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Torstar Group: Landmarks

Landmarks

This chronology is indicative only. It covers -

  • Antecedents (1892)
  • Beginnings (1958)
  • Southam and Sun (1992)

Context is provided by the broader communications and media timeline on this site.

Antecedents

1892 Evening Star ("A Paper for the People") launched in Toronto

1899 acquired by Joseph Atkinson

1909 Mills & Boon founded in UK

1910 Star Weekly launched

1920 Ernest Hemingway hired by Star

1948 Joseph Atkinson leaves Star to Atkinson Charitable Foundation

1949 Harlequin founded in Canada

1957 Harlequin buys rights to titles from Mills & Boon

Beginnings

1958 trustees of Foundation buy Star for C$25m, later form Torstar

1968 Star Weekly bought by Canadian magazine

1971 Toronto Telegram folds

1971 Harlequin buys Mills & Boon

1981 morning edition of the Star launched

1985 Torstar buys 23% of newspaper publisher Southam Inc

1985 Southam buys 30% of Torstar's non-voting shares

1991 buys interactive educational software house Tom Snyder Productions

Southam and Sun

1992 Hollinger buys Torstar's 22.6% stake in Southam

1998 buys 4 Southern Ontario dailies from Southam

1998 unsuccessful bid for Sun Media, which passes to Quebecor

1999 sells Troll Communications to Willis Stein Partners for US$69m

2001 buys QE Web Printing Ltd

2001 sells Frank Schaffer Publications to McGraw-Hill

2001 forms joint venture (75% stake with Metro International S.A.) to publish Metro Today free daily newspaper, replacing Today and Metro papers

2001 buy 55% of Sing Tao's Canadian arm for US$14m

2002 writes off C$25m stake in ITI Education Corporation, sells Delta Education to The Wicks Group

2002 sells Tom Snyder Productions to Scholastic Corp for US$9m

2002 pays C$4.1m for controlling interest in Transit Television Network joint venture with ITEC Network

2002 pays C$20.6m for 19.35% share of Black Press Ltd (publisher of 88 newspapers, with 11 printing plants in Western Canada, Washington State and Hawaii)

2003 buys outdoor advertising operator Olifas Marketing Group (OMG Media)

2003 buys magazine publisher and events company J.H. Robinson Publishing Ltd and Silva Litho Solutions Inc. for C$6m

2005 BCE sells 48.5% of Bell Globemedia for C$1.3 billion to Torstar (20%), Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan (20%) and Thomson family's Woodbridge (8.5%).