| Canada's National Newspaper | |
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 The January 25, 2013, front page ofThe Globe and Mail | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | The Woodbridge Company |
| Founder | George Brown[note 1] |
| Publisher | Andrew Saunders |
| Editor | David Walmsley |
| Founded | March 5, 1844; 181 years ago (1844-03-05)[note 2] |
| Headquarters | Globe and Mail Centre 351 King Street East Toronto,Ontario M5A 1L1 |
| Circulation | 65,749 Daily 117,955 Saturday (as of 2022)[1] |
| ISSN | 0319-0714 |
| OCLC number | 61312660 |
| Website | theglobeandmail |
| Part ofa series on the |
| Canadian news media |
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The Globe and Mail is aCanadian newspaper printed in five cities inwestern andcentral Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays,[2] although it falls slightly behind theToronto Star in overall weekly circulation because theStar publishes a Sunday edition, whereas theGlobe does not.The Globe and Mail is regarded by some as Canada's "newspaper of record".[3][4][5][6]
The Globe and Mail's predecessors,The Globe andThe Daily Mail and Empire were both established in the 19th century. The former was established in 1844, while the latter was established in 1895 through a merger ofThe Toronto Mail andThe Empire. In 1936,The Globe andThe Mail and Empire merged to formThe Globe and Mail. The newspaper was acquired byFP Publications in 1965, who later sold the paper to theThomson Corporation in 1980. In 2001, the paper merged with broadcast assets held byBCE Inc. to form the joint ventureBell Globemedia. In 2010, direct control of the newspaper was reacquired by the Thomson family through its holding company,the Woodbridge Company. The Woodbridge Company acquired BCE's remaining stake in the newspaper in 2015.
The predecessor toThe Globe and Mail was calledThe Globe; it was founded in 1844 byScottish immigrantGeorge Brown, who became aFather of Confederation. Brown's liberal politics led him to court the support of theClear Grits, a precursor to the modernLiberal Party of Canada.The Globe began inToronto as a weekly party organ for Brown'sReform Party, but seeing the economic gains he could make in the newspaper business, Brown soon targeted a wide audience of liberal-minded freeholders. He selected as the motto for the editorial page a quotation fromJunius, "The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures." The quotation is carried on theeditorial page to this day.[7]
By the 1850s,The Globe had become an independent and well-regarded daily newspaper. It began distribution by railway to other cities inOntario shortly afterConfederation. At the dawn of the twentieth century,The Globe added photography, awomen's section, and the slogan "Canada's National Newspaper", which remains on its front-page banner. It began opening bureaus and offering subscriptions across Canada.
The Daily Mail and Empire was another newspaper that served asThe Globe and Mail''s predecessor, having been formed through a merger of two conservative newspapers,The Toronto Mail andThe Empire in 1895.The Toronto Mail was established in 1872, whileThe Empire was founded in 1887 by Brown's former rival,Conservative politician and then-Prime MinisterJohn A. Macdonald.[citation needed]
On November 23, 1936,The Globe merged withThe Mail and Empire.[8] The merger was arranged byGeorge McCullagh, who fronted for mining magnateWilliam Henry Wright and became the first publisher ofThe Globe and Mail. Press reports at the time stated that "the minnow swallowed the whale" becauseThe Globe's circulation (at 78,000) was smaller than that ofThe Mail and Empire (118,000).
From 1937 until 1974, the newspaper was produced at theWilliam H. Wright Building, located at then 140 King Street West on the northeast corner of King Street and York Street, close to the homes of theToronto Daily Star atOld Toronto Star Building at 80 King West and the Old Toronto Telegram Building at Bay and Melinda. The building at 130 King Street West was demolished in 1974 to make way forFirst Canadian Place.[9]
McCullagh committed suicide in 1952, and the newspaper was sold to the Webster family of Montreal. As the paper lost ground toThe Toronto Star in the local Toronto market, it began to expand its national circulation. The newspaper was unionized in 1955, under the banner of theAmerican Newspaper Guild.[10]
In 1965, the paper was bought by Winnipeg-basedFP Publications, controlled by Bryan Maheswary, which owned a chain of local Canadian newspapers. FP put a strong emphasis on the Report on Business section that was launched in 1962, thereby building the paper's reputation as the voice of Toronto's business community.
The newspaper moved locations from theWilliam H. Wright Building to 444 Front Street West in 1974. The new location had been the headquarters of theToronto Telegram newspaper, built in 1963.The Globe and Mail remained in the building until 2016, when it relocated to theGlobe and Mail Centre.[9] The Front Street building along with the Toyota dealership next door were demolished and redeveloped asThe Well.
FP Publications andThe Globe and Mail were sold in 1980 toThe Thomson Corporation, a company run by the family ofKenneth Thomson. After the acquisition, there were few changes made in editorial or news policy. However, there was more attention paid to national and international news on the editorial, op-ed, and front pages in contrast to its previous policy of stressing Toronto and Ontario material.[11]
The Globe and Mail has always been a morning newspaper. Since the 1980s, it has been printed in separate editions in six Canadian cities:Montreal, Toronto (several editions),Winnipeg (Estevan, Saskatchewan),Calgary andVancouver.
Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild (SONG) employees took their first-ever strike vote atThe Globe in 1982, also marking a new era in relations with the company. Those negotiations ended without a strike, and the Globe unit of SONG still has a strike-free record. SONG members voted in 1994 to sever ties with the American-focused Newspaper Guild. Shortly afterwards, SONG affiliated with theCommunications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP).[10]
Under the editorship ofWilliam Thorsell in the 1980s and 1990s, the paper strongly endorsed thefree trade policies of Progressive Conservative Prime MinisterBrian Mulroney. The paper also became an outspoken proponent of theMeech Lake Accord and theCharlottetown Accord, with their editorial the day of the1995 Quebec Referendum mostly quoting a Mulroney speech in favour of the Accord.[12] During this period, the paper continued to favour such socially liberal policies as decriminalizing drugs (including cocaine, whose legalization was advocated most recently in a 1995 editorial) and expanding gay rights.[citation needed]
In 1995, the paper launched its website, globeandmail.com; on June 9, 2000, the site began covering breaking news with its own content and journalists in addition to the content of the print newspaper.[13]
Since the launch of theNational Post as another English-language national paper in 1998, some industry analysts had proclaimed a "national newspaper war" betweenThe Globe and Mail and theNational Post. Partly as a response to this threat, in 2001The Globe and Mail was combined with broadcast assets held byBCE Inc. to form the joint ventureBell Globemedia.
In 2004, access to some features of globeandmail.com became restricted to paid subscribers only. The subscription service was reduced a few years later to include an electronic edition of the newspaper, access to its archives, and membership to a premium investment site.
On April 23, 2007, the paper introduced significant changes to its print design and also introduced a new unified navigation system to its websites.[14] The paper added a "lifestyle" section to the Monday-Friday editions, entitled "Globe Life", which has been described as an attempt to attract readers from the rivalToronto Star. Additionally, the paper followed other North American papers by dropping detailed stock listings in print and by shrinking the printed paper to 12-inch width.
At the end of 2010, the Thomson family, through its holding companyWoodbridge, re-acquired direct control ofThe Globe and Mail with an 85-percent stake, through a complicated transaction involving most of the Ontario-based mediasphere.[15][16] BCE continued to hold 15 percent, and would eventually own all of television broadcasterCTVglobemedia.[17][18]
On October 1, 2010,The Globe and Mail unveiled redesigns to both its paper and online formats, dubbed "the most significant redesign inThe Globe's history" by Editor-in-ChiefJohn Stackhouse.[19] The paper version has a bolder, more visual presentation that features 100 per cent full-colour pages, more graphics, slightly glossy paper stock (with the use of state-of-the-art heat-set printing presses), and emphasis on lifestyle and similar sections (an approached dubbed "Globe-lite" by one media critic).[20]The Globe and Mail sees this redesign as a step toward the future (promoted as such by a commercial featuring a young girl on a bicycle),[21] and a step towards provoking debate on national issues (the October 1 edition featured a rare front-page editorial above theGlobe and Mail banner).[19][22]
The paper has made changes to its format and layout, such as the introduction of colour photographs, a separate tabloid book-review section, and the creation of the Review section on arts, entertainment, and culture. Although the paper is sold throughout Canada and has long called itself "Canada's National Newspaper",The Globe and Mail also serves as a Toronto metropolitan paper, publishing several special sections in its Toronto edition that are not included in the national edition. As a result, it is sometimes ridiculed for being too focused on theGreater Toronto Area, part of a wider humorous portrayal of Torontonians being blind to the greater concerns of the nation. Critics sometimes refer to the paper as the "Toronto Globe and Mail" or "Toronto's National Newspaper."[23][24] In an effort to gain market share in Vancouver,The Globe and Mail began publishing a distinct west-coast edition, edited independently in Vancouver, containing a three-page section of British Columbia news.[citation needed] During the2010 Winter Olympics inVancouver,The Globe and Mail published a Sunday edition, marking the first time that the paper had ever published on Sunday.[25]
In October 2012,The Globe and Mail relaunched its digital subscription offering under the marketing brand "Globe Unlimited" to includemetered access for some of its online content.[26]
On September 25, 2012,The Globe and Mail announced it had disciplined high-profile staff columnistMargaret Wente after she admitted toplagiarism.[27] The scandal emerged afterUniversity of Ottawa professor andblogger,Carol Wainio, repeatedly raised plagiarism accusations against Wente on her blog.[28]
On October 22, 2012, online Canadian magazineThe Tyee published an article criticizing theGlobe's "advertorial" policies and design.[29]The Tyee alleged theGlobe intentionally blurred the lines between advertising and editorial content in order to offer premium and effective ad space to high-paying advertisers.The Tyee reporter Jonathan Sas cited an 8-page advetorial section in the October 2, 2012, print edition, called "The Future of the Oil Sands", to illustrate the difficulty in distinguishing the section from regularGlobe content, but did note that Page 2 of the section notes that the report was produced by a marketing agency (Randall Anthony Communications) in conjunction with the advertising department of The Globe and Mail.
In 2013,The Globe and Mail ended distribution of the print edition to Newfoundland.[30]
In 2014, then-publisher Phillip Crawley announced the recruitment of a former staffer returned from afar, David Walmsley, as Editor-in-Chief, to be enacted March 24.[31]
The headquarters site at 444 Front Street West was sold in 2012 to three real estate firms (RioCan Real Estate Investment Trust, Allied Properties Real Estate Investment Trust, and Diamond Corporation) that planned to redevelop the 6.5 acres (2.6 ha) site at Front Street West into a retail, office and residential complex.[32] In 2016, the newspaper moved to 351 King Street East, adjacent to the formerToronto Sun Building. It now occupies five of the new tower's 17 stories, and is named the "Globe and Mail Centre" under a 15-year lease.[33]
In 2015, the Woodbridge Company acquired the remaining 15 per cent of the newspaper from BCE.[34]
Former MinisterMichael Chan filed a libel lawsuit againstThe Globe and Mail in 2015 for $4.55 million after the paper allegedly "declined to retract their unfounded allegations" suggesting that Chan was "a risk to national security because of his ties to China."[35] In August 2024, theOntario Superior Court of Justice dismissed the case after Chan's failure to file court documents on time.[36]
In 2017,The Globe and Mail refreshed its web design with a new pattern library and faster load times on all platforms. The new website is designed to display well on mobile, tablet, and desktop, with pages that highlight journalists and newer articles. The new website has won several awards, including an Online Journalism Award.[37]The Globe and Mail also launched its News Photo Archive, a showcase of more than 10,000 photos from its historic collection dedicated to subscribers. In concert with the Archive of Modern Conflict,The Globe and Mail digitized tens of thousands of negatives and photo prints from film, dating from 1900 to 1998, when film was last used in the newsroom.[38]
The Globe and Mail ended distribution of its print edition to New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and PEI on November 30, 2017.[39]
Globe and Mail employees are represented byUnifor, whose most recent negotiations in September 2021 brought in a three-year contract set to end in 2024.[40][needs update]
"Report on Business", commonly referred to as "ROB", is the financial section of the newspaper. It is the most lengthy daily compilation of economic news in Canada,[citation needed] and is considered an integral part of the newspaper. Standard ROB sections are typically fifteen to twenty pages.
Every Saturday, a special "Report on Business Weekend" is released, which includes features on corporate lifestyle andpersonal finance, and extended coverage of business news. On the last Friday of every month, theReport on Business Magazine is released, the largest Canadian finance-oriented magazine.
Business News Network (formerly ROBtv) is a twenty-four-hour news and business television station, founded byThe Globe and Mail but operated byCTV through the companies' relationship withCTVglobemedia.
The Top 1000 is a list of Canada's one thousand largest public companies ranked by profit released annually by theReport on Business Magazine.[41]
In the 1990s,The Globe and Mail was the main media vehicle for Canada's right wing.[42] In 2011, Canadian sociologist Elke Winter said thatThe Globe and Mail was considered politically moderately-conservative-to-centrist and is less socially liberal than its competitor, theToronto Star.[43]: 96 Winter writes that "While theGlobe has probably lost parts of its more conservative and corporate readership to theNational Post, it continues to cater to the Canadian political and intellectual elite."[43] According to one 2006 publication, the newspaper was considered an "upmarket" newspaper, in contrast to downmarket newspapers such as theToronto Sun.[44]: 6
Infederal general elections,The Globe and Mail has generally endorsed right-wing parties. The paper endorsedBrian Mulroney'sProgressive Conservatives in 1984 and 1988.[45] In 1993, the paper endorsed aLiberalminority government ("We do not trust the Liberals to govern unguarded"[citation needed]). Practically, the newspaper endorsedPreston Manning's right-wingReform Party in Ontario and West to avoidvote splitting.[45] In 1998, the newspaper endorsed the Progressive Conservatives, and it endorsed the Liberals in 2000 and 2004. The newspaper endorsedStephen Harper'sConservative Party in the 2006, 2008, and 2011 elections; in the2015 election, the paper again endorsed the Conservatives but called for the party's leader, Prime MinisterStephen Harper, to step down.[45] In the2019 federal election it did not make an endorsement.[46]
While the paper was known as a generally conservative voice of the business establishment in thepostwar decades, historianDavid Hayes, in a review of its positions, has noted theGlobe's editorials in this period "took a benign view ofhippies andhomosexuals; championed most aspects of thewelfare state; opposed, after some deliberation, theVietnam War; and supportedlegalizing marijuana." A December 12, 1967,Globe and Mail editorial, written by Martin O'Malley,[47] stated, "Obviously, the state's responsibility should be to legislate rules for a well-ordered society. It has no right or duty to creep into the bedrooms of the nation."[48] On December 21, 1967, then Justice MinisterPierre Trudeau, in defending the government'sOmnibus bill and thedecriminalization of homosexuality, coined the phrase, "There's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation."[49]
TheGlobe and Mail endorsedDemocratic candidateHillary Clinton in the run-up for the2016 U.S. presidential election.[50]
In a 2017 survey conducted among Canadians, it was found that 50% of respondents viewedThe Globe and Mail to be biased; placing it in a tie for first place withCBC Television in terms of perceived bias. Respondents who viewedThe Globe and Mail as biased had mixed opinions as to whether its coverage was favourable to theLiberal Party or theConservatives.[51] A 2010 survey found thatThe Globe and Mail was perceived as slightlyright of centre, in similar standing to the bulk of other Canadian news organizations.[52]
Globe writers and columnistsAndrew Coyne,John Ibbitson andDoug Saunders are proponents of theCentury Initiative.[53][54][55][56] Additionally, theGlobe has devoted op-ed space to those affiliated with or sympathetic to the project.[57][58] The initiative's stated goal is to increase Canada's population to 100 million by 2100. Canada will need to increase its annual immigration intake to make this a reality.[59] The initiative was founded in 2009 as the Laurier Project and is backed byDominic Barton, the former head of the consultancy firmMcKinsey & Company.
In 2021,The Globe and Mail launched a webcast in partnership with the Century Initiative called "People and Prosperity: Planning for Canadian Growth".[60]
The editorial board of the newspaper is chaired by the editor-in-chief, who nominates new members as needed. The editorial board controls the overall direction of the newspaper and is given prime billing on the editorial pages. It is the editorial board who endorses political candidates in the run-up to elections. The editorial board's membership list has become a closely guarded secret under the tenure of David Walmsley.
That enigmatic name on The Globe's editorial page is more than a pseudonym, it's a reminder to journalists of all generations about questioning power and its legitimate uses
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