Atlantic News, celebrating its 50th anniversary this month, has survived the death of its original owner, the rise of the internet, and the often forecasted death of print to endure as the last remaining newsstand in Halifax.
Michele and Stephen Gerrard have been the owners of Atlantic News, first opened by Pat Doherty in 1973, since 1998.On busy downtown street corners, pedestrians could easily grab a copy of the latest edition of The Chronicle Herald or The Globe and Mail from one of the city's news vending machines. At convenience stores, magazines lined the shelves alongside other necessities like shaving cream, condoms and toothbrushes.
Pat Doherty, seen here in this file photo from 1985, was the owner of Atlantic News until his death in 1991. The 90s were perhaps the last golden age for magazines, marked by iconic issues like Kurt Cobain and Nirvana on the cover of Rolling Stone magazine, tabloid headlines about the O.J. Simpson trial and Princess Diana's face on what seemed to be every magazine in the world in the months after her death.
As some newspapers became harder to ship to Halifax, Atlantic News got onboard with PressReader in the early 2000s, a service that allows them to print on-demand copies of thousands of newspapers around the world at the push of a button.print edition stopped being distributed in Nova Scotia, the company pivoted and made a deal to fly copies in for 400 eager customers each Saturday.
But Gerrard said demand from many of her clients has remained strong, and an increasing number of people with screen fatigue are turning back toward print.Atlantic News still carries thousands of magazines, says owner Michele Gerrard, but has evolved to carry some books as well.As proprietors of a newstand for so long, the Gerrards have witnessed history unfold, quite literally, in the pages of the magazines on their newsstand.