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The Local Herald (Montreal)

The Local Herald is a community monthly started in September 2010 by journalist and publicist Bram D. Eisenthal as The Local Seeker West End Montreal Edition. It made its debut on September 15, 2010 as an 8-page bi-weekly publication. Fully black and white at first, the paper was the sister publication of The Local Seeker, a community weekly published in Cornwall, Ontario by Julia Martin Lucio and Mai-Liis Renaud.

History of The Local Herald

Bram Eisenthal, then a 53-year old Montreal-based career writer and publicist with extensive credits, was informed of a paper that had recently been started in Cornwall, Ontario by longtime friend Julia Lucio Martin, formerly of Montreal and a career web designer. Lucio sent him the paper via e-mail and he was so impressed that he immediately wondered whether he could start something similar in Montreal's West End. He had experience with the writing and editing of community papers. In 1980, Eisenthal, then in his early twenties, was hired as a full-time reporter for The Suburban, the largest English-language community weekly paper in the province of Quebec. Eisenthal returned to The Suburban in the late 1980s as associate editor, at which time he started the paper's insert section Montreal Scene: A Touch of Class, which he edited for a year and a half. Released by the owner for his refusal to heed what he saw as inappropriate editorial demands, Eisenthal later took his personal column, Briefly Bram, to The West End Chronicle, a community weekly that had started as the west-end-based The Monitor 50 years earlier. Eisenthal wrote Briefly Bram for the re-branded The Monitor for nine years, as well as for its sister publication The Westmount Examiner. Both papers were owned by the company Transcontinental, which published mostly French-language papers throughout Quebec. After The Monitor was folded by Transcontinental following a 60-year publishing history, Eisenthal continued penning Briefly Bram for The Examiner, leaving two years later in order to start Montreal's The Local Seeker, which he saw as the perfect fit for the niche created by The Monitor's closure.

The Local Seeker West End Montreal edition's initial mandate was to provide readers with something different than the fare existing in Montreal West End at the time. The Suburban was still around at the time and going strong with a circulation of 101,000. Also existing was: The West End Times, a weekly with strong ad content, but little else in the way of quality editorial content: The Free Press, a nice quality bi-weekly edited by David Goldberg, who hired Eisenthal to write Briefly Bram for him at The West End Chronicle (and the sister publication of the Westmount Independent, both publications owned and operated by local entrepreneur David Price) and several other small community publications of various sizes. What differentiated The Local Seeker from the other papers was its focus: lifestyles and leisure, offered via rotating columns every issue, penned by an impressive stable of writers. Eisenthal, who also almost always shot the cover photos as well, wrote a cover feature every issue, essentially a profile with the theme "Do you know your local (whatever)?" An excellent profile writer, Eisenthal had written something similar for Montreal Scene every issue,known at the time as Movers and Shakers. Briefly Bram had also effectively been a profile column during its nine year run for the two Transcontinental papers.

The Local Seeker celebrated its acclaimed first anniversary issue in September 2011 - the paper, which had a colour cover by this time and had expanded to 12 pages, featured a profile of legendary jazz musician Oliver Jones, a resident of Montreal's West End - and continued up to its Christmas/Holiday issue on December 9th, 2011, the first time the paper had just one issue in a month's time. It returned in January 2012 with a re-designed masthead and a new name: The Local Herald. Eisenthal sought to differentiate the paper from The Local Seeker in Cornwall and also to dispel the notion by some readers that its moniker implied some sort of cult. He had heard the comment "what are they seeking?" a few too many times for his liking. Eisenthal chose a name synonymous with publishing in Quebec: For 150 years, the Canadian province had hosted the famous Montreal Herald and Montreal's West End had also been the home, for a short but stunning two year run, of a quality weekly paper called The Hampstead Herald in the late 1980s, early 1990s. That paper had been published by journalists Warren Perley and Wesley Goldstein and was actually superior to The Suburban in look and content. Eisenthal sought Perley's blessing before making the move and received it.

The first issue of The Local Herald featured West End resident Lucia Larcinese, a pro female boxer, on its cover, for the issue of January 13, 2012.

Start of a monthly paper

For the paper's first year and a half, Eisenthal did everything but the layout of his paper (done by Lucio) by himself: the editing, 30 percent of the writing, the ad sales and the distribution. He met with his Cornwall partner, Julia Lucio, every second weekend, accepted delivery of his 5,000 copies and then spent Saturday and Sunday delivering them throughout the West End from the trunk of his car. With the activity wearing him down, Eisenthal made the decision to publish the paper as a 24-page monthly, starting in March 2012. The paper was then themed every issue, with March being The Wedding Issue and April being The Earth Day Issue. Several new columnists were also added: professional chef and restaurateur Michael Minorgan, CHOM-FM radio deejay Sharon Hyland, and Robert Callard, whose pursuits as a cyclist actually saved his life. After taking up cycling in order to lose weight, Callard discovered a large lump in his abdomen. The lump turned out to be a sign of Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, Callard received successful treatment and lived to manage his restaurant, Chez Nick in the suburb of Westmount, but also to become a columnist.

Columnists (as of April 2012)

The Local Herald's amazing stable of columnists includes:

Bram D. Eisenthal - The Local Seeker (the title a tribute to his previous column)

Father John Walsh - Spiritual Seedlings (by a highly-respected, retired Catholic priest)

Chantalle Kudsi - Yoga U.

Shlomo Schwartzberg - Entertainment Entre Nous (which he penned for Eisenthal at Montreal Scene over two decades earlier)

Steven Goldmann - Letters from LaLaLand (by a Hollywood director raised in Montreal)

Paul Graif - Spotlight on Sports (by a respected local radio and TV sports reporter and talk show host)

Caryn Roll - Whole Wheat Roll (nutrition)

Anita Benabou Rozenblat - Home Sweet Home (by one of Montreal's top-booking real estate agents)

Jason Zuckerman - Mortgage Matters (related advice from a top, young mortgage broker)

Andreas Kessaris - Read On! (by a thoughtful, knowledgeable, professional, local bibliophile)

Sharon Hyland - Liner Notes (by a deejay for Montreal's legendary rock station, CHOM-FM)

Chef Michael Minorgan - Chef Cayenne (by a true gastronomic connoisseur and professional chef)

Robert Callard - The Cyclopath (by a cycling aficionado and successful restaurateur)

Ricky Friedlander - Photophaeliac (by a professional, award-winning photographer)

Website

The Local Herald's URL is found at www.localheraldmontreal.com