The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language
broadsheet daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide variety of fields such as politics, business, sports ...
. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of
Torstar Corporation
Torstar Corporation is a Canadian mass media company which primarily publishes daily and community newspapers. In addition to the ''Toronto Star'', its flagship and namesake, Torstar also publishes daily newspapers in Hamilton, Peterborough, Ni ...
and part of Torstar's
Daily News Brands division. The newspaper's offices are located at
One Yonge Street
One Yonge Street (also known as the Toronto Star Building) is a 25-storey office building that serves as the headquarters of Torstar and its flagship newspaper, the ''Toronto Star''. It is 100 metres tall and built in the International style. I ...
in the
Harbourfront neighbourhood of Toronto.
The newspaper was established in 1892 as the ''Evening Star'' and was later renamed the ''Toronto Daily Star'' in 1900, under
Joseph E. Atkinson
Joseph E. Atkinson (born Joseph Atkinson, December 23, 1865 – May 8, 1948) was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. Under his leadership the ''Toronto Star'' became one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Canada. Atkinso ...
. Atkinson was a major influence in shaping the editorial stance of the paper, with the paper having reflected his values until his death in 1948.
The paper was renamed the ''Toronto Star'' in 1971. The newspaper introduced a Sunday edition in 1973.
History
The ''Star'' was created in 1892 by striking ''
Toronto News'' printers and writers, led by future
mayor of Toronto
The mayor of Toronto is the head of Toronto City Council and chief executive officer of the municipal government. The mayor is elected alongside city council every four years on the fourth Monday of October; there are no term limits. While in ...
and social reformer
Horatio Clarence Hocken
Horatio Clarence Hocken (October 12, 1857 – February 18, 1937) was a Canadian politician, Mayor of Toronto, social reformer, a founder of what became the ''Toronto Star'' and Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of British America from ...
, who became the newspaper's founder, along with another future mayor,
Jimmy Simpson.
The ''Star'' was first printed on ''
Toronto World
''The Toronto World'' was a newspaper based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It existed between 1880 and 1921, and a Sunday edition operated from 1891 to 1924. Founded by William Findlay "Billy" Maclean, it was popular among Toronto's working class a ...
'' presses, and at its formation, ''The World'' owned a 51 percent interest in it as a
silent partner
A silent partner is one who shares in the profits and losses of a business, but is not involved in its management.
Silent partner or Silent Partners may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Silent Partner'', a 2005 film starring Tara Reid ...
. That arrangement only lasted for two months, during which time it was rumoured that
William Findlay "Billy" Maclean, ''The World''s proprietor, was considering selling the ''Star'' to the Riordon family. After an extensive fundraising campaign among the ''Star'' staff, Maclean agreed to sell his interest to Hocken.
The paper did poorly in its first few years. Hocken sold out within the year, and several owners followed in succession until railway entrepreneur
William Mackenzie bought it in 1896. Its new editors,
Edmund E. Sheppard
Edmund is a masculine given name or surname in the English language. The name is derived from the Old English elements ''ēad'', meaning "prosperity" or "riches", and ''mund'', meaning "protector".
Persons named Edmund include:
People Kings an ...
and
Frederic Thomas Nicholls
Frederic Thomas Nicholls (November 22, 1856 – October 25, 1921) was a Canadian businessman, electrical engineer and politician. He was a Conservative senator representing the senatorial division of Toronto, Ontario from 1917 to 1921.
In 18 ...
, moved the entire ''Star'' operation into the same building used by the magazine ''
Saturday Night''.
Under Atkinson
Joseph E. "Holy Joe" Atkinson, backed by funds raised by supporters of Prime Minister
Wilfrid Laurier
Sir Henri Charles Wilfrid Laurier, ( ; ; November 20, 1841 – February 17, 1919) was a Canadian lawyer, statesman, and politician who served as the seventh prime minister of Canada from 1896 to 1911. The first French Canadian prime minis ...
, bought the paper on 13 December 1899. The supporters included
Senator George Cox,
William Mulock
Sir William Mulock (January 19, 1843 – October 1, 1944) was a Canadian lawyer, businessman, educator, farmer, politician, judge, and philanthropist. He served as vice-chancellor of the University of Toronto from 1881 to 1900, negotiating th ...
,
Peter Charles Larkin
Peter Charles Larkin, (May 14, 1855 – February 3, 1930) was a Canadian businessman, diplomat and political patron.
Business career
Larkin, a world traveller who specialized in finding foodstuffs for import, was best known for founding the ...
and
Timothy Eaton
Timothy Eaton (March 1834 – 31 January 1907) was an Irish businessman who founded the Eaton's department store, one of the most important retail businesses in Canada's history.
Early life and family
He was born in Ballymena, County Antrim, ...
. Atkinson became the controlling
shareholder of the ''Star''. The ''Star'' was frequently criticized for practising the
yellow journalism
Yellow journalism and yellow press are American terms for journalism and associated newspapers that present little or no legitimate, well-researched news while instead using eye-catching headlines for increased sales. Techniques may include ...
of its era. For decades, the paper included heavy doses of crime and sensationalism, along with advocating social change.
Atkinson was the ''Star''s editor from 1899 until his death in 1948. The newspaper's early opposition and criticism of the
Nazi regime
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
saw it become one of the first North American papers to be
banned in Germany. Atkinson had a social conscience. He championed many causes that would come to be associated with the modern
welfare state
A welfare state is a form of government in which the state (or a well-established network of social institutions) protects and promotes the economic and social well-being of its citizens, based upon the principles of equal opportunity, equita ...
:
old age pension
A pension (, from Latin ''pensiō'', "payment") is a fund into which a sum of money is added during an employee's employment years and from which payments are drawn to support the person's retirement from work in the form of periodic payments ...
s,
unemployment insurance
Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are funded by a comp ...
, and
health care. The
Government of Canada
The government of Canada (french: gouvernement du Canada) is the body responsible for the federal administration of Canada. A constitutional monarchy, the Crown is the corporation sole, assuming distinct roles: the executive, as the ''Crown ...
Digital Collections website describes Atkinson as:
a "radical" in the best sense of that term.... The ''Star'' was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people. The friendship of Atkinson, the publisher, with Mackenzie King, the prime minister
A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...
, was a major influence on the development of Canadian social policy.
Shortly before his death in 1948, Joseph E. Atkinson transferred ownership of the paper to a charitable organization given the mandate of continuing the paper's liberal tradition. In 1949, the Province of Ontario passed the ''Charitable Gifts Act'', barring charitable organizations from owning large parts of profit-making businesses, that effectively required the ''Star'' to be sold.
Atkinson's will had directed that profits from the paper's operations were "for the promotion and maintenance of social, scientific and economic reforms which are charitable in nature, for the benefit of the people of the province of Ontario" and it stipulated that the paper could be sold only to people who shared his social views. The five trustees of the charitable organization circumvented the Act by buying the paper themselves and swearing before the
Supreme Court of Ontario
The Supreme Court of Ontario was a superior court of the Canadian province of Ontario. Created in 1881 pursuant to the Ontario Judicature Act (1881), the Supreme Court of Ontario had two branches: the High Court of Justice Division and the Appell ...
to continue what became known as the "Atkinson Principles":
![Banting-front-page Toronto Daily Star 1922](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/29/Banting-front-page_Toronto_Daily_Star_1922.jpg)
* A strong, united and independent Canada
*
Social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
* Individual and civil liberties
* Community and civic engagement
* The rights of working people
* The necessary role of government
These principles continue to affect the ''Star''s editorial stances. In February 2006, ''Star'' media columnist
Antonia Zerbisias
Antonia Zerbisias is a Canadian journalist associated with the ''Toronto Star'' from 1989 until she took early retirement from the paper on 31 October 2014. She has been a reporter and TV host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as wel ...
wrote on her blog:
Besides, we are the ''Star'' which means we all have the Atkinson Principles—and its multi-culti values—tattooed on our butts. Fine with me. At least we are upfront about our values, and they almost always work in favour of building a better Canada.
Other early media ventures
Under Atkinson, the ''Star'' launched several other media initiatives, including a weekend supplemental magazine, the ''
Star Weekly
The ''Star Weekly'' magazine was a Canadian periodical published from 1910 until 1973. The publication was read widely in rural Canada where delivery of daily newspapers was infrequent.
History Formation
The newspaper was founded as the ''Toronto ...
'', from 1910 to 1973. From 1922 to 1933, the ''Star'' was also a radio broadcaster on its station
CFCA, broadcasting on a
wavelength
In physics, the wavelength is the spatial period of a periodic wave—the distance over which the wave's shape repeats.
It is the distance between consecutive corresponding points of the same phase on the wave, such as two adjacent crests, t ...
of 400
metre
The metre (British spelling) or meter (American spelling; see spelling differences) (from the French unit , from the Greek noun , "measure"), symbol m, is the primary unit of length in the International System of Units (SI), though its prefi ...
s (749.48 kHz); its coverage was complementary to the paper's reporting.
The station was closed following the establishment of the
Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission
The Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission (CRBC), also referred to as the Canadian Radio Commission (CRC), was Canada's first public broadcaster and the immediate precursor to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Origins
The CRBC was establis ...
(CRBC) and the introduction of a government policy that, in essence, restricted private stations to an
effective radiated power
Effective radiated power (ERP), synonymous with equivalent radiated power, is an IEEE standardized definition of directional radio frequency (RF) power, such as that emitted by a radio transmitter. It is the total power in watts that would h ...
of 100
watt
The watt (symbol: W) is the unit of power or radiant flux in the International System of Units (SI), equal to 1 joule per second or 1 kg⋅m2⋅s−3. It is used to quantify the rate of energy transfer. The watt is named after James ...
s.
The ''Star'' would continue to supply sponsored content to the CRBC's CRCT station—which later became CBC station
CBL—an arrangement that lasted until 1946.
1971–present
In 1971, the newspaper was renamed ''The Toronto Star'' and moved to a modern International-style office tower at
One Yonge Street
One Yonge Street (also known as the Toronto Star Building) is a 25-storey office building that serves as the headquarters of Torstar and its flagship newspaper, the ''Toronto Star''. It is 100 metres tall and built in the International style. I ...
by
Queens Quay. The original
''Star'' building at 80 King Street West was demolished to make room for
First Canadian Place
First Canadian Place (originally First Bank Building) is a skyscraper in the Financial District of Toronto, Ontario, at the northwest corner of King and Bay streets, and serves as the global operational headquarters of the Bank of Montreal. At ...
.
The ''Star'' expanded during the 1970s with the introduction of a Sunday edition in 1973 and a morning edition in 1981.
[
In 1992, its printing plant was moved to the ]Toronto Star Press Centre
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
at the Highway 407 & 400
__NOTOC__
Year 400 ( CD) was a leap year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. In the Roman Empire, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Stilicho and Aurelianus (or, less frequently, year ...
interchange in Vaughan
Vaughan () (2021 population 323,103) is a city in Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Regional Municipality of York, just north of Toronto. Vaughan was the fastest-growing municipality in Canada between 1996 and 2006 with its population increas ...
. In September 2002, the logo was changed, and "The" was dropped from the masthead. During the 2003 Northeast blackout, the ''Star'' printed the paper at a press in Welland
Welland is a city in the Regional Municipality of Niagara in Southern Ontario, Canada. As of 2021, it had a population of 55,750.
The city is in the centre of Niagara and located within a half-hour driving distance to Niagara Falls, Niagara-on ...
, Ontario. The newspaper's former printing plant was housed at One Yonge Street until the Toronto Star Press Centre opened.
Until the mid-2000s, the front page of the ''Toronto Star'' had no third-party advertising aside from upcoming lottery jackpot estimates from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation
Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation, known for corporate branding purposes simply as OLG since 2006, is a Crown corporation owned by the Government of Ontario, Canada. It is responsible for the province's lotteries, charity and Aboriginal ...
(OLG).
On May 28, 2007, the ''Star'' unveiled a redesigned paper that featured larger type, narrower pages, fewer and shorter articles, renamed sections, a more prominent focus on local news, and less focus on international news, columnists, and opinion pieces. However, on January 1, 2009, the ''Star'' reverted to its previous format. ''Star P.M.'', a free newspaper in PDF format that could be downloaded from the newspaper's website each weekday afternoon, was discontinued in October 2007, thirteen months after its launch.
On January 15, 2016, Torstar confirmed the closure of its Vaughan printing presses and indicated that it would outsource printing to Transcontinental Printing, leading to the layoff of all 285 staff at the plant, as Transcontinental had its own existing facility, also in Vaughan. The newspaper said the closure was effected so it could better focus on its digital outlets.
In February 2018, the ''Toronto Star'' suspended its internship program indefinitely to cut its costs. Long a source of Canada's next generation of journalists, the paid positions were seen as a vital part of the national industry, and their suspension, a sign of its continuing decline. In 2020, the internship program returned.
In April 2018, the ''Toronto Star'' expanded its local coverage of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Halifax with rebranded daily newspapers, previously known as ''Metro'', as '' StarMetro'', which was a joint venture between Torstar (90%) and Swedish media company Metro International (10%). In October 2018, the ''Toronto Star'' acquired iPolitics
''iPolitics'' is a Canadian digital newspaper, which covers stories in Canadian politics. The site was launched in 2010 by founding editor and publisher James Baxter, and offers daily coverage of political news, a quarterly print magazine, politic ...
, a political news outlet.
On December 20, 2019, all ''StarMetro'' editions ceased publication amid the popularity and resultant growth of news apps on mobile devices. Local coverage once again became restricted to the Golden Horseshoe
The Golden Horseshoe is a secondary region of Southern Ontario, Canada, which lies at the western end of Lake Ontario, with outer boundaries stretching south to Lake Erie and north to Lake Scugog, Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay of Lake Huron. The ...
conurbation.
The newspaper was acquired by NordStar Capital on May 26, 2020, after the board of Torstar
Torstar Corporation is a Canadian mass media company which primarily publishes daily and community newspapers. In addition to the ''Toronto Star'', its flagship and namesake, Torstar also publishes daily newspapers in Hamilton, Peterborough, Ni ...
voted to sell the company to the investment firm for —making Torstar a privately held company
A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...
. The deal was expected to be approved by Torstar's shareholders and to close by the end of 2020. Canadian Modern Media Holdings made an offer of $58million on July 9, 2020; NordStar subsequently increased its offer to $60million, effectively ending the bidding war. A vast majority of shareholders subsequently voted in favour of the deal. The takeover was approved by an Ontario judge on July 27, 2020. An appeal of the judgement by another prospective purchaser failed on July 31 when Ontario Superior Court Justice Michael Penny dismissed the motion. The deal was expected to close during the following week.
Content
Editorial position
Like its competitor ''The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', the ''Star'' covers "a spectrum of opinion that is best described as urban and Central Canadian" in character. The ''Star'' is generally centrist and centre-left
Centre-left politics lean to the left on the left–right political spectrum but are closer to the centre than other left-wing politics. Those on the centre-left believe in working within the established systems to improve social justice. The ...
, and is more socially liberal
Cultural liberalism is a social philosophy which expresses the social dimension of liberalism and advocates the freedom of individuals to choose whether to conform to cultural norms. In the words of Henry David Thoreau, it is often expressed a ...
than ''The Globe and Mail''.[Elke Winter, ''Us, Them and Others: Pluralism and National Identities in Diverse Societies'' (University of Toronto Press, 2011), p. 96.] The paper has aligned itself over the years with the progressive "Atkinson principles" named for publisher Joseph E. Atkinson
Joseph E. Atkinson (born Joseph Atkinson, December 23, 1865 – May 8, 1948) was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. Under his leadership the ''Toronto Star'' became one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Canada. Atkinso ...
,[Kenyon Wallace]
How the Star is making its political endorsements more transparent
''Toronto Star'' (May 26, 2018). who was editor and publisher of the paper for 50 years.[Tamar Harris]
''Toronto Star'' (November 4, 2017). These principles included social justice
Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, Equal opportunity, opportunities, and Social privilege, privileges within a society. In Western Civilization, Western and Culture of Asia, Asian cultures, the concept of social ...
and social welfare provision
Welfare, or commonly social welfare, is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifical ...
, as well as individual rights
Group rights, also known as collective rights, are rights held by a group '' qua'' a group rather than individually by its members; in contrast, individual rights are rights held by individual people; even if they are group-differentiated, which ...
and civil liberties. In 1984, scholar Wilfred H. Kesterton described the ''Star'' as "perpetually indignant" because of its social consciousness. When Atkinson's son Joseph Story Atkinson became president of the ''Star'' in 1957, he said, "From its inception in 1892, the ''Star'' has been a champion of social and economic reform, a defender of minority rights, a foe of discrimination, a friend of organized labour and a staunch advocate of Canadian nationhood."
Another of the "Atkinson principles" has been a "strong, united and independent Canada"; in a 1927 editorial, the paper wrote, "We believe in the British connection as much as anybody does but on a self-respecting basis of equality, of citizenship, and not on the old basis of one country belonging to the other." The paper was historically wary of American influence, and during the debates over the North American Free Trade Agreement, the paper was frequently critical of free trade
Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold econ ...
and expressed concerns about Canadian sovereignty. The paper has been traditionally supportive of official bilingualism and maintaining Canadian unity in opposition to Quebec separatism
The Quebec sovereignty movement (french: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the sovereignty of Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867, including in all matters related to any provision o ...
.
In the 1980s, Michael Farber wrote in the ''Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
'' that the ''Star''s coverage was Toronto-centric to the point that any story was said to carry an explanation as to "What it means to Metro
Metro, short for metropolitan, may refer to:
Geography
* Metro (city), a city in Indonesia
* A metropolitan area, the populated region including and surrounding an urban center
Public transport
* Rapid transit, a passenger railway in an urb ...
." Conversely, Canadian sociologist Elke Winter wrote in 2011 that the ''Toronto Star'' was less "Toronto-centric" than its rival, ''The Globe and Mail'', writing that the ''Star'' "consciously reports for and from Canada's most multicultural city" and catered to a diverse readership.
The advent of the ''National Post
The ''National Post'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet newspaper available in several cities in central and western Canada. The paper is the flagship publication of Postmedia Network and is published Mondays through Saturdays, with ...
'' in 1998 shook up the Toronto newspaper market. In the upheaval that followed, editorial spending increased and there was much turnover of editors and publishers.
Election endorsements
In the 50 years to 1972, the ''Star'' endorsed the Liberal Party
The Liberal Party is any of many political parties around the world. The meaning of ''liberal'' varies around the world, ranging from liberal conservatism on the right to social liberalism on the left.
__TOC__ Active liberal parties
This is a li ...
in each federal general election.[Kathy English]
Why do newspapers endorse?
''Toronto Star'' (October 11, 2008). In the fifteen federal elections between 1968 and 2019, the ''Star'' has endorsed the Liberal Party eleven times, the New Democratic Party twice, and the Progressive Conservative Party twice.
Elections in which the ''Star'' did not endorse the Liberals took place in 1972
Within the context of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) it was the longest year ever, as two leap seconds were added during this 366-day year, an event which has not since been repeated. (If its start and end are defined using mean solar tim ...
and 1974 (when it endorsed the Progressive Conservatives), and 1979
Events
January
* January 1
** United Nations Secretary-General Kurt Waldheim heralds the start of the '' International Year of the Child''. Many musicians donate to the '' Music for UNICEF Concert'' fund, among them ABBA, who write the so ...
and 2011 (when it endorsed the NDP). In the 2011 election, the ''Star'' endorsed the NDP under Jack Layton
John Gilbert Layton (July 18, 1950 – August 22, 2011) was a Canadian academic and politician who served as the leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) from 2003 to 2011 and leader of the Official Opposition in 2011. He previously sat on To ...
, but to avoid vote splitting
Vote splitting is an electoral effect in which the distribution of votes among multiple similar candidates reduces the chance of winning for any of the similar candidates, and increases the chance of winning for a dissimilar candidate.
Vote spl ...
that could inadvertently help the Conservatives under Stephen Harper, which it saw as the worst outcome for the country, the paper also recommended Canadians vote strategically by voting for "the progressive candidate best placed to win" in certain ridings. For the 2015 election, the ''Star'' endorsed the Liberal Party under Justin Trudeau
Justin Pierre James Trudeau ( , ; born December 25, 1971) is a Canadian politician who is the 23rd and current prime minister of Canada. He has served as the prime minister of Canada since 2015 and as the leader of the Liberal Party since 2 ...
, and did so again in the 2019 federal election.
In Toronto's non-partisan
Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party.
While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers s ...
mayoral elections, the ''Star'' endorsed George Smitherman
George Smitherman (born February 12, 1964) is a former Canadian politician and broadcaster. He represented the provincial riding of Toronto Centre in the Legislative Assembly of Ontario from 1999 to 2010, when he resigned to contest the mayor ...
in 2010 and John Tory
John Howard Tory (born May 28, 1954) is a Canadian politician who has served as the 65th and current mayor of Toronto since 2014.
After a career as a lawyer, political strategist and businessman, Tory ran as a mayoral candidate in the 200 ...
in 2014 and 2018.
Features
The ''Star'' is one of the few Canadian newspapers that employs a "public editor
A public editor is a position existing at some news publications; the person holding this position is responsible for supervising the implementation of proper journalism ethics at that publication. These responsibilities include identifying and e ...
" ( ombudsman) and was the first to do so. Its newsroom policy and journalistic standards guide is also published online.
Other notable features include:
* optional supplements on Saturday and Sunday include Starweek (television listings and episode summaries), abridged version of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...
'' international section). Starweek and ''The New York Times'' supplements require separate additional payment)
The ''Star'' states that it favours an inclusive, "big tent
A big tent party, or catch-all party, is a term used in reference to a political party's policy of permitting or encouraging a broad spectrum of views among its members. This is in contrast to other kinds of parties, which defend a determined i ...
" approach, not wishing to attract one group of readers at the expense of others. It publishes regular features on real estate (including condominiums), individual neighbourhoods (and street name etymologies), shopping, cooking, dining, alcoholic beverages (right down to having an exclusive on the anti-competitive practices of the Beer Store
Brewers Retail Inc., doing business as The Beer Store, is a privately-owned chain of retail outlets selling beer and other malt beverages in the province of Ontario, Canada.
Founded in 1927, it was owned at its inception by a consortium of On ...
that led to major reforms on the sale of alcohol in Ontario grocery stores in 2015 by Premier Kathleen Wynne
Kathleen O'Day Wynne ( ; born May 21, 1953) is a Canadian former politician who served as the 25th premier of Ontario and leader of the Ontario Liberal Party from 2013 to 2018. She was elected to the Legislative Assembly in 2003 and sat as the ...
and Ed Clark
Edward E. Clark (born May 4, 1930) is an American lawyer and politician who ran for governor of California in 1978, and for president of the United States as the nominee of the Libertarian Party in the 1980 presidential election.
Clark is an h ...
), automobiles (as Wheels), and travel destinations.
Products
Website
The ''Star'' has maintained a website where it publishes its content since 1996.[ On October 2012, the ''Star'' announced its intention to implement a paywall on its website, thestar.com, which was made effective on August 13, 2013. Readers with daily home delivery had free access to all its digital content. Those without a digital subscription can view up to ten articles a month. The paywall does not apply to its sister sites, such as wheels.ca (automotive news and classifieds). However, during 2015, the ''Star'' announced that it would end its paywall, which it did on April 1, 2015. In June 2018, the ''Star'' announced it was implementing a paywall again.
]
Mobile app
On September 15, 2015, the ''Toronto Star'' released the Toronto Star Touch tablet app, which was a free interactive news app with interactive advertisements. It was discontinued in 2017. At launch, it was only available for the iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating ...
, which uses iOS
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple Inc. exclusively for its hardware. It is the operating system that powers many of the company's mobile devices, including the iPhone; the term also include ...
. Based on a similar app for Montreal-based '' La Presse'' released in 2013, Star Touch is the first such app for any English-language news organization, quality-wise. In slightly over 50 days since launch, the app had reached the 100,000-download milestone. The Android version was launched on December 1, 2015. The iOS version is rated 12+ by Apple's App Store guidelines and the Android version is rated Mature 17+ by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).
Circulation
The ''Toronto Star'' has seen, like most Canadian daily newspapers, a decline in circulation. Its total circulation dropped by percent to 318,763 copies daily from 2009 to 2015.
Offices
The ''Toronto Star'' has been located at several addresses since 1892.
* 1892: 83 Yonge Street (shared with ''The Toronto World
''The Toronto World'' was a newspaper based in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It existed between 1880 and 1921, and a Sunday edition operated from 1891 to 1924. Founded by William Findlay "Billy" Maclean, it was popular among Toronto's working class a ...
'')
* 1896: 26–28 Adelaide Street West
* 1905: 18–20 King Street West
* 1929: 80 King Street West (Old Toronto Star Building
The Old Toronto Star Building was an Art Deco office tower in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building was located at 80 King Street West and was the headquarters of the ''Toronto Star'' newspaper from 1929 until 1970. The building was demolished ...
)
* 1970: One Yonge Street
One Yonge Street (also known as the Toronto Star Building) is a 25-storey office building that serves as the headquarters of Torstar and its flagship newspaper, the ''Toronto Star''. It is 100 metres tall and built in the International style. I ...
* ''The Star'' will be relocating to 410 Front Street West in 2022.
Notable staff
Publishers
* Joseph E. Atkinson
Joseph E. Atkinson (born Joseph Atkinson, December 23, 1865 – May 8, 1948) was a Canadian newspaper editor and activist. Under his leadership the ''Toronto Star'' became one of the largest and most influential newspapers in Canada. Atkinso ...
(1899–1948)
* Joseph S. Atkinson
Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
(1948–1966)
* Beland Honderich
Beland Hugh Honderich, (November 25, 1918 – November 8, 2005) was a Canadian newspaper executive who was the Chairman and Publisher of the ''Toronto Star'' and Chairman and President of the Torstar Corporation.
Born in Kitchener, Ontario, ...
(1966–1988)
* David R. Jolley
David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...
(1988–1994)
* John Honderich
John Allen Honderich, (July 6, 1946 – February 5, 2022) was a Canadian businessman, journalist, and editor who was publisher of the ''Toronto Star'' from 1994 to 2004. He previously served as its editor from 1988, the same year his father, B ...
(1995–2004)
* Michael Goldbloom
Michael Goldbloom (born 1953) is a Canadian lawyer, publisher, and academic administrator. He is the former publisher of the ''Toronto Star'', Canada's largest newspaper by circulation.
Early life and education
Born in Montreal, Quebec, as th ...
(2004–2006)
* Jagoda Pike
Jagoda Pike is a former publisher of the ''Toronto Star'' and former president of the Star Media Group. Effective October 4, 2008, Pike stepped down as publisher of the ''Toronto Star'' and assumed the role of heading Ontario's bid for the 2015 ...
(2006–2008)
* Donald Babick
Donald is a masculine given name derived from the Gaelic name ''Dòmhnall''.. This comes from the Proto-Celtic *''Dumno-ualos'' ("world-ruler" or "world-wielder"). The final -''d'' in ''Donald'' is partly derived from a misinterpretation of the ...
(2008)
* John Cruickshank (2009–2016)
* John Boynton (2017–2020)
* Jordan L. Bitove
Jordan ( ar, الأردن; tr. ' ), officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan,; tr. ' is a country in Western Asia. It is situated at the crossroads of Asia, Africa, and Europe, within the Levant region, on the East Bank of the Jordan Riv ...
(since 2020)
Journalists and columnists
* Pierre Berton
Pierre Francis de Marigny Berton, CC, O.Ont. (July 12, 1920 – November 30, 2004) was a Canadian writer, journalist and broadcaster. Berton wrote 50 best-selling books, mainly about Canadiana, Canadian history and popular culture. He also wr ...
* Tony Burman
Tony Burman (born 13 June 1948) is a Canadian broadcaster, journalist and university official. Starting in the 1960s, Burman has worked as a journalist, in print, radio, television, and online. For most of this time (35 years), he was at the Can ...
* Morley Callaghan
Edward Morley Callaghan (February 22, 1903 – August 25, 1990) was a Canadian novelist, short story writer, playwright, and TV and radio personality.
Biography
Of Canadian/English-immigrant parentage,Clara Thomas, ''Canadian Novelists 192 ...
* June Callwood
June Rose Callwood, (June 2, 1924 – April 14, 2007) was a Canadian journalist, author and social activist. She was known as "Canada's Conscience".
Callwood achieved acclaim and a loyal following for her articles and columns written for na ...
* Greg Clark
* Jeremy Clarkson
Jeremy Charles Robert Clarkson (born 11 April 1960) is an English broadcaster, journalist, game show host and writer who specialises in motoring. He is best known for the motoring programmes '' Top Gear'' and '' The Grand Tour'' alongside R ...
* Erin Combs
Erin Combs (born 1952 or 1953), also known as Erin Combs Pearl, is a photographer who worked at the ''Toronto Star''. Hired as a photojournalist in 1974, she was one of the first women photographers to contribute regularly to a major Canadian new ...
* Daniel Dale
Daniel Dale (born March 28, 1985) is a Canadian journalist known for rebutting a large number of claims made by United States President Donald Trump during his 2016 presidential campaign and presidency. Dale credits an encounter with Toronto Mayo ...
* Susan Delacourt
* Rosie DiManno
* Robyn Doolittle
Robyn Doolittle (born 13 September 1984) is a Canadian investigative reporter for ''The Globe and Mail''.
At the ''Toronto Star'', she gained notoriety for coverage of Toronto mayor Rob Ford's political and personal life, which led to her autho ...
* Milt Dunnell
Milton William Ryan Dunnell (December 24, 1905 – January 3, 2008) was a Canadian sportswriter, known chiefly for his work at the ''Toronto Star''.
Early life
Dunnell was born in St. Marys, Ontario, Canada on December 24, 1905 and attended ...
* Joe Fiorito
Joe Fiorito is a Canadian journalist and author.
Early life
Fiorito was born June 22, 1948 in Fort William, Ontario. His father was a mailman and a musician. His mother was a waitress. He had three brothers. He wrote about his family life in the ...
* Graham Fraser
Graham Fraser (born 1946) is a Canadian former journalist and writer who served as Canada's sixth Commissioner of Official Languages. He is the author of several books, both in English and French.
Early life and education
Fraser is the son o ...
* Michael Geist
Michael Allen Geist (born July 11, 1968) is a Canadian academic, the Canada Research Chair in Internet and E-Commerce Law at the University of Ottawa and a member of the Centre for Law, Technology and Society. Geist was educated at the Univers ...
* Carol Goar
Carol Goar is a Canadian journalist and was an editorial columnist for the ''Toronto Star'' until April 2016. She previously served as the newspaper's editorial page editor, Washington bureau chief and national affairs columnist. Prior to joining ...
* Alison Gordon
Alison Ruth Gordon (January 1, 1943 – February 12, 2015) was a Canadian journalist and mystery novelist. She wrote for CBC and the ''Toronto Star'' in addition to a series of mystery novels.
Early life and education
Gordon was born January 1, ...
* Richard Gwyn
Richard Gwyn (ca. 1537 – 15 October 1584), also known by his anglicised name, Richard White, was a Welsh teacher at illegal and underground schools and a Bard who wrote both Christian and satirical poetry in the Welsh language. A Ro ...
* Matthew Halton
* Tom Harpur
Thomas William Harpur (1929–2017), known as Tom Harpur, was a Canadian biblical scholar, columnist, and broadcaster. An ordained Anglican priest, he was a proponent of the Christ myth theory, the idea that Jesus did not exist but is a fictiona ...
* Chantal Hébert
Chantal St-Cyr Hébert (born 1954) is a Canadian journalist and political commentator.
Life and career
Hébert was born on April 24, 1954, in Ottawa, Ontario. She is the oldest of five children. In 1966 her family moved to Toronto where the 12 ...
* Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway (July 21, 1899 – July 2, 1961) was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist. His economical and understated style—which he termed the iceberg theory—had a strong influence on 20th-century f ...
* W. A. Hewitt
* Kim Hughes
Kimberley John Hughes (born 26 January 1954) is a former cricketer who played for Western Australia, Natal and Australia. He captained Australia in 28 Test matches between 1979 and 1984 before captaining a rebel Australian team in a tour of ...
* Cathal Kelly
Cathal Kelly is a Canadian novelist and sports columnist for ''The Globe and Mail''. He won the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour in 2019 for his childhood memoir ''Boy Wonders''.
Kelly was born and raised in Toronto, Ontario to immigrant ...
* Marc Marc or MARC may refer to:
People
* Marc (given name), people with the first name
* Marc (surname), people with the family name
Acronyms
* MARC standards, a data format used for library cataloging,
* MARC Train, a regional commuter rail system o ...
and Craig Kielburger
Craig Kielburger (born December 17, 1982) is a Canadian human rights activist and social entrepreneur. He is the co-founder, with his brother Marc Kielburger, of the WE Charity, as well as We Day and the independent, social enterprise Me ...
* Naomi Klein
Naomi A. Klein (born May 8, 1970) is a Canadian author, social activist, and filmmaker known for her political analyses, support of ecofeminism, organized labour, left-wing politics and criticism of corporate globalization, fascism, ecofascism ...
* Faisal Kutty
Faisal Kutty is a lawyer, academic, writer, public speaker and human rights activist. He is Visiting Associate Professor of LAWS at Southwestern Law School. He served as an adjunct professor at Osgoode Hall Law School and was an Associate Prof ...
* Michele Landsberg
* Gary Lautens
Gary Lautens (November 3, 1928 – February 1, 1992) was a Canadian humorist and newspaper columnist. He wrote for the ''Toronto Star'' from 1962 until his death in 1992.
Biography
Lautens was born on November 3, 1928, in Fort William, Ont ...
* Duncan Macpherson
Duncan Ian Macpherson, CM (September 20, 1924 in Toronto – May 3, 1993 in Beaverton, Ontario) was a Canadian editorial cartoonist. He drew for the '' Montreal Standard'' (starting 1948) and for ''Maclean's'', illustrating the writings of Gr ...
* Linda McQuaig
* Earl McRae
Earl McRae (May 3, 1942 – October 15, 2011) was a Canadian journalist who wrote a daily general interest column for the '' Ottawa Sun''.
Early life
Born Earl Gerald Piche in Toronto to Betty Piche, a homemaker, and Earl Piche, a soldier ...
* Heather Mallick
Heather Mallick (born 1959) is a Canadian columnist, author and lecturer. She has been a staff columnist for the ''Toronto Star'' since 2010, writing a news column on Saturday and on the opinion page on Monday and Wednesday. She writes about femi ...
* Lou Marsh
Lewis Edwin Marsh (February 17, 1879 – March 4, 1936) was a Canadian athlete and referee, and one of the pioneers of sports journalism in Canada, working at the ''Toronto Star'' for 43 years.
Life and career
Marsh was born in Campbellford, On ...
* Peter C. Newman
* Cleo Paskal
Cleo Paskal is a Non-Resident Senior Fellow for the Indo-Pacific at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Senior Fellow at the Usanas Foundation, Fellow at the Conference of Defence Associations Institute, Fellow at the Canadian Global Aff ...
* Angelo Persichilli
* Jim Proudfoot
Jim Proudfoot (born 16 December 1972) is an English football commentator who has worked on national radio and television since the late 1990s.
Early life
Proudfoot was born in the West Country on 16 December 1972 but moved to the Midlands at a yo ...
* Ben Rayner Ben Rayner is a music critic and writer for the ''Toronto Star'' since 1998. His commentary on artists is extensively cited across the industry. Indie88 considers him "of the most respected industry professionals around."
In 2012, he served on t ...
* Ellen Roseman
Ellen Roseman (born July 1947) is a Canadian writer, journalist and lecturer specializing in personal finance and consumer issues. She currently writes a column handling consumer complaints for the Toronto Star and teaches at Ryerson University and ...
* Robert Service
* Haroon Siddiqui
Haroon Siddiqui, is an Indo-Canadian newspaper journalist, columnist and a former editor.
Early life and career
Siddiqui continued as a columnist at the Star until 2015. His farewell column of 1 April 2015 marked his retirement from journali ...
* Gordon Sinclair
Allan Gordon Sinclair, OC, FRGS (June 3, 1900 – May 17, 1984) was a Canadian journalist, writer and commentator.
Early life
Sinclair was born in the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, the son of George Alexander and Bessie Gol ...
* Randy Starkman
* Walter Stewart
* Tanya Talaga
* Charles Templeton
Charles Bradley Templeton (October 7, 1915 – June 7, 2001) was a Canadian media figure and a former Christian evangelist. Known in the 1940s and 1950s as a leading evangelist, he became an agnostic and later embraced atheism after strugg ...
* Ellie Tesher
Ellie Tesher (born 1941) is a Canadian journalist and advice columnist.
Biography
Born in Toronto, Ontario, Tesher studied sociology at the University of Toronto. She then worked for the Children's Aid Society in Toronto as a caseworker. In 197 ...
* James Travers
* Thomas Walkom
* Claire Wallace
* Antonia Zerbisias
Antonia Zerbisias is a Canadian journalist associated with the ''Toronto Star'' from 1989 until she took early retirement from the paper on 31 October 2014. She has been a reporter and TV host for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, as wel ...
Cartoonists
* Walter Ball
* Sid Barron
* Jimmy Frise
The Canadian cartoonist James Llewellyn Frise (, 16 October 1891 – 13 June 1948) is best known for his work on the comic strip ''Birdseye '' and his illustrations of humorous prose pieces by Greg Clark.
Born in Scugog Island, Ontario, ...
* Duncan Macpherson
Duncan Ian Macpherson, CM (September 20, 1924 in Toronto – May 3, 1993 in Beaverton, Ontario) was a Canadian editorial cartoonist. He drew for the '' Montreal Standard'' (starting 1948) and for ''Maclean's'', illustrating the writings of Gr ...
* Dušan Petričić
Dušan Petričić ( sr-cyr, Душан Петричић; born 10 May 1946) is a Serbian illustrator and caricaturist. He has illustrated numerous children's books and his caricatures have appeared in various newspapers and magazines from ''Polit ...
* Ben Wicks
Ben Wicks, (born Alfred Wicks; October 1, 1926 – September 10, 2000) was a British-born Canadian cartoonist, illustrator, journalist and author.
Biography
Wicks was a Cockney born into a poor, working class, working-class family in London ...
See also
* ''Grant v Torstar Corp
''Grant v Torstar Corp'', , is a 2009 Supreme Court of Canada decision on the defences to the tort of defamation. The Supreme Court ruled that the law of defamation should give way to the rights of a party to speak on matters of public interest, ...
''
* Media in Canada
The media of Canada is diverse and highly regionalized. News media, both print and digital and in both official languages, is largely dominated by a handful of major media corporations. The largest of these corporations is the country’s nati ...
* List of media outlets in Toronto
This is a list of television and radio stations along with a list of media outlets in and around Toronto, Ontario, Canada, including the Greater Toronto Area. Toronto is Canada's largest media market, and the fourth-largest market in North America ...
* 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 ...
* List of the largest Canadian newspapers by circulation
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
References
Further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
*
''Toronto Star''
– ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''
''Toronto Star''
– ''Encyclopædia Britannica''
''Toronto Star'' photograph archive
– Toronto Public Library
{{Authority control
1892 establishments in Ontario
Daily newspapers published in Ontario
Newspapers published in Toronto
Publications established in 1892
Torstar publications