St. Thomas Times-Journal
 Front page of the June 2, 2020 edition | |
| Owner(s) | Postmedia |
|---|---|
| Country | Canada |
| ISSN | 0839-1580 |
| Website | www |
TheSt. Thomas Times-Journalis the city newspaper ofSt. Thomas, Ontario,Canada,and is owned byPostmedia.
The publication focuses on the newsworthy events in St. Thomas and surrounding municipalities, such as the sports teams ofAylmer.
History
[edit]St. Thomas andElgin Countyare served by a small city daily newspaper - TheSt. Thomas Times-Journal.
Since July 2, 1918, this newspaper has carried that name across its masthead. It represents the amalgamation of the two daily newspapers that served St. Thomas and Elgin for many years, theSt. Thomas Timesand theSt. Thomas Journal.
The predecessors of these two dailies were started as weekly publications years before St. Thomas reached the size where the publishers felt that daily publication was warranted.
St. Thomas has had newspapers since 1831 when the first weekly appeared. It was not only the first newspaper in St. Thomas but also the first to be called the Journal.GeorgeandThomas Hodgkinson,brothers, were the publishers and editors. Their paper had been in existence only a year when a competitor called the Liberal came out in 1832, withAsahel B. Lewisas its editor. In 1833, theRev. Donald Fraser,a Presbyterian minister only recently arrived fromScotland,became the editor of theJournal,while in 1834, two men named Kent and Kipp acquired the Liberal. Within three years, both papers were out of existence.
From then until 1873, St. Thomas had many newspaper ventures, all of them short-lived, except McLachlin'sJournaland Wilkinson'sTimes.To mention a few of the short-lived newspapers that appeared during that period: theSt. Thomas Enquirer,started byJohn Kent (newspaperman)in 1837; theSt. Thomas Chronicle,which was begun by O'Reilly and Newcombe in 1843;The Canadian Freeman,edited byL. Cunningham Kearneyfrom 1846 to 1851; theSt. Thomas Watchmanmade a brief appearance; then followed theWeekly Dispatchand theBritish Standard.
TheJournalwas the first to appear in daily form. On Sept. 3, 1881,James S. Brierley,later publisher of theMontreal Herald,withE.E. SheppardandWilliam Westlake,bought out theSt. Thomas Evening Journal,after buying the semi-weeklyHome JournalfromArchibald McLachlin,pioneer bookseller and publisher of St. Thomas. Westlake died before the first issue came out; and in 1883, Brierley acquired sole ownership of theJournal,continuing until 1906 when he sold the paper to theArthur S. Smithof St. Thomas, who disposed of it the following year toF.W. Sutherland,now president and general manager ofSutherland Press, Limited,of St. Thomas. From 1896 until 1906, Brierley published both theSt. Thomas Journaland theMontreal Herald,being president and general manager of the latter newspaper until his death.
TheSt. Thomas Timeswas started as a weekly by Jonathan Wilkinson, an experienced newspaperman fromGuelph,in 1871. TheTimesdid not become a daily until Dec. 2, 1882. For many years both theTimesand theJournalcontinued to publish weekly editions, both having wide rural circulations.
In 1889,A.E. WallaceandJohn W. Eedybought theTimesfrom Wilkinson, then in 1902,L.H. Dingman,who had come to St. Thomas a few years before fromStratford,as business manager of the Journal, became owner and published of theTimes.He has been actively identified in the editing and publication of St. Thomas' daily newspapers ever since.
With the amalgamation of the two dailies in 1918, Dingman became president and treasurer ofThe Times-Journal of St. Thomas, Limited.For many years he was also the managing editor ofThe Times-Journal.
A rather serious fire in the Journal building, only about a block east of the Times building, was a factor in bringing about the amalgamation. After the fire, for some time, both papers were printed on the Times press.
Later the Times-Journal was purchased byLord Thomsonand became part of theThomsonchain of newspapers.[1]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Copied fromHistory of St. Thomas Times-Journal,which took it from the book St. Thomas and Its Men of Affairs.St. Thomas, Ontario:The Municipal World Limited Publishers. 1951.,the copyright for which expired at the end of 2001, given that it was one of the recognized "Anonymous and pseudonymous works of joint authorship" or "Anonymous and pseudonymous works" produced in Canada perthe Canadian Copyright Act ( R.S., 1985, c. C-42 ), Section 6(full version for printing) (HTML) (PDF)