Ottawa Citizen

Ottawa Citizen

Fair Play and Daylight
The February 1, 2016, front page of the Ottawa Citizen
Type	Daily (no print edition on Sundays or Mondays) [1] [2]
Format	Broadsheet, digital
Owner	Postmedia Network
Editor	Nicole Feriancek [3]
Founded	1845;180 years ago (1845) (as the Bytown Packet)
Language	English
Headquarters	1101 Baxter Road Ottawa, Ontario K2C 3M4
Circulation	231,000 weekdays, 490,000 weekly for print and digital [4] (as of 2022)vividata
ISSN	0839-3222
Website	ottawacitizen.com

The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. ^[5]

History

Established as the Bytown Packet in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the Citizen in 1851. ^[6] The newspaper's original motto, which has recently been returned to the editorial page, was Fair Play and Day-Light. ^[7]

The paper has been through a number of owners. In 1846, Harris sold the paper to John Gordon Bell and Henry J. Friel. ^[8] Robert Bell bought the paper in 1849, and sold it to I.B. Taylor in 1861. ^[9] In 1877, Charles Herbert Mackintosh became the principal owner, and he later sold it to Robert and Lewis Shannon. ^[10]

In 1897, the Citizen became one of several papers owned by the Southam family. ^[11] It remained under Southam until the chain was purchased by Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc. in 1996. ^[7] In 2000, the chain was sold to Canwest Global, which was taken over by Postmedia Network in 2010. ^{[12] [13]}

The editorial view of the Citizen has varied with its ownership, taking a reform position under Friel, ^[8] and a conservative position (supporting John A. Macdonald) under Mackintosh. ^[10] When the Liberals defeated the Tory government in 1896, the owners of the Citizen decided to sell to Southam, rather than face an expected cut in government revenue. ^[11] In 2002, the Citizen's publisher, Russell Mills, was dismissed following the publication of a story critical of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and an editorial calling for Chrétien's resignation. ^[14]

The Citizen published its last Sunday edition on July 15, 2012. This move meant 20 fewer newsroom jobs, and was part of a series of changes made by Postmedia. ^[15] The Citizen stopped producing a print edition on Mondays as of 17 October 2022, due to the costs of printing and delivery, but it continued to publish a digital Monday edition. ^[2]

Former logo

The pre-2014 logo depicted the top of the Peace Tower of Canada's Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. In 2014, the newspaper adopted a new logo showing the paper's name over an outline of the Peace Tower roof on a green background. ^{[ citation needed ]}

Circulation

The Ottawa Citizen's circulation in 2009 was 123,856 copies daily. Its circulation dropped by 26 percent to 91,796 in 2015. ^[16]

In Spring 2022, the Ottawa Citizen's unduplicated print and digital average weekday audience was 231,000, and its unduplicated average weekly audience was 490,000. ^[4]

Notable people

• Scott Keir Anderson, editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2007 ^[17]
• Scott Burnside, ice hockey columnist ^[18]
• Peter Calamai (1943–2019), editorial pages editor ^[19]
• Randall Denley, long-time Ottawa Citizen writer who retired in 2012 ^[20]
• Bob Ferguson (1931–2014), sports journalist and writer ^[21]
• Terry Glavin, Ottawa Citizen writer until 2020 ^[22]
• Charles Gordon, writer and columnist at the Ottawa Citizen from 1974 to 2005 ^[23]
• John Honderich, Ottawa Citizen reporter from 1973 to 1976 ^[24]
• Kelvin Kirk, artist at the Ottawa Citizen ^[25]
• Eddie MacCabe (1927–1998), journalist, sports editor and writer ^{[26] [27]}
• Russell Mills, editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen from 1976 to 1984, then publisher ^[28]
• Gerry Nott, editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2014 ^[28]
• Andrew Potter, editor-in-chief from 2013 to 2016 ^[28]
• Jane Taber, political reporter ^[29]
• James Travers, editor-in-chief from 1991 to 1996 ^[30]

See also

• Canadian daily newspapers

References

1. "Ottawa Citizen cuts jobs, ends Sunday print edition". CTV News. May 29, 2012. Archived from the original on December 9, 2022.
2. "Notice to Ottawa Citizen readers". Ottawa Citizen. September 21, 2022.
3. Crawford, Blair (February 22, 2023). "Nicole Feriancek named editor-in-chier of the Ottawa Citizen, Ottawa Sun". Ottawa Citizen.
4. vividata. "Newspaper Topline Readership" (PDF).
5. "Ottawa Citizen".
6. Cobb, Chris (July 16, 1992). "Comedy of Errors". Ottawa Citizen. p. A2. Retrieved July 16, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
7. Boswell, Randy (January 20, 2020). "A window into history: A trip back to the Citizen's fascinating beginnings, 175 years ago".
8. Cross, Michael (1976). "Friel, Henry James". In Halpenny, Francess G (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography . Vol. IX (1861–1870) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
9. Pilon, Henri (1972). "Bell, Robert". In Hayne, David (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography . Vol. X (1871–1880) (online ed.). University of Toronto Press.
10. Bruce, Charles (1968). News and the Southams . Toronto: Macmillan of Canada. pp. 70–72.
11. Parry, David (April 9, 1977). "To buy dying paper he needed $4,000". Edmonton Journal. p. 105. Retrieved July 16, 2022– via Newspapers.com.
12. Potter, Jessica (October 17, 2014). "The Ottawa Citizen". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
13. "Hollinger sells 28 Ontario newspapers for $220 million". CBC News. July 31, 2001.
14. "Fired publisher named Nieman Fellow Archived January 13, 2008, at the Wayback Machine ". Harvard Gazette . 2002.
15. Archived June 1, 2012, at the Wayback Machine
16. "Daily Newspaper Circulation Data". News Media Canada . Retrieved December 16, 2017.
17. "Ottawa Citizen's top editor leaves to become CanWest VP". CBC News. November 15, 2007.
18. Burnside, Scott (November 23, 2001). "Former Senator reroutes NHL dream through Russia". Ottawa Citizen. p. 22.; Burnside, Scott (November 3, 2002). "Fans turn on Leafs by not turning out". Ottawa Citizen. p. 19.
19. Boswell, Randy (January 23, 2019). "Remembering Peter Calamai: Journalist, Teacher and 'Advocate for Science, Literacy and Journalistic Professionalism' (1943-2019)". Carleton University . Retrieved March 26, 2023.
20. "Candidates in Ottawa West-Nepean riding share a fraught political past". The Globe and Mail. May 18, 2014.
21. Scanlan, Wayne (June 7, 1996). "There ain't nothing like an old-time sports writer". Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario. p. 15.
22. "Terry Glavin". Ottawa Citizen.
23. Duffy, Andrew (June 30, 2023). "Former Ottawa Citizen columnist one of four Ottawans appointed to the Order of Canada".
24. Lederman, Marsha (February 6, 2022). "Former Toronto Star publisher John Honderich, among 'last of the lions' of Canadian journalism, dead at 75". The Globe and Mail.
25. Archdeacon, Tom (April 27, 2012). "UD player first 'Mr. Irrelevant' in NFL Draft". Archived from the original on March 24, 2016.
26. Chwialkowska, Luiza (May 24, 1998). "Eddie MacCabe: A glimpse it the city's soul". Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario. p. 7.
27. Brown, Dave (May 23, 1998). "Eddie MacCabe: A local legend lost". Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario. p. 27.; Brown, Dave (May 23, 1998). "MacCabe did it well or didn't bother with it at all". Ottawa Citizen. Ottawa, Ontario. p. 28.
28. "Former Citizen editors-in-chief on their proudest moments, greatest disappointments". Ottawa Citizen. November 28, 2020.
29. "Jane Taber". Board of Governors, Carleton University.
30. Duffy, Andrew (November 25, 2020). "Editors-in-chief: The Citizen newsroom has been led by the formidable and the quirky". Ottawa Citizen.

Sources

• Adam, Mohammed. (January 2, 2005). "When we began 1845: For 160 years, the Citizen has been the 'heartbeat of the community". Ottawa Citizen.
• Bruce, Charles (1968). News and the Southams . Toronto: Macmillan of Canada. pp. 70–72.
• Kesterton, Wilfred H. (1984). A History of Journalism in Canada. Ottawa: Carleton University Press. ISBN   978-0-88629-022-1.
• Rutherford, Paul (1982). A Victorian authority: The Daily Press in Late Nineteenth-Century Canada . Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN   978-0-8020-5588-0. DDC 71.1. LCC PN4907.

External links

• Official website