The Saltwire Saga

For more than 40 years, I’ve been writing about the Halifax Chronicle Herald, its predecessors and successors—including its oddly-named and ill-fated recent owner, Saltwire. In 1981, in the aftermath of a failed attempt to unionize the newsroom, I wrote this feature about the paper and its role in Nova Scotia life and politics. That story’s […]

What if Monday disappeared and no one noticed?

The Chronicle Herald has announced it will no longer publish a Monday print newspaper. The “saddest truth,” notes our columnist, is how little that decision seems to matter anymore. The saddest truth about last week’s announcement that Saltwire (née the Chronicle Herald) had decided to stop publishing its Halifax Monday print edition (and those of […]

One media dinosaur gobbles up another

Last week’s Postmedia purchase of Brunswick News won’t make New Brunswick’s newspapers better. And it won’t do anything to solve Postmedia’s ongoing debt crisis. Or save Saltwire from itself. But then, maybe that’s a good thing. Be careful what you wish for. For more than 50 years, critics rightly railed against the concentration of media […]

The Yarmouth ferry subsidy? Still? Still more? Always…

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 30, 2018. I could say I told them so — and I did, way back when “them” was still Rodney Macdonald and his Tories, and from then on forward through Darrell Dexter and Stephen McNeil to whatever same-old-same-old will come next — but I’d have to stand in […]

The gospel according to Mark (Lever)

This column originally appeared in the Halifax Examiner July 16, 2018. “We believe being in 25 communities is a big strength… I believe telling local stories in Gander, and in St. John’s, and in Corner Brook, and Summerside, and Sydney are going to be what supports this network. Not amalgamating. Not putting the same copy […]