Toronto Star

Overview

The Toronto Star is Canada's largest daily newspaper, headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, publishing a print broadsheet seven days a week in the Greater Toronto Area alongside a digital news operation at thestar.com. The Star is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation which is solely owned by Jordan Bitove.

History

The Toronto Star was founded in 1892 as the Evening Star by striking Toronto News printers and writers. Joseph E. Atkinson bought the paper on December 13, 1899, becoming its controlling shareholder; the editorial principles he established—focused on advocating for the vulnerable and holding power to account—are still cited by the paper today as the Atkinson Principles. After Atkinson's death, an Ontario law barring his charitable foundation from operating a for-profit newspaper forced the foundation's trustees to sell the Star privately; Torstar Corporation was incorporated on February 6, 1958, to acquire it, and the company later added interests in book publishing, commercial printing, and community newspapers across Ontario.

Torstar operated as a publicly traded company on the Toronto Stock Exchange from 1958 until 2020, when it was acquired and taken private by NordStar Capital LP, an investment firm formed by businessmen Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett, for approximately C$60 million (roughly $52 million USD). A partnership dispute between Bitove and Rivett led Rivett to file a court application in September 2022 seeking to dissolve NordStar; the two men resolved the dispute through mediation-arbitration, and in November 2022 an arbitrator's ruling gave Bitove sole ownership of Torstar, including the Toronto Star and the Metroland Media Group, while Rivett departed the company. Nicole MacIntyre became the Star's editor-in-chief effective July 11, 2024, succeeding Anne Marie Owens.

Notable works

• 2023. The Toronto Star and the independent nonprofit outlet The Narwhal jointly published an investigation into developer landholdings within the 15 sections of land that Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government had removed from the province's protected Greenbelt. The scandal that followed led to the resignations of housing minister Steve Clark, whom the province's integrity commissioner found had violated ethics rules, cabinet minister Kaleed Rasheed, and two senior government staffers; Ontario's auditor general found the developers involved stood to gain an estimated $8.3 billion in increased land value from the swap.

• September–October 2023. Ford reversed the Greenbelt decision on September 21, 2023, and the RCMP's launch of a criminal investigation into the affair that October was first reported by the Toronto Star.

• 2013 (National Newspaper Award). Star reporters David Bruser and Jesse McLean won a National Newspaper Award for "Police Who Lie," a series documenting roughly 100 cases across Canada in which judges suspected police officers of deceit on the stand; the investigation prompted a review by Ontario's attorney general that led to new rules requiring the Crown to report cases where a judge has found or suspects an officer lied.

Key personnel

• Publisher & Owner (Torstar). Jordan Bitove

• Editor-in-Chief. Nicole MacIntyre

• Executive Editor. Grant Ellis

Audience

The Toronto Star is read in print and across desktop, mobile and tablet platforms by more than 6 million readers every week, according to the company, and thestar.com is among the most-visited newspaper websites in Canada.

Location and contact info

Headquarters. 8 Spadina Avenue
Toronto, Ontario M5V 0S8

Owner. Jordan Bitove (Torstar Corporation)

Website. https://www.thestar.com

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