David Bentley (Canadian businessman)
David Bentley is a Canadian businessman from Halifax, Nova Scotia who has been involved in print media since the 1970s.
Born in England, Bentley emigrated to Nova Scotia in 1966.
Bentley and his wife Diana, along with Patrick and Joyce Sims, founded, The Great Eastern News Company Ltd., in 1974 and started publishing a weekly broadsheet named The Bedford-Sackville News, which focused on the suburban communities of Bedford and Lower Sackville within the Halifax-Dartmouth metropolitan area.
The Great Eastern News Company Ltd., was initially published out of Bentley's home but a press was acquired in 1978 and the company moved into a new building. A year later the format changed to a tabloid and began publishing six days a week as The Bedford-Sackville Daily News. The paper gained a reputation for printing stories that were not covered by its competition, The Chronicle Herald, some of which were considered sensational. In 1981, Bentley's company moved into downtown Halifax from its suburban base and renamed the tabloid as The Daily News, while gaining a reputation for hard-hitting stories and expanded sports coverage.
In 1985 the Newfoundland Capital Corporation or NCC gained a controlling interest in the paper and purchased Bentley's remaining share in 1987.
With the money received from sale of The Daily News to NCC, Bentley, along with Lyndon Watkins and Dulcie Conrad started a bi-weekly "gossip rag" or "scandal magazine" known as Frank to sell the sensational news coverage that mainstream press was averse to covering. Rare to the industry, the magazine had no advertising and operated solely from its print sales.
The first issue was published in November 1987 and focused on gossip about the private lives of the rich, famous and politically connected in the Maritime provinces.
Bentley expanded the Frank franchise to include an Ottawa edition in 1989 with the help of Michael Bate. This edition quickly outsold its Maritime counterpart, feeding off the void of gossip news in mainstream media in the nation's capital.
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