The Bridgewater Bulletin and the Lunenburg Progress Enterprise are weekly community newspapers published on Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia is one of Canada's three Maritime provinces and is the most populous province in Atlantic Canada. The name of the province is Latin for "New Scotland," but "Nova Scotia" is the recognized, English-language name of the province. The provincial capital is Halifax. Nova Scotia is the...

’s South Shore by Lighthouse Publishing Ltd, one of the last family-owned newspapers in Canada

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Lighthouse employs approximately 50 professionals and maintains two offices, its main printing and production facility in Bridgewater and a satellite office located in historic Old Town Lunenburg, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Lighthouse’s newspapers and website are recent winners of the Canadian Community Newspaper Association Better Newspapers competition.

History

• Many newspapers have served the South Shore of Nova Scotia since Henry Fisher began The Nova Scotia Farmer in 1863. Only The Progress Enterprise in Lunenburg, founded by E.I. Nash in 1876, and The Bulletin in Bridgewater, founded by C.J. Craig in 1888, survived.
• Margaret and Ralph Hennigar purchased the newspapers and printing business in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Lighthouse Publishing is one of the few remaining family-owned newspaper operations in Canada. Today, most newspapers are under group or chain ownership.
• The Bulletin and the Progress Enterprise have a combined circulation of about 12,000. The Lighthouse Log is a 26,000 controlled-circulation advertising vehicle distributed free throughout Lunenburg and Queens Counties.
• In 1995 the weekly papers were redesigned by editor Vernon Oickle and his staff, and changed format from broadsheet
  Broadsheet
  Broadsheet is the largest of the various newspaper formats and is characterized by long vertical pages . The term derives from types of popular prints usually just of a single sheet, sold on the streets and containing various types of material, from ballads to political satire. The first broadsheet...
  
   to 11 x 17-inch tabloid. Lighthouse Publishing gradually moved from the original hot lead makeup to cut-and-paste layout and design, and then to full pagination. Now it has gone digital and has moved from computer to plate, rather than from computer to negative to plate.
• Lynn Hennigar became president and general manager of Lighthouse Publishing in 1995, replacing her father, Ralph Hennigar who is now retired. Marg Hennigar, publisher, internationally recognized editorial writer and long-time columnist died, but not before completing a media literacy book for children entitled No News Is Bad News.