A brief history of North America’s oldest newspaper

The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph has enjoyed a very long and most distinguished history in Quebec City. This newspaper is a descendant of several newspapers published during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries in Quebec.The first, the Quebec Gazette, was founded by William Brown on June 21, 1764. From that year to 1842, the newspaper published both French and English editions. It started as a weekly, but in May, 1832, it began appearing in English on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and in French on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.The Quebec Gazette had 150 subscribers in 1764. It encountered a number of problems during the first years of publication, and was forced to briefly suspend printing during the siege of Quebec in November 1775.When William Brown died in 1789, the newspaper remained in his family, being taken over by two of his nephews, John and Samuel Neilson. John Neilson published The Quebec Gazette until February 1848, then was replaced for a year by Roland Macdonald.Robert Middleton succeeded Macdonald and remained with the paper until 1873. In 1873 the Quebec Gazette joined with the Morning Chronicle to become the Quebec Chronicle and Quebec Gazette.The Morning Chronicle, founded in 1847 by Robert Middleton and Charles St. Michel, also saw many changes, especially in its content. Upon Middleton’s death in 1873, J.J. Foote, who had become publisher of the paper in 1863, ended the competition between the Quebec Gazette and the Morning Chronicle by combining the two.Two years after the amalgamation, the Quebec Daily Telegraph was founded by James Carrel on November 9, 1875. Contrary to the Quebec Chronicle and the Quebec Gazette which was a Conservative newspaper, the Daily Telegraph defended popular opinion and published as a Liberal newspaper.The competition between these two newspapers was disastrous. On July 2, 1925, the two joined under the name of the Chronicle-Telegraph and was renamed the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph in 1934. The new paper was controlled by William Price and James Carrel (William Price had purchased the Morning Chronicle in 1922). The offices of the newspaper were located on Buade Street.In September 1959, the business moved to St-Malo Industrial Centre and a new proprietor, The Thomson Company, took control. The newspaper, which had been a daily since it was founded, became a weekly in 1972. The Thomson Company then sold the newspaper to publisher Herb Murphy.On December 16, 1979, a group composed of lawyers David Cannon, Jean Lemelin and Ross Rourke, along with broadcaster Bob Dawson, saved the paper from a certain demise. A few years later, David Cannon acquired sole ownership of the paper.On January 1, 1993, it was bought by Karen Macdonald and François Vezina.On August 1, 2007, Pierre Little, a New Brunswick native, and Peter White purchased the paper. In 2009 Pierre Little purchased White’s shares and became the sole owner.In November 2010, majority shares were sold to Raymond Stanton of Ontario. His wife, Stacie Stanton, is the current editor and publisher.The Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph is published every Wednesday.On June 21, 2014, the newspaper will celebrate its 250th anniversary as North America’s Oldest Newspaper.

A brief history of North America’s oldest newspaper was last modified: June 25th, 2023 by QCT Archive

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *