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 last line — “Journalists come and journalists go, but the Halifax Herald goes on forever” — now sadly seems dated.

I’ve written plenty of stories, features and columns about “the paper Nova Scotians love to hate” since then. Here’s a sampling:

The Publisher’s Daughter

After nearly a decade of self-imposed exile, Heather Dennis has returned to her family’s newspaper business with plans to turn the Mail-Star into a newspaper you’ll want to read. Her supporters say she’s “a breath of fresh air.” Her detractors wish she’d go away and leave them alone.

(Cities, 1988)

Victims of the Herald

Halifax Herald staff reductions result in 24 jobs lost, 24 lives disrupted. But their pain is only the beginning of the pain for the community.

(The Coast, March 2009)

What would Graham say?

As a bitter strike at Atlantic Canada’s largest and most storied daily newspaper heads into its second year, both sides frequently invoke the memory of the Halifax Chronicle Herald’s late publisher to justify their competing arguments. But the more important question now is, will Graham Dennis’s 170-year-old newspaper even be around for anyone to remember by the time this strike ends… if it ever does?

(Atlantic Business Magazine, 2017)