for 30.

For those who really want to contact me, I’m at jeff@jefflee.ca