The Sudbury Star

The Sudbury Star
Front page of the May 30, 2020 edition
TypeDaily newspaper
FormatBroadsheet
Owner(s)Postmedia Network
PublisherAndre Grandchamp
EditorDon MacDonald
Founded1909
Headquarters888 Regent Street, Suite 103
Sudbury, Ontario
P3E 6C6
Circulation14,934 weekdays
15,423 Saturdays (as of 2011)[1]
ISSN0839-2544
Websitewww.thesudburystar.com

The Sudbury Star is a Canadian daily regional newspaper published in Sudbury, Ontario. It is owned by the media company, Postmedia. It is the largest daily paper in Northeastern Ontario by circulation.

History

The Sudbury Star began as a daily in January 1909 as the Northern Daily Star,[2] in competition with the city's established daily Sudbury Journal, but it was in immediate financial trouble and folded within just six months.[2] Staff took over ownership of the struggling newspaper, led by foreman William Edge Mason, who then found 10 prominent investors to provide financial backing to the paper.[3] W.E. Mason Equipment was created to take over management of the paper,[3] and by World War I the paper was flourishing and the Sudbury Journal was out of business.[2] In 1922 Mason acquired the North Bay Nugget in North Bay.[4]

In 1935, Mason launched the city's first commercial radio station, CKSO.[2]

In 1948, Mason died and ownership of the paper was taken over by his W.E. Mason Estate.[5] The Nugget was almost immediately sold in an employee buyout,[6] but the Sudbury Star remained under the ownership of Mason's estate until 1950, when J. R. Meakes, Mason's successor as publisher and general manager, bought the paper with co-investors George Miller, Jim Cooper and Bill Plaunt.[7] The same investment group launched CKSO-TV, the city's first television station and the first television station in Canada not owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, in 1953.[2]

In 1955 the paper was acquired by Thomson Newspapers.[8] Meakes remained as publisher and general manager until his retirement in 1975.[8]

In the early 1960s, the city saw a "newspaper war" between two startup weekly newspapers, the Sudbury Sun and the Star-owned Sudbury Scene. The Sun, a publication of Northland Publishers, was out of business by 1962, and filed a competition lawsuit against the Scene, alleging that the Scene had deliberately undercut the Sun's advertising rates to protect Thomson's monopoly on English-language periodical publication in the city.[9] The federal trade practices commission ruled in Thomson's favour.[9]

The paper was sold to Southam Newspapers in 1996,[10] to Osprey Media in 2001,[11] and to Sun Media in 2007.[12] In 2015 Postmedia Network acquired Sun Media.[13]

In October 2013 the paper moved from its longtime home at 33 MacKenzie Street in Sudbury to new offices at 128 Pine Street.[14] In 2020, the paper moved again, to an office building on Regent Street in the Lily Creek neighbourhood.[15]

The current managing editor of the Sudbury Star is Don MacDonald, who assumed the role in 2014.

See also

References

  1. ^ Paid circulation cited in "Daily Newspaper Circulation Statement for the 12 Month Period Ended December 2011". Toronto: Canadian Circulations Audit Board. Retrieved April 2, 2012.
  2. ^ a b c d e C.M. Wallace and Ashley Thomson, Sudbury: Rail Town to Regional Capital. Dundurn Press, 1993. ISBN 1-55002-170-2.
  3. ^ a b "Sudbury Star Publisher William E. Mason Dead". The Globe and Mail, June 23, 1948.
  4. ^ "Harry S. Browning: Printer Joined Cobalt Rush, Founded Paper". The Globe and Mail, April 6, 1963.
  5. ^ "Sudbury Star Owner's Estate Is $1,652,382". The Globe and Mail, August 25, 1948.
  6. ^ "Employees Buy North Bay Nugget; Publisher's Idea". The Globe and Mail, August 31, 1948.
  7. ^ "Manager, Businessmen Will Buy Sudbury Star, Other Assets of Estate". The Globe and Mail, December 21, 1950.
  8. ^ a b "Sudbury publisher, 60, later Chamber head". The Globe and Mail, February 12, 1977.
  9. ^ a b "News Publisher Wins Monopoly Charge Case". Brandon Sun. 25 March 1964. p. 13. Retrieved August 5, 2014 – via Newspapers.com. Open access icon
  10. ^ "Southam buys 7 Ontario papers". Toronto Star, September 17, 1996.
  11. ^ "Bulk of Hollinger's Ontario papers sold to Sifton family". The Globe and Mail, August 1, 2001.
  12. ^ "Quebecor seeks Osprey to vault into first place; Takeover would create biggest newspaper firm". Toronto Star, June 2, 2007.
  13. ^ "Quebecor turns focus to wireless; Sale of English-language newspapers leaves it more Quebec-centric". Ottawa Citizen, October 7, 2014.
  14. ^ "Sudbury Star on the move to 128 Pine St.". Sudbury Star, October 24, 2013.
  15. ^ Harold Carmichael, "The Sudbury Star is on the move". Sudbury Star, February 24, 2020.