The Globe and Mail

The Globe and Mail is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities across western and central Canada. As of 2024, it reaches over 6 million weekly readers, making it the country’s most-read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays. However, it trails slightly behind the Toronto Star in total weekly circulation because the Star publishes a Sunday edition and the Globe does not. It is considered by some to be Canada’s “newspaper of record.”

The paper’s roots go back to two 19th-century predecessors: *The Globe*, founded in 1844, and *The Daily Mail and Empire*, created in 1895 from the merger of *The Toronto Mail* and *The Empire*. *The Globe* was started by Scottish immigrant George Brown, a Father of Confederation, as a weekly party organ for his Reform Party. Brown soon aimed for a wider audience of liberal-minded readers, choosing a motto from Junius that still appears on the editorial page: “The subject who is truly loyal to the Chief Magistrate will neither advise nor submit to arbitrary measures.” By the 1850s, *The Globe* had become an independent daily, and after Confederation it began distributing by railway to other Ontario cities. By the early 1900s, it added photography, a women’s section, and the slogan “Canada’s National Newspaper,” which remains on its front-page banner. It also opened bureaus and offered subscriptions across the country. *The Daily Mail and Empire* was formed from two conservative papers: *The Toronto Mail* (established 1872) and *The Empire* (founded in 1887 by John A. Macdonald, a former rival of Brown and a Conservative prime minister).

On November 23, 1936, *The Globe* merged with *The Mail and Empire*. The merger was arranged by George McCullagh, who fronted for mining magnate William Henry Wright and became the paper’s first publisher. At the time, press reports said “the minnow swallowed the whale,” since *The Globe*’s circulation of 78,000 was smaller than *The Mail and Empire*’s 118,000.

From 1937 to 1974, the newspaper was produced at the William H. Wright Building at 140 King Street West in Toronto. That building was demolished in 1974 to make way for First Canadian Place. McCullagh died by suicide in 1952, and the paper was sold to the Webster family of Montreal. As it lost ground to the *Toronto Star* locally, it expanded its national circulation. The newspaper unionized in 1955 under the American Newspaper Guild. In 1965, it was bought by Winnipeg-based FP Publications, controlled by Bryan Maheswary, which emphasized the Report on Business section launched in 1962, building the paper’s reputation as a voice for Toronto’s business community. In 1974, the paper moved to 444 Front Street West, the former home of the *Toronto Telegram*, where it stayed until 2016, when it relocated to the Globe and Mail Centre. The Front Street building and a neighboring Toyota dealership were later demolished and redeveloped as The Well.

FP Publications and *The Globe and Mail* were sold in 1980 to the Thomson Corporation, run by Kenneth Thomson’s family. After the acquisition, editorial and news policies changed little, but more attention was paid to national and international news on the editorial, op-ed, and front pages, shifting from a previous focus on Toronto and Ontario material. The paper 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, and Vancouver.

In 1982, Southern Ontario Newspaper Guild (SONG) employees took their first-ever strike vote at the paper, though negotiations ended without a strike, and the Globe unit of SONG remains strike-free. In 1994, SONG members voted to leave the American-focused Newspaper Guild and soon affiliated with the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada. Under editor William Thorsell in the 1980s and 1990s, the paper strongly endorsed the free trade policies of Progressive Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and became an outspoken proponent of the Meech Lake Accord and the Charlottetown Accord.

In 2001, the paper merged with broadcast assets held by BCE Inc. to form Bell Globemedia. In 2010, the Thomson family, through its holding company the Woodbridge Company, reacquired direct control of the newspaper. The Woodbridge Company bought BCE’s remaining stake in 2015.