Daily News Sign (2007)
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Type | Daily newspaper |
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Format | Tabloid |
Owner(s) | Transcontinental |
Publisher | Transcontinental |
Founded | 1974 |
Ceased publication | 2008 |
Headquarters | Lower Water Street Halifax, Nova Scotia |
The Daily News was a tabloid newspaper in Halifax, Nova Scotia that was published from 1974 until ceasing operations in February 2008.
The Daily News owed its existence to David Bentley, who, along with his wife Diana and Patrick and Joyce Sims, founded The Great Eastern News Company Ltd. in 1974 and started publishing a weekly broadsheet named The Bedford-Sackville News. This paper 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 not covered by its competition, The Chronicle Herald, some of which were considered sensational. In 1981, Bentley's company moved to downtown Halifax from its suburban base and redubbed its tabloid as The Daily News, while gaining a reputation for hard-hitting stories and expanded sports coverage.
In 1985 the Newfoundland Capital Corporation gained a controlling interest in the paper and complete ownership in 1987 which resulted in a move to Dartmouth. The paper was subsequently redesigned and a press upgrade made it one of the first papers in Atlantic Canada to incorporate colour; on October 2, 1988 it became the first paper in the region to publish a Sunday edition. Under NCC ownership, the tendency for sensational coverage was tempered as the paper became more mainstream.
On July 1, 1997 NCC sold the paper to Southam Newspapers, which was controlled by Conrad Black's Hollinger Corporation. On November 15, 2000, Hollinger sold The Daily News, along with the majority of its major Southam papers to CanWest Global Communications in what was termed the biggest media deal in Canadian history.