HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The ''Regina Leader-Post'' is the daily newspaper of
Regina, Saskatchewan Regina () is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 C ...
, Canada, and a member of the
Postmedia Network Postmedia Network Canada Corp. (also known as Postmedia Network, Postmedia News or Postmedia) is a Canadian media conglomerate consisting of the publishing properties of the former Canwest, with primary operations in newspaper publishing, news ...
.


Founding

The newspaper was first published as ''The Leader'' in 1883 by
Nicholas Flood Davin Nicholas Flood Davin, KC (January 13, 1840 – October 18, 1901) was a lawyer, journalist and politician, born at Kilfinane, Ireland. The first MP for Assiniboia West (1887–1900), Davin was known as the voice of the North-West. Davin fou ...
, soon after
Edgar Dewdney Edgar Dewdney, (November 5, 1835 – August 8, 1916) was a Canadian surveyor, road builder, Indian commissioner and politician born in Devonshire, England. He emigrated to British Columbia in 1859 in order to act as surveyor for the Dewdney ...
, Lieutenant-Governor of the North-West Territories, decided to name the vacant and featureless site of Pile-O-Bones, renamed Regina by Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll, the wife of the Governor General of Canada, as territorial capital, rather than the previously-established
Battleford Battleford ( 2011 population 4,065) is a small town located across the North Saskatchewan River from the City of North Battleford, in Saskatchewan, Canada. Battleford and North Battleford are collectively referred to as "The Battlefords" b ...
,
Troy Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
and
Fort Qu'Appelle Fort Qu'Appelle is a town in Canadian province of Saskatchewan located in the Qu'Appelle River valley north-east of Regina, between Echo and Mission Lakes of the Fishing Lakes. It is not to be confused with the once-significant nearby t ...
, presumably because he had acquired ample land on the site for resale. "A group of prominent citizens approached lawyer
Nicholas Flood Davin Nicholas Flood Davin, KC (January 13, 1840 – October 18, 1901) was a lawyer, journalist and politician, born at Kilfinane, Ireland. The first MP for Assiniboia West (1887–1900), Davin was known as the voice of the North-West. Davin fou ...
soon after his arrival in Regina and urged him to set up a newspaper. Davin accepted their offerand their $5000 in seed money. The Regina Leader printed its first edition on March 1, 1883." Published weekly by the mercurial Davin, it almost immediately achieved national prominence during the
North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a resistance by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of S ...
and the subsequent
trial of Louis Riel The trial of Louis Riel took place in Regina, Canada in 1885. Louis Riel had been a leader of a resistance movement by the Métis and First Nations people of western Canada against the Government of Canada in what is now the province of Saskatc ...
. Davin had immediate access to the developing story, and his scoops were picked up by the national press and briefly brought the ''Leader'' to national prominence. Davin's greatest coup was sending his reporter Mary McFadyen Maclean to conduct a jailhouse interview with Riel. Maclean obtained this by masquerading as a
francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...
Catholic cleric and interviewing Riel in French under the nose of uncomprehending anglophone watch-house guards.


Growth and absorbing competitors

Having begun with a small wooden shack before Regina had full streets, or electricity and plumbing outside
Government House Government House is the name of many of the official residences of governors-general, governors and lieutenant-governors in the Commonwealth and the remaining colonies of the British Empire. The name is also used in some other countries. Gover ...
, ''The Leader'' soon moved to a substantial office building on the southwest corner of Hamilton Street and 11th Avenue, one block east of what was then the post office, southwest across street from
City Hall In local government, a city hall, town hall, civic centre (in the UK or Australia), guildhall, or a municipal building (in the Philippines), is the chief administrative building of a city, town, or other municipality. It usually houses ...
. Also around this time, it was acquired by the Sifton family It then moved to a multi-story building across Hamilton Street to the south of the Simpson's department store. It ultimately relocated in the 1960s to east-city outskirts on Park Street at Victoria Avenue, where it still remains. In 1920, the ''Leader'' merged with another paper, the ''Regina Evening Post'', itself in a building on Twelfth Avenue at Rose Street before the merger, and continued to publish daily editions of both before consolidating them under the title ''The Leader-Post'' in 1930. In 1922, the paper launched one of the oldest radio stations in Canada, CKCK. Five years later, the company was purchased by the Sifton family, which launched
CKCK-TV CKCK-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Eastgate Drive and High ...
, Saskatchewan's first television station, in 1954. Newspapers were a thriving industry in the days through television's arrival in the 1950s until the Internet in the 1990s began to change people's gathering of news, compounded by the merger of local companies into ownership of local companies by national multi-corporation organizations. Other titles absorbed by the ''Leader-Post'' included the ''Regina Daily Star'' and ''The Province''. In 1995, the ''Leader-Post'' released an electronic version of the newspaper so that subscribers could view their newspapers on the Internet. Electronic and daily print subscribers also enjoy access to extra content not available to all readers.


Corporate ownership

Decline of local news coverage radically occurred in 1996, when the paper and its sister, the Saskatoon ''StarPhoenix'', were acquired from their owner based in
Markham, Ontario Markham () is a city in the Regional Municipality of York, Ontario, Canada. It is approximately northeast of Downtown Toronto. In the 2021 Census, Markham had a population of 338,503, which ranked it the largest in York Region, fourth largest ...
, Armadale group, by Hollinger Inc., a company that was headed by the Canadian media baron
Conrad Black Conrad Moffat Black, Baron Black of Crossharbour (born 25 August 1944), is a Canadian-born British former newspaper publisher, businessman, and writer. His father was businessman George Montegu Black II, who had significant holdings in Canadi ...
. Within three months, the staffs at each newspaper had been cut by one quarter, which becoming a ''cause célèbre'' in Canadian journalism. The event with substantial elimination of staff and coverage of local news corresponded with one at the Regina television station
CKCK-DT CKCK-DT (channel 2) is a television station in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, part of the CTV Television Network. Owned and operated by network parent Bell Media, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on Eastgate Drive and Hig ...
, once locally owned but by 1985 no longer so. An immediate effect was a significant reduction in coverage of local and provincial news, and a greater coverage of national events. Loss of news reporter staff, the increasing television news coverage and the arrival and growth of the internet all increased difficulty in preserving, much less increasing, the ''Leader-Post'' significance. Black's company subsequently divested itself of the ''Leader-Post'' in 2000, together with most other Canadian news media it had owned, in conjunction with Black's renunciation of his
Canadian citizenship Canadian nationality law details the conditions in which a person is a national of Canada. With few exceptions, almost all individuals born in the country are automatically citizens at birth. Foreign nationals may naturalize after living in Ca ...
to obtain a
British peerage The peerages in the United Kingdom are a legal system comprising both hereditary and lifetime titles, composed of various noble ranks, and forming a constituent part of the British honours system. The term '' peerage'' can be used both col ...
. Eventually branding itself as the ''Regina Leader-Post'', the newspaper shut down its printing facilities in 2015 in favor of being printed in Saskatoon with the press of ''
The StarPhoenix ''The StarPhoenix'' is a daily newspaper that serves Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada, and is a part of Postmedia Network. The ''StarPhoenix'' puts out six editions each week and publishes one weekly, ''Bridges''. It is also part of the canada.co ...
''.


Circulation

Like most Canadian daily newspapers, the ''Leader-Post'' has seen a decline in circulation. Its total circulation dropped by percent to 34,136 copies daily from 2009 to 2015.


In popular culture

The opening sequence of the television sitcom
The Big Bang Theory ''The Big Bang Theory'' is an American television sitcom created by Chuck Lorre and Bill Prady, both of whom served as executive producers on the series, along with Steven Molaro, all of whom also served as head writers. It premiered on CBS ...
features a photo of the original building of ''The Leader.''


Notable journalists

*
Dave Dryburgh Dave Dryburgh (November 20, 1908July 11, 1948) was a Scotland-born Canadian sports journalist. A native of Kirkcaldy and an immigrant to Regina, he reported on the soccer games in which he played for ''The Leader-Post''. As the newspaper's spo ...
, sports editor from 1932 to 1948, and
Canadian Football Hall of Fame The Canadian Football Hall of Fame (CFHOF) is a not-for-profit corporation, located in Hamilton, Ontario, that celebrates great achievements in Canadian football. It is maintained by the Canadian Football League (CFL). It includes displays about t ...
inductee


See also

*
List of newspapers in Canada This list of newspapers in Canada is a list of newspapers printed and distributed in Canada. Daily newspapers Local weeklies Alberta * Airdrie – ''Airdrie Echo'' * Bashaw – '' Bashaw Star'' * Bassano – ''Bassano Times'' * Beaumont – ...


Notes

Regina Public Library. Newspapers. http://www.reginalibrary.ca/prairiehistory/highlights_education.html Accessed August 13, 2015.


External links


''Leader-Post''


{{Postmedia Newspapers published in Regina, Saskatchewan Postmedia Network publications Daily newspapers published in Saskatchewan Newspapers established in 1883 1883 establishments in Canada