British Columbia Magazine's editor says her publication likely won't run a story about the controversial Flathead Valley because a competitor beat them to the punch. In an interview with Public Eye, Anita Willis explained the award-winning magazine (which is owned by Tourism British Columbia, a Crown corporation) doesn't "like to run things where there's already been significant coverage" - referring to a similar article that appeared in the Summer 2007 edition of Westworld Magazine.

And because of that, it's unlikely the British Columbia Magazine article will see the light of day. "If we could find a way to do it that would make it significantly different enough or if something major and new was to happen that would make our story different enough from their piece then maybe," Mr. Willis explained.

But were there any concerns expressed about running a piece on the Flathead? After all, coal development projects in the region have stirred up opposition from both environmentalists and the Montana government. "That's not really the issue," responded Ms. Willis. "We have a conversation about sort of every editorial line-up that's coming up. And we look at that internally. I think you might be looking for something that isn't there. That's the sense I get." The following is a complete transcript of that interview.

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Public Eye I understand B.C. Magazine was going to publish an article on the Flathead. But that article was pulled. I'm just curious as to why that might have been?

Ms. Willis That's actually not quite the case.

Public Eye What happened?

Ms. Willis I'm interested to know why you're interested in our editorial line-up.

Public Eye I'm just fascinated by that decision that's all. I mean, the Flathead is a beautiful area of British Columbia. One might think B.C. Magazine would be interested in profiling it.

Ms. Willis Well, we cover all parts of the province. Again, I'm interested in whether the timing or publication of our articles is general news?

Public Eye My fascination extends far and wide. I'm a curious reporter - as most reporters are. So I'm curious as to what might have happened with the article?

Ms. Willis I'm not really comfortable talking about our line-up. We tend to not share our editorial line-up because we tend to get scooped on stories when we talk about things publicly.

Public Eye You mentioned that wasn't entirely accurate - that the article wasn't going to run. So what exactly did happen to the article?

Ms. Willis Well, we actually still have a piece. We haven't decided what to do with it. One of the issues is that another magazine scooped us. Which, obviously, is not desirable. So it's kind of sitting in the bank at the moment.

Public Eye Which magazine was that?

Ms. Willis That's Westworld - which is one of our direct competitors.

Public Eye Primary competitors. So that article was originally scheduled to be in the coming edition of B.C. Magazine. And because a similar article appeared in Westworld it was killed?

Ms. Willis Well, we don't like to run things where there's already been significant coverage. So we're sort of looking at different ways to deal with the Rocky Mountain area. We have a couple other things we're going to be looking at.

Public Eye I understand. I totally understand. So do you anticipate B.C. Magazine will run a piece on the Flathead in the future or probably not given the fact Westworld already did?

Ms. Willis I'm not sure. If we could find a way to do it that would make it significantly different enough or if something major and new was to happen that would make our story different enough from their piece, then maybe.

Public Eye Possibly. But it likely wouldn't be the same piece that was written?

Ms. Willis Probably not.

Public Eye Interesting. Was there any concerns expressed at a higher level regarding running a piece on the Flathead? I mean, obviously this is a pretty contentious area of the province in terms of development and environmental sensitivities and Montana.

Ms. Willis Yeah, that hasn't stopped us from doing other types of stories. We had a story on Betty Krawczyk in a recent issue. She's pretty contentious. That's not really the issue.

Public Eye Okay. Was there any concern expressed from the top about that?

Ms. Willis I don't… We have a conversation about sort of every editorial line-up that's coming up. And we look at that internally. I think you might be looking for something that isn't there. That's the sense I get.

Public Eye Right. Right. I'm always curious. I always have to ask these questions. So that means there wasn't any concerns raised about that particular issue?

Ms. Willis That wasn't the reason why we decided not to go with it.

Public Eye But there wasn't any concerns raised though?

Ms. Willis We talk internally about all of our stories. I don't want to suggest that we don't ever talk about whether a story has ramifications or not.

Public Eye I'm just curious because it's two separate questions. One is whether or not the decision to not run the article was because of Westworld. That's one question. And the other question is whether there were any concerns raised from Tourism British Columbia, for example, about the political sensitivities involved in that particular region.

Ms. Willis I wouldn't say that was an issue.