The Toronto Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Toronto, Canada. It printed its first issue on Monday, November 1, 1971, two days after the Toronto Telegram ceased publication on October 30, 1971, and it was started largely by former Telegram staff. Since April 13, 2015, it has belonged to Postmedia Network, which bought it from Quebecor as part of the sale of the Sun Media chain.
The paper is known for its tabloid format, its sports and crime coverage, and the Sunshine Girl photo feature. Its history is also a short course in Canadian newspaper ownership: a start-up built from the wreckage of a closed daily, a national chain of “Sun” papers, takeovers by Maclean Hunter, Rogers, and Quebecor, and a long decline in print circulation.
How the Toronto Sun began in 1971
The Toronto Telegram was an afternoon paper founded by John Ross Robertson, whose first issue appeared on April 18, 1876. John W. H. Bassett acquired it in 1952 and closed it on October 30, 1971, after falling circulation and financial losses. The Telegram had published for 95 years.
A new paper appeared within days. According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Toronto Sun Publishing Ltd bought the Telegram’s syndication operations and its newspaper vending boxes, and the Sun published its first edition on November 1, 1971. The founders included the Telegram’s former managing editor Doug Creighton, the editor Peter Worthington, and the artist Andy Donato. Wikipedia reports that more than 60 people made up the first staff, many of them out of work after the Telegram closed.
The new paper started on a small scale. The Canadian Encyclopedia notes that it sold mainly on the street rather than through home delivery at first, which explains why the Telegram’s vending boxes mattered. The Sunday Sun followed on September 16, 1973.
The name and the tabloid format
Wikipedia reports that Creighton first planned to call the paper the Toronto News. Andy Donato put “Toronto Sun” on the first front page, and Creighton kept it. The paper is a tabloid, a compact page size with large headlines and photographs, and CBC News and The Washington Post (1988) both describe it that way, according to the same article.
That article also records criticism of some early columns over their treatment of race, gay rights, and AIDS, citing reporting in Torontoist and academic journals. Readers who want details should go to those original articles. The criticism belongs to the paper’s historical record, and so do its readers’ loyalty and its role in Toronto’s popular press.
The Sunshine Girl
The Sunshine Girl feature began on November 1, 1971, the first day of the paper. It was adapted from British tabloids that ran similar pictures of women, although the Canadian feature usually shows its subject clothed or in a swimsuit, not topless. According to Wikipedia, the pictures ran in black and white through the early 1980s, then in a mix of black-and-white and color, and later usually in color. By the early 2000s the feature had moved from page three to the back page of the sports section, and in 2011 it returned to page three in some of the Sun papers.
The feature has drawn objections for decades. On November 14, 1985, the Ontario Press Council upheld a reader complaint that it portrayed women as sex objects, and no penalty followed. A May 2025 report in Toronto Today, cited by Wikipedia, said old Sunshine Girl photographs were being rerun and the photo studio had been closed since early 2020. The same report said the new owners of the Winnipeg Sun ended the feature there in 2024. Whether the Toronto Sun runs it on a given day is a question for the paper itself.
Who has owned the Toronto Sun
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| 1971 | Toronto Sun Publishing Ltd starts the paper after buying assets of the Telegram. |
| 1978 | On February 4, Toronto Sun Holdings Ltd and Toronto Sun Publishing Ltd amalgamate to form Sun Publishing, later Sun Media Corporation. The Edmonton Sun begins publishing on April 2. |
| 1982 or 1983 | Maclean Hunter acquires about 50 percent of the company for $55 million. The Canadian Encyclopedia gives 1982; Wikipedia gives 1983. |
| 1994 | Rogers Communications buys Maclean Hunter. |
| 1996 | A management-led group buys Rogers’ interest, and the company takes the name Sun Media. |
| 1998 | Quebecor buys Sun Media. The Canadian Encyclopedia gives the price as $983 million and says the sale followed a hostile takeover attempt by the owner of the Toronto Star. |
| 2014 to 2015 | Quebecor announces the sale of Sun Media’s English-language papers to Postmedia on October 6, 2014. The Competition Bureau approves it on March 25, 2015, and the deal closes on April 13, 2015. |
Buildings and addresses
The first offices were leased space in the Eclipse White Wear Company Building at 322 King Street West. In 1975 the paper moved to the Toronto Sun Building at 333 King Street East, later expanded to six storeys. That building was sold to First Gulf in 2010, and the newsroom was consolidated onto the second floor. In 2016 the staff moved to 365 Bloor Street East, a building shared with the National Post, though the two papers keep separate newsrooms.
Circulation
Wikipedia, citing the 2015 News Media Canada circulation report, gives weekday circulation of 119,048, Saturday circulation of 111,515, and Sunday circulation of 142,376 (print plus digital, 2015). The same entry says daily circulation fell about 36 percent between 2009 and 2015, to 121,304, and that at the end of 2007 the paper sold roughly 180,000 copies Monday to Saturday and 310,000 on Sunday. These are secondary figures. News Media Canada is the source for current numbers.
Finding old issues of the Sun and the Telegram
The Toronto Telegram fonds for 1876 to 1971 is held by the Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections at York University Libraries, according to Wikipedia’s entry on the Telegram. For runs of the Sun itself, the Toronto Reference Library catalogue is the first place to check, because the library sets its holdings and date ranges. Other Toronto papers and their archives are covered in a separate article on this site.
Frequently asked questions
Who owns the Toronto Sun?
Postmedia Network has owned it since the sale from Quebecor closed on April 13, 2015. Before that it belonged to Quebecor’s Sun Media, and earlier to Maclean Hunter and Rogers.
When was the Toronto Sun founded?
The first issue came out on November 1, 1971. The Telegram’s last day was October 30, 1971. Wikipedia’s Telegram entry describes the Sun’s first issue as two days later, which is consistent with a Monday, November 1 date.
Is the Toronto Sun a tabloid?
Yes. It is a daily tabloid, and it is Canadian, published in Toronto, Ontario.
What happened to the Toronto Telegram?
John Bassett closed it on October 30, 1971. Its syndication business and vending boxes went to Toronto Sun Publishing, and many of its staff moved to the Sun.
Where can a missed delivery be reported?
Delivery is handled by the publisher, and contact details change. The paper’s own customer-service page is the place to report a problem. This site has no connection to the newspaper.
Related reading
- An overview of Toronto’s history
- John Ross Robertson, founder of the Telegram
- Toronto’s historical newspaper archives
- The Toronto Reference Library
- Social movements and civic life in Toronto
Last verified: October 2026
Sources
- The Canadian Encyclopedia, “Sun Media Corporation”
- Wikipedia, “Toronto Sun”, “Sun Media”, “Toronto Telegram”, “Sunshine Girl”, and “Douglas Creighton” (secondary, citing News Media Canada, CBC News, The Globe and Mail, and Toronto Today)
Cite this page
APA: History of Toronto. (2026, October 23). Toronto Sun: History of the Newspaper Since 1971. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-sun-history
MLA: “Toronto Sun: History of the Newspaper Since 1971.” History of Toronto, 23 Oct. 2026, https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-sun-history. Accessed .
Chicago: History of Toronto. “Toronto Sun: History of the Newspaper Since 1971.” Last modified October 23, 2026. https://historyoftoronto.ca/blog/toronto-sun-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.