The Chronicle Herald

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 era 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. 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. Keating died in 2005. In 2007, Argyle Developments Ltd. purchased the property from his estate. On 3 February 2009, the paper laid off 24 employees, the first layoffs in the paper's 136-year history. The cuts represented approximately one quarter of its newsroom staff, but it nonetheless 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. 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. 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." 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 In April 2012, the Sunday edition was discontinued as a cost-cutting measure and the Saturday paper was renamed Weekend. In October 2014, the Herald issued layoff notices to 20 newsroom employees. ==2016–17 labour dispute==

Strike and bargaining In February 2015, the Herald locked out its 13 unionised printing press workers, causing the first work stoppage in the company's history. The lockout ended about a month later, after the union agreed to major concessions. Less than a year later, on 23 January 2016, 61 members of the Halifax Typographical Union's newsroom and news bureau staff went on strike. The Herald hired "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. By September 2016, the number of striking workers was down to 56 as some had sought new employment for financial reasons. The union criticized the Herald for spending more than $400,000 on security (as at September 2016) while demanding cuts in the newsroom, and stated that the real intention of management was to bust the union. The typographical union 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". The union 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. However, the dispute dragged on with no agreement being reached between the two parties. The newspaper was accused of making unreasonable demands with the aim of breaking the union, and hired lawyers advertising services in union-busting. As a result of this strike, CEO Mark Lever won the labour news website rankandfile.ca's annual Scumbag of the Year award for 2016. It was the second time in three years a Nova Scotian won this award. Strikebreakers and quality issues Throughout the strike, the Halifax Typographical Union used social media to draw light to typographical and factual errors that plagued the paper since the strike began, and alleged that these quality issues were a result of using inexperienced "scab" staff. In addition, the union and others lambasted the strikebreakers for questionable journalistic practices. The Herald approached several King's students and were rebuffed. Similarly, the union pointed out instances of the "scab Herald" reprinting press releases nearly verbatim. Of the quality of the newspaper during the strike, Bousquet wrote: "Without the professional journalists, the paper is crap [...] The Herald has zero credibility. And the complete abandonment of any journalistic standards is showing in spades." The superintendent of the Halifax Regional School Board, Elwin LeRoux, stated that he was "deeply offended to see the school represented so inaccurately". LeRoux stated that the school board had investigated the allegations and had come up empty-handed. Regional expansion On 13 April 2017, Transcontinental announced that it had sold all of its newspapers in Atlantic Canada to SaltWire Network, a newly formed parent company of the Herald. The Halifax Typographical Union called the purchase evidence that the Heralds claim of impending financial collapse was a "total fabrication". The president of CWA Canada also weighed in, stating of the ongoing labour dispute: "This has never been about money. It has been about power and union busting." Government inquiry and conclusion On 13 July 2017, the Department of Labour and Advanced Education announced that it was setting up an Industrial Inquiry Commission, under the provisions of the province's Trade Union Act, to force mediation between the union and the Herald management from 4 August 2017. A union spokesperson called the move "long overdue" while the Heralds chief operating officer called the announcement "puzzling". The dispute finally ended in August 2017 when the union voted to ratify a new eight-year deal. The agreement included an increase in the work week from 35 to 37.5 hours, the dismissal of 26 union staff (with 25 returning to the newspaper and one moving to Cape Breton), and wage cuts. == Circulation ==

The Chronicle Herald has seen like most Canadian daily newspapers a decline in circulation. Its total circulation dropped by percent to 91,490 copies daily from 2009 to 2015. The Chronicle Herald is the highest circulation newspaper in the Atlantic provinces, although it briefly lost that title to the now-defunct StarMetro Halifax (formerly Metro Halifax). Daily average ==Notable personnel ==

Editors • William Dennis • Robert McCleave • Jane Purves Journalists • Linden MacIntyre • Judi McLeod • Walter D. O'Hearn (Halifax Herald, 1929–1932) Columnists • George Bain • Silver Donald Cameron • Scott Taylor (current) • Jan Wong • Sylvain Charlebois (researcher, current) Cartoonists • Bob Chambers • Michael de Adder • Bruce MacKinnon (current) • Owen McCarron ==See also==