#180 Who Buys A Newspaper Chain In 2017?

April 24, 2017

CANADALAND

…The Chronicle Herald’s Mark Lever, that’s who. After pleading poverty for nearly 16 months while his reporters, editors, and photographers are strike, he came up with the bucks to buy 28 Atlantic Canadian newspapers from the floundering Transcontinental chain. This gives his company an effective monopoly in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island. We speak with long-time Nova Scotia journalists (and former Transcontinental reporters) Stephen Kimber and Parker Donham about the rationale behind the purchase and whether this benefits news consumers in Atlantic Canada.

Jesse Brown

Host & Publisher

Russell Gragg

Producer

…The Chronicle Herald’s Mark Lever, that’s who.

After pleading poverty for nearly 16 months while his reporters, editors, and photographers are strike, he came up with the bucks to buy 28 Atlantic Canadian newspapers from the floundering Transcontinental chain. This gives his company an effective monopoly in Nova Scotia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Prince Edward Island.

We speak with long-time Nova Scotia journalists (and former Transcontinental reporters) Stephen Kimber and Parker Donham about the rationale behind the purchase and whether this benefits news consumers in Atlantic Canada.

More from this series

#1088 The Sweatshop Workers Who Power A.I.

The army of hidden workers who fool you into thinking AI is magic.

January 13, 2025

#1084 Waste Management: Sh*t’s Complicated

This is one shitty story. Is Canada’s sewage infrastructure ready to be flushed?

January 6, 2025

#1082 “The Warriors,” Lin-Manuel Miranda Takes on Another New York Story

Since the blockbuster success of his musical “Hamilton,” Lin-Manuel Miranda has been busy: acting, directing, and composing for Disney projects, including the upcoming movie “Mufasa: The Lion King.”

December 30, 2024

#1080 That Time We Bombed the Aurora Borealis

“…you have this attempt to actually change the Aurora Borealis. to affect it physically. This was called Project Waterhole. So they sent up a rocket with 100 kilograms of explosives, and exploded it in the Aurora Borealis band. Within two seconds, they had created a 40 kilometer wide hole in the Aurora Borealis.” - from The Forgotten Need to Probe the Sky

December 23, 2024

#1076 The Great Darkness

“Here's something that not many people know about the baby business. There are ‘leg-men.’ We call them ‘leg-men’ though some of them are women, who make it their business to find pregnant women who are not married. The leg-men look for them in a million and one places. They meet them in bars and parks and cafes and all over. They hear things.” - Eugene Moyneur (ex-wrester, ex-bodybuilder, baby-smuggler)

December 16, 2024

#1072 Why Almost Everyone Hates Caryma Sa’d

“The people who want to play morality police and decide who does or doesn't get to speak, they're not qualified arbiters of anything.” - Caryma Sa’d

December 9, 2024

#1068 Dental Plan (Lisa Needs Braces)

Are dentists defrauding the Canadian government?

December 2, 2024

Was the Y2K Bug Really a Hoax?

The Millenium Bug was supposed to bring the world to a halt, but governments claimed they squashed the problem. Was it all a panic over nothing?

November 28, 2024

All Podcasts

CANADALAND