Transcontinental sells off its Atlantic papers
Embattled Chronicle Herald created new company to buy the profitable media brands
HALIFAX— Canada’s oldest independent newspaper — whose newsroom has been on strike for over a year — has bought all of Transcontinental Media’s newspapers in Atlantic Canada.
The Halifax Chronicle Herald said Thursday that a new company, SaltWire Network, will comprise 27 Transcontinental newspapers and the novanewsnow.com website and the Herald’s own publications.
Mark Lever, president and CEO of SaltWire Network, wouldn’t divulge the financial terms of the transaction, but said being in 30 communities would give the entity a “renewed relevance.”
“The success here is going to be about connecting with our audiences and engaging them, and like every media organization we’ve got to find a way to monetize that successfully going forward,” Lever said in a telephone interview.
He said while talks had been ongoing with Transcontinental, the deal in the end came together quickly.
Katherine Chartrand, director of communications for Transcontinental, confirmed that SaltWire had approached the company several months ago about purchasing the newspapers. She said the papers are profitable and represent $66 million in annual revenues.
Among the newspapers involved in the transaction are the Charlottetown Guardian, St. John’s Telegram and the Cape Breton Post.
Transcontinental remains the owner of two plants operated within its printing division in the region.
It says about 650 of its media employees in Atlantic Canada are part of the transaction and will receive an offer from SaltWire Network Inc.
Lever said the immediate plan is to keep the papers whole, including their workforces.
“The goal of this is to give autonomy and some authority in those local brands so that they can have the resources to cover the communities that they serve better going forward,” Lever said. “This is not reducing staff complements.” He said content would be shared between individual papers as required.
The acquisition comes amidst a contentious strike involving editorial staff at the Herald.
The union for the 54 striking reporters, photographers, editors and support staff at the Halifax Herald was scathing in its assessment of the purchase. It said the announcement stood in “stark contrast” to the concessions the Herald has insisted upon over the past 16 months.
“We were taken aback by it,” said Ingrid Bulmer, president of the Halifax Typographical Union, a local of CWA Canada.