The Globe and Mail is a Toronto newspaper formed on November 23, 1936, when the Globe merged with the Mail and Empire. Its older half, the Globe, was founded in Toronto by George Brown, and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography dates its first issue to March 5, 1844.
The title therefore carries two histories. The Globe was the voice of Reform and later Liberal politics in Upper Canada and Canada, and the Mail and Empire descended from Conservative papers. The merged paper has had a series of owners since 1936 and, according to the sources below, is controlled today by the Thomson family through the Woodbridge Company.
The Globe under George Brown
George Brown ran the Globe from the start. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says it began as a weekly on March 5, 1844, and later moved to semi-weekly and tri-weekly publication, adding a weekly edition for the countryside. It became a daily in October 1853, printed on a steam press. The Browns had first published the Banner on August 18, 1843, with Peter Brown handling religious content and George the secular content. The Banner closed in 1848 while the Globe continued.
The Dictionary calls the Globe the most powerful newspaper in British America. It backed responsible government, representation by population, separation of church and state, and free trade, supported federal union and Confederation, and attacked the Macdonald government during the Pacific Scandal. Brown’s younger brother Gordon became sub-editor in 1850 and took over regular editorial management, while George kept control of business affairs and major policy. A fuller account of Brown himself is on the biography page linked below.
Brown’s death in 1880
On March 25, 1880, George Bennett, a former engine-room worker who had been discharged by a foreman, fired a gun at Brown in the Globe office. The shot wounded Brown’s thigh, and the infection that followed killed him on May 9, 1880, at Lambton Lodge, his Toronto home. At least one general reference gives a different year for Brown’s death; the Dictionary of Canadian Biography is the source used here.
The Mail and the Empire
The Mail was established in Toronto in 1872 as a Conservative paper. The Empire, founded in 1887 and associated with John A. Macdonald, followed. The two merged in 1895 as the Daily Mail and Empire.
The 1936 merger
Accounts of the merger differ in detail. Wikipedia reports that George McCullagh arranged the deal while fronting for the mining executive William Henry Wright, and that he became the first publisher of the merged paper. It adds that the Globe had a circulation of about 78,000 and the Mail and Empire about 118,000, and that press reports described the deal as the minnow swallowing the whale. A search summary of Britannica describes McCullagh buying the Globe first and the Mail and Empire less than a month later. A summary of the Canadian Encyclopedia says Wright and McCullagh bought both papers. All of these accounts agree on the result: one paper, called The Globe and Mail, with McCullagh as publisher.
McCullagh also bought the Toronto Telegram in 1948, according to York University’s archives, which links the two papers for a time. The Telegram article on this site covers that part.
Owners since 1965
| Year | Change |
|---|---|
| 1936 | Globe and Mail formed under publisher George McCullagh |
| 1962 | Report on Business section launched |
| 1965 | Winnipeg-based FP Publications buys the paper |
| 1980 | FP Publications, including the Globe, sold to the Thomson Corporation |
| 2001 | Combined with BCE broadcast assets in the joint venture Bell Globemedia |
| 2010 | Thomson family regains direct control through Woodbridge, with BCE keeping a minority stake |
| 2015 | Woodbridge acquires BCE’s remaining stake |
| 2016 | Newsroom moves from 444 Front Street West to 351 King Street East |
These dates come from Wikipedia and the business reports it cites, not from a company history. Britannica and the Canadian Encyclopedia can be consulted to confirm them.
Researching the Globe
Toronto Public Library and the City of Toronto Archives are the usual starting points for finding the Globe and the Globe and Mail in library collections, and their catalogues show what is held and under what access terms. The archives article linked below explains how to search Toronto newspapers for names and events.
Frequently asked questions
When was the Globe and Mail founded?
The Globe and Mail dates from November 23, 1936, but its lineage runs back to the Globe, which George Brown founded in 1844.
Who founded the Globe?
George Brown, a Reform politician. The Dictionary of Canadian Biography dates the first issue to March 5, 1844.
What was the Mail and Empire?
A Toronto daily formed in 1895 by the merger of the Mail, founded in 1872, and the Empire, founded in 1887. It merged with the Globe in 1936.
Who owns the Globe and Mail?
According to the sources above, the Thomson family controls it through the Woodbridge Company, which took direct control in 2010 and bought out BCE’s remaining stake in 2015. The paper’s own pages are the place to check current ownership.
Related reading
- George Brown, founder of the Globe
- The Toronto Telegram, bought by the Globe’s owner in 1948
- The Toronto Star, the city’s other major daily
- Robert Baldwin and the Reform politics of the 1840s
- Toronto’s historical newspapers and where to research them
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “BROWN, GEORGE”
- Wikipedia, “The Globe and Mail,” for 1936 and later ownership dates
- Britannica and The Canadian Encyclopedia, “The Globe and Mail,” as summarized in a search result; the full pages could not be read
- York University, Clara Thomas Archives, Toronto Telegram fonds
- Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry for George Brown
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). The Globe and Mail in Toronto: from George Brown to today. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/globe-and-mail-toronto-history
MLA: “The Globe and Mail in Toronto: from George Brown to today.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/globe-and-mail-toronto-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “The Globe and Mail in Toronto: from George Brown to today.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/globe-and-mail-toronto-history.
The pages have no named author, so the site is given as the author. Add the date you read the page if your style asks for it.