Spruce Kings hockey player, turned coach, turned scout for 15 years in the WHL, Dave Smith is taking on a role off the ice as the new advertising director at The Prince George Citizen.
During his career, it's always been sales, whether it was garden supplies, heavy equipment parts, fleet and commercial vehicle sales or local weekly newspaper advertising.
Smith grew up in Vanderhoof and made his way to Prince George to play hockey. After stints in Kamloops and Kelowna, Smith found a job opportunity in his wife Robin's hometown of Prince George. They moved so Smith could work with Jos Van Hage at Art Knapp's Plantland and coach the Spruce Kings for a year.
"That's how we found our way back to Prince George and then after that I got a foot in the door with the local weekly newspaper selling advertising ," said Smith, who worked his way up to regional sales manager and advertising manager.
Smith and his wife have two sons, Madison, 23, is acting in Vancouver and Linden, 21, is a student at UNBC pursuing a teaching career.
After his years in the newspaper world, Smith was a traveling sales person for heavy equipment parts and then went over to Wood Wheaton as the fleet and commercial sales manager where he was on the business side of car sales. That's when his current position as advertising director at The Citizen came up and he couldn't resist.
"Newspapers seem to get in your blood and it's hard to shake and being in the newspaper industry is exciting and what thrills me the most," said Smith, who coached minor hockey for 10 years. "That's the one thing about the newspaper -- you really do feel connected to the community, whether it's helping a non-profit with a fundraiser or helping a new business succeed, you're just so much more a part of the community."
Smith starts July 8.
"We are so happy to welcome Dave to the Prince George Citizen newspaper team," said Colleen Sparrow, publisher of The Citizen. "Dave brings many years of experience with him and we look forward to the continued and growing success of our newspaper in the Prince George community."
