Toronto Star history

In 1896 Alfred Harmsworth (Lord Northcliffe) launched the London Daily Mail as a national paper.

A four-page paper at the outset, it changed hands several times until 1899, when a group of leading citizens bought the paper and Joseph E. Atkinson took over its direction.

Its outspoken opposition to Nazi policies in Germany made it the first North American newspaper to be banned from Nazi Germany. It established its own radio station, CFCA, in 1922.

He eventually acquired controlling interest of the paper and served as its publisher until his death in 1948.

Harlequin was founded by Canadian publishing executive Richard Bonnycastle in 1949.

The Village Voice in New York City began publishing in 1955.

Newspaper Publishing Beginnings in 1958

By 1964 Harlequin was publishing romance fiction exclusively.

After Harlequin became a publicly held company in 1968, it began to adopt a unique marketing strategy for book publishing, namely, a packaged consumer goods strategy.

Sales soared from $3 million (Canadian) in 1970 to more than $165 million (Canadian) over the next three decades.

In 1971 Harlequin purchased Mills & Boon, an acquisition that included the talents of more than 100 British authors.

In 1975 Torstar began to acquire interests in domestic and international book publishing as well as supplementary educational products.

TSP was founded originally by Tom Snyder, a former science and social studies teacher, in 1980.

When Harlequin became a wholly owned subsidiary of Torstar in 1981, it was well established as the world's leading series romance publisher.

In 1984 Harlequin acquired Simon & Schuster's Silhouette imprint, one of its most spirited competitors.

In 1991 the Star began publishing eye, a weekly arts and entertainment publication, which was distributed free every Thursday to some 2,200 outlets in the greater Toronto area, with a circulation of 106,000 copies a week.

Torstar and Southam each subsequently sell their interests in 1992.

Since July 1993 the Star has been entirely printed and distributed from the Press Centre.

Frank Schaffer Publications (FSP), based in Torrance, California, was acquired in 1994.

Harlequin's Web site (www.romance.net) was launched in February 1996.

In 1997 Delta took a major step into curriculum program publishing with the acquisition of FOSS (Full Option Science System). FOSS was developed at the Lawrence Hall of Science at the University of California with funding from the National Science Foundation.

In October 1998 Torstar initiated a hostile takeover of Sun Media, which published seven daily newspapers in major Canadian cities, including the Toronto Sun.

In June 1999 Metroland completed the purchase of Eedy Publications, which added ten weekly newspapers and a printing plant in western Canada.

In September 2002, the logo was changed, and "The" was dropped from the papers.

2006Torstar acquires a 20-per-cent interest in CTVglobemedia, which subsequently acquired CHUM Ltd. later in 2006.

On May 28, 2007, the Star unveiled a redesigned paper that features larger type, narrower pages, fewer and shorter articles, renamed sections, more prominence to local news, and less so to international news, columnists, and opinion pieces.

However, on January 1, 2009, the Star reverted to its previous format.

Torstar sells its interest in 2011.

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%).