Start with this from Page 173 of the federal budget Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled in the House of Commons last week: “Support for Journalism.” No one — certainly not I — would argue “a strong and independent news media” isn’t “crucial to a well-functioning democracy,” or that the news media doesn’t play a “vitally important...
The Trudeau government’s tax subsidy for journalism puts the Halifax Examiner in an impossible situation
Morning File, Friday, March 22, 2019
News 1. Holly Bartlett Last night, I went to a special preview of the first episode of AMI TV’s six-part series on Holly Bartlett (I wrote about the series here). It’s as good as I expected. I like that we can see where Holly lived, and how the police theory of her death makes no sense […]
The only thing that can save journalism: “Subscribe Somewhere”
Morning File, Monday, February 11, 2019
News 1. Canadian Press layoffs On Friday, the Canadian Press notified its staff that at the end of March it will be laying off six reporters nationwide, four of whom are in its Atlantic bureau in Halifax. The four Halifax reporters are Brett Bundale, Aly Thomson, Keith Doucette, and Alex Cooke. All are excellent reporters. […]
How Halifax Transit wants to put buses on the Macdonald Bridge ramp
Morning File, Wednesday, January 23, 2019
News 1. Tuition “For the seventh year in a row, Dalhousie University plans to raise the tuition fees it charges students,” reports Jennifer Henderson: The three per cent increase is the maximum the province allows universities to charge and still receive a one per cent increase in their annual operating grant from the government. An […]
The Chronicle Herald strike meets the “final option”
Part of me hopes Kaplan’s mediation can end the strike, but part of me would like to see the process proceed to a full-scale industrial inquiry. Now that could get interesting.
For the sake of the 53 reporters and editors still walking the picket line at the Halifax Chronicle Herald, part of me hopes super-mediator/arbitrator/industrial inquiry commissioner William Kaplan is able — through an initial stage of mediation next month — to find a quick resolution to their seemingly intractable, brutish, one-year-176-days-and-counting dispute with owners Mark...
Announcing: Joint subscriptions with the Cape Breton Spectator
I’m excited to announce a new collaboration with the Cape Breton Spectator. Here’s what I wrote about the Spectator when Mary Campbell launched the site last year: Campbell is of the Campbell clan that published the former Cape Breton Highlander, a radical labour paper published in Sydney from 1963 through 1976, and her sister is Susan Campbell, the host […]
Stop the presses! SaltWire and the destruction of journalism: Morning File, Monday, April 17, 2017
News 1. Stop the presses! Thursday morning, Transcontinental Media announced that it was divesting itself of its Atlantic Canada media holdings: Transcontinental Inc. announced today the sale of its publication portfolio in Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and New Brunswick to SaltWire Network Inc., an important independent local media group which publishes […]
Scapegoating Heritage Trust
It’s Beat Up on Heritage Trust time. Again. This time it’s a full page ad in the Chronicle Herald signed by seemingly everyone in town connected in some way to the development industry, including Sarah Dennis, the Herald’s owner and publisher, and her husband Mark Lever, the company’s president. The ad attacks Heritage Trust for asking for […]