It might be small, but it when it comes to graft, Prince Edward Island plays in the big leagues. Inside PEI’s long, strange attempt to become Canada’s online gambling hub.

…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.

The newspaper industry in Atlantic Canada is far less than healthy. The largest-circulation paper, the Halifax Chronicle Herald, is more than 400 days into a crippling strike which sees most of its senior reporters and editors on the picket line while its replacement workers are plugging out disturbingly sub-par journalism. Elsewhere in the area, the rest of Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have almost almost all of their daily and weekly newspapers cinched up between two companies: Brunswick News (owned by the Irving family, who employs approximately one-in-five New Brunswickers), and TC Media. Still, there are bright spots. Atlantic Canada is seeing a significant number of start-up journalism enterprises. Might there be a light at the end of the tunnel? Jesse joins Halifax Examiner publisher and editor Tim Bousquet and University of King’s College assistant professor Terra Tailleur to discuss. This live taping was a benefit for CKDU radio in Halifax – who carries CANADALAND every Friday morning at 8:00 a.m. AST.