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 Front page – January 11, 2007 | |
| Type | Dailynewspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner | FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership |
| Founder | William Fisher Luxton |
| President | Mike Power |
| Editor | Paul Samyn |
| Founded | November 30, 1872 (1872-11-30) |
| Headquarters | 1355 Mountain Avenue Winnipeg,Manitoba R2X 3B6 |
| Readership | 194,000 weekdays 270,000 Saturdays, print and digital (as of Vividata SCC | Spring 2025) |
| Sister newspapers | Brandon Sun |
| ISSN | 0828-1785 |
| OCLC number | 1607085 |
| Website | winnipegfreepress |
TheFree Press (orFP; founded as theManitoba Free Press; previously known as theWinnipeg Free Press) is a daily (excluding Sunday)broadsheetnewspaper inWinnipeg,Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as current events in sports, business, and entertainment and various consumer-oriented features, such as homes and automobiles appear on a weekly basis.
TheWFP was founded in 1872, only two years after Manitoba became part of Canada, in 1870. The WFP's founding predated Winnipeg's own incorporation, in 1873.[1][2][3] TheWinnipeg Free Press has since become the oldest newspaper inWestern Canada that is still active.
November 30, 1872: TheManitoba Free Press was launched byWilliam Fisher Luxton and John A. Kenny.[1] Luxton bought a press inNew York City and, along with Kenny, rented a shack at 555Main Street, near the present corner of Main Street and James Avenue.[4]
1874: The paper moved to a new building on Main Street, across from St. Mary Avenue.[4]
1882: Control of theFree Press was passed on toClifford Sifton.[4] The organization subsequently moved to a building on McDermot Avenue, where it would remain until 1900.[4]
1900: The paper moved to a new address on McDermot Avenue at Albert Street.[4]
1901:John Wesley Dafoe served as president,editor-in-chief, and editorial writer for theWFP until 1944.[4]
1905: The newspaper moved to a four-storey building atPortage and Garry.[4]
1913: The newspaper moved to 300 Carlton Street and would remain there for 78 years.[4]
1920: TheFree Press took its newsprint supplier before theJudicial Committee of the Privy Council for violating theWar Measures Act duringWorld War I. The newspaper won the case, known asFort Frances Pulp and Paper v Manitoba Free Press, as the court determined that whether thestate of national emergency continued after the war was a political matter forParliament.[5]
February 21, 1923:Harry Houdini was placed in the straight jacket by two city police officers and then hoisted by his feet with pulleys to 30 feet above the sidewalk off the side of the Winnipeg Free Press Building. The paper ran an amateur photo contest with impressive cash prizes of $15, $10 and $5 for the three best images of the escape. The contest would be won byL. B. Foote, who went on to chronicle events for the Free Press for two decades.[6]
December 2, 1931: The paper was renamed theWinnipeg Free Press.[4]
1991: TheFree Press moved to its current location in the Inkster Industrial Park, aCA$150 million plant[1] at 1355 Mountain Avenue.[4]
December2001: TheFree Press and its sister paper,Brandon Sun, were bought fromThomson Newspapers by FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership.[1]
In 2008, at noon onThanksgiving Day (Monday, October 13), about 1,000 members of theCommunications, Energy and Paperworkers Union, representing editorial, advertising, circulation, and press staff, as well asnewspaper carriers, launched astrike action.[7] The strike ended 16 days later, when the union ratified the final offer on Tuesday, October 28.[8] The contract was ratified by 67% of newspaper carriers, 75% of the pressmen, and 91% of the inside workers, including journalists.[9] The recent five-year contract was negotiated, ratified, and signed in 2013, with no threat of a strike. Workers and managers negotiated directly with great success, without the need of a lawyer that previous contracts had required.[10]
As of November 1, 2009, theWFP ceased publishing a regular Sunday edition. In its place, a Sunday-onlytabloid calledOn 7 was launched, but it has since been discontinued.
On March 27, 2011, the impending arrival ofMetro in the Winnipeg market caused the Sunday newspaper to be retooled as abroadsheet format,Winnipeg Free Press SundayXtra.[11] The Sunday edition is now available exclusively online.
According to figures viaCanadian Newspaper Association, theFree Press' average weekday circulation for 2013 was 108,583, while on Saturdays it was 144,278.[12] Because of the relatively small population of Manitoba, that meant that over 10% of the population could be receiving the paper and its advertisements. Like mostCanadian daily newspapers, theFree Press has seen a decline incirculation, dropping its total by 17% to 106,473 copies daily from 2009 to 2015.[13]
As of 2023, theWinnipeg Free Press media kit claims that 1.15 million users visit the newspaper's network of sites each month, and that in Winnipeg, 439,000 adults read the publication in print or digital format each week.[14]
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