The Chronicle Herald

The Chronicle Herald
Type Daily newspaper
Format Broadsheet
Owner(s) Sarah Dennis
Founded 1874
Headquarters 2717 Joseph Howe Drive
Halifax, Nova Scotia
B3J 2T4
Circulation 70,000 weekdays
72,000 Saturdays (September 2014)[1]
ISSN 0839-4008
Website www.thechronicleherald.ca
Free online archives thechronicleherald.ca/archives (August 16, 1999 - present)

The Chronicle Herald is a broadsheet newspaper published in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The largest newspaper company in Nova Scotia, The Chronicle Herald is also the highest circulation newspaper in the Atlantic provinces and the largest independently owned newspaper company in Canada. The paper is owned by Sarah Dennis of Halifax.

History

Billboard on the former Herald Building in downtown Halifax, 2007

Early years

Founded in 1874 as The Morning Herald, the paper quickly became one of Halifax's main newspapers. The same company also owned the Evening Mail, which was published in the afternoon. Its main competitors were the Chronicle in the morning, and the Star in the afternoon. By 1949 the papers had merged to become The Chronicle-Herald and Mail-Star respectively.

Graham Dennis years

Graham W. Dennis took over as publisher of the newspaper in 1954, at age 26, after the death of his father, senator William Henry Dennis, who in turn had succeeded senator William Dennis in running the paper.[2] He led the newspaper for the next half century. Dennis was proud of the paper's independence and rebuffed numerous offers to buy it. He was known as a humanistic employer interested in the welfare of his employees, stating that his proudest moment was the introduction of a pension plan for Herald staff.[2] He had a reputation as an "old-school media baron" who set up bureaus across Canada and even one in London, England.[3] Dennis considered the paper essential to effecting positive change in Nova Scotia and ensured that it was available across the province.[3]

In 1998 the company began producing a Sunday edition called The Sunday Herald, which ran until April 20, 2013. In 2004 The Chronicle-Herald and Mail-Star were merged to form the single The Chronicle Herald. In January 2004, The Chronicle Herald became the first newspaper in Canada, and one of only several in the world, to operate a WIFAG offset press. This development led to an increased use of colour, and changes in font and styling.

In October 2008, The Chronicle Herald was named one of "Canada's Top 100 Employers" by Mediacorp Canada Inc., and was featured in Maclean's newsmagazine.[4]

On February 3, 2009, the paper laid off 24 employees, the first layoffs in the paper's 136-year history.[5] The cuts represented approximately one quarter of its newsroom staff, but it remained the largest newsroom east of Montreal. These cuts impacted the production department where nine employees were laid off. The company stated that these layoffs were the result of a decline in advertising due to the distress of the current economic situation.[6] In 2014, the Herald issued layoff notices to another 20 newsroom employees.[7]

New management

Sarah Dennis, daughter of owner Graham Dennis and vice-president since the 1990s, took over as CEO of the newspaper in November 2010.[3] She married Mark Lever in August 2011.[5] Graham Dennis, who ran the newspaper for more than 57 years, died on December 1, 2011 at the age of 84.[2] Sarah Dennis inherited the paper. Lever took over as president and CEO in 2012.

Though the newspaper is profitable,[3] Dennis and Lever have aggressively cut costs in recent years. Dennis holds a "far less romantic view of the newspaper" than her father did, a characteristic that journalist Stephen Kimber said has made cost-cutting easy.[3] Dennis stated: "It's a business, and you have to run it like a business. The history is important, but you can't let that determine what you do."[3]

Shortly after taking over as CEO, Dennis championed the newspaper's independence, stating: "The fact that we’re not controlled by someone in Ontario makes a big difference in what we can do."[5] She stated that the newspaper would remain independent as long as possible.[5] However, following her father's death Dennis stated that she would entertain offers from potential buyers.[3]

Discord erupted in 2011 after the Herald wrote a new contract for freelance journalists that gave the newspaper rights to freelancers' work forever, without any payment for signing over the copyright. Numerous freelancers, including Ralph Surette and Silver Donald Cameron, refused to sign.[5] Dennis stated that the newspaper was simply emulating what other newspapers across the country were doing.[5]

The newspaper purchased Bounty Print, a commercial printing company, in 2011.[3] In 2012 they purchased The Casket, a weekly newspaper published in Antigonish, through a Herald sister company, Brace Publishing Limited. The company also launched the glossy Herald Magazine in February 2012.[3] It launched the Cape Breton Star, a weekly newspaper, in Cape Breton in May 2014.[8]

Circulation has been in decline. In 2012 the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported circulation of 108,389 weekdays, 112,306 Saturdays and 97,190 Sundays[9] In April 2012 the Sunday edition was discontinued as a cost-cutting measure and the Saturday paper was renamed Weekend.[3] Still, in 2013, Sarah Dennis stated that the newspaper was profitable and that readership was at an all-time high.[3] In September 2014, weekday circulation was estimated at 70,000, with the weekend edition selling 72,000. On-line subscriptions totaled 1,862.[1]

In February 2015, The Chronicle Herald locked out its 13 unionized printing press workers, causing the first work stoppage in the company's history.[10] The lockout ended about a month later, after the union agreed to major concessions.[11]

2016 strike

On January 23, 2016, 61 members of the Halifax Typographical Union's newsroom and news bureau staff were locked out of the Herald by Dennis and Lever, who went on to hire scab reporters as replacements. The Chronicle Herald refused any concessions offered by the union, and later on the striking staff launched a competing online newspaper called Local Xpress.[12] By September 2016, the number of striking workers was down to 56 as some had sought new employment for financial reasons.[13]

The union has criticized the Herald for spending more than $400,000 on security (as at September 2016) while demanding cuts in the newsroom, and has stated that stated that the real intention of management is to bust the union.[13][14] The typographical union has also accused Sarah Dennis of hiring private investigators to tail and intimidate picketers.

In September 2016 the Herald announced that it was shutting down the Cape Breton Star due to "a prevailing headwind of union sympathy in industrial Cape Breton".[8][15]

The union has agreed to wage cuts and increased working hours equating to an hourly pay decrease of 17 per cent, layoffs of a third of unionized staff, a cap on severance pay, reductions in vacation time and mileage allowance, a 25 per cent lower starting wage, and elimination of the defined benefit pension plan founded by Graham Dennis.[16] However, no agreement has been reached. The newspaper has been accused of making unreasonable demands with the aim of breaking the union, and has hired lawyers advertising services in union-busting.[16]

In the latest round of bargaining in October 2016, Herald made numerous additional demands, including further cuts to the union's bargaining power, reduced sick leave pay, a further four per cent wage cut, eight more layoffs (amounting to a total of 26 layoffs), and the closure of Local Xpress and the signing-over of all Local Xpress content to the Herald.[16] In November 2016 the union filed a complaint with the Nova Scotia Labour Board accusing the Herald management of "bargaining in a manner designed to end union representation", preventing an agreement from being reached.[17]

Notable personnel

Editors

Journalists

Columnists

Cartoonists

See also

Further reading

References

  1. 1 2 Reported in AllNovaScotia.com, May 1, 2015, citing an Audited Media report
  2. 1 2 3 Leger, Dan (1 December 2011). "Chronicle Herald publisher dies at 84". Halifax Chronicle-Herald.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 Borzykowski, Bryan (September 2013). "Good On Paper" (PDF). inBusiness.
  4. ↑ "Reasons for Selection, 2009 Canada's Top 100 Employers Competition".
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Soroka, Chelcie (15 November 2011). "Sarah Dennis: Herald Heiress". King's Journalism Review.
  6. ↑ "Downturn hitting home". Archived from the original on February 10, 2009.
  7. ↑ "Chronicle Herald issues layoff notices to 20 newsroom staff". CBC News. 31 October 2014.
  8. 1 2 Weeks, Joan (15 September 2016). "Chronicle Herald shuts down its Cape Breton paper, citing 'headwind of union sympathy'". CBC News.
  9. ↑ Audit Bureau of Circulations e-Circ data for the six months ending September 30, 2011. Retrieved February 16, 2012.
  10. ↑ DeVet, Robert (21 February 2015). "Chronicle Herald locks out pressroom workers". Halifax Media Co-op.
  11. ↑ "The Chronicle Herald's locked out press operators back on job Monday". CBC News. The Canadian Press. 8 March 2015.
  12. ↑ Bradshaw, James (20 June 2016). "Striking Halifax Chronicle journalists amp up parallel publication efforts". The Globe and Mail.
  13. 1 2 Donovan, Moira (2 September 2016). "Herald employees still waiting for resolution as strike passes 8th month". CBC News.
  14. ↑ Patil, Anjuli (5 November 2016). "Talks break down in Chronicle Herald negotiations". CBC News.
  15. ↑ Pace, Natasha (15 September 2016). "Chronicle Herald halts Cape Breton Star publication amid ongoing union dispute". Global News.
  16. 1 2 3 Kimber, Stephen (21 November 2016). "'Make Never,' Grant Machum and 'Graham Dennis isn't around to save you anymore'". Halifax Examiner.
  17. ↑ Dingwell, Rebecca (14 November 2016). "Striking Chronicle Herald workers file complaint to the Labour Board". The Coast.

External links

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