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The ''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'', founded by William Brown (c. 1737–1789) as the ''Quebec Gazette'' on 21 June 1764, is the oldest running newspaper in North America. It is currently published as an English language weekly from its offices in
Quebec City Quebec City is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Quebec. As of July 2021, the city had a population of 549,459, and the Census Metropolitan Area (including surrounding communities) had a populati ...
,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, Canada. Formerly a
bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...
French-English publication, the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph celebrated its 250th anniversary in 2014.


Origins and history

Founded as the ''Quebec Gazette'' in 1764, it is a descendant of several newspapers published during the past three centuries. Until 1842, the newspaper published editions in both French and English. At its inception it originally began as a weekly, but in May 1832, it began appearing in English on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and in French on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. The Quebec Gazette merged with the Morning Chronicle in 1873 to become the ''Quebec Chronicle and Quebec Gazette''. On 25 July 1925 another merger occurred with the ''Quebec Daily Telegraph'' and the paper was then published under the banner of the ''Chronicle-Telegraph'' until 1934, when it added ''Quebec'' to its masthead, where it remains to this day. In 1959, the paper was sold to the Thomson Publishing Group (then owned by Canadian media mogul
Roy Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet Roy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet, (5 June 1894 – 4 August 1976) was a Canadian-born British newspaper proprietor who became one of the moguls of Fleet Street in London. He first came to prominence when he was selling radios in ...
, now part of
Thomson Reuters Thomson Reuters Corporation ( ) is a Canadian multinational corporation, multinational content-driven technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate. The company was founded in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and maintains its headquarters at 1 ...
) which later sold the newspaper to publisher Herb Murphy. In 1972 it went from being a daily to its current weekly edition format. Quebec City is a virtually monolingual francophone city, and the area's anglophone population was too small for the paper to be viable as a daily. Then as now, its readership came mainly from anglophone provincial government workers and anglophone members of the
National Assembly of Quebec The National Assembly of Quebec (, ) is the Legislature, legislative body of the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec in Canada. Legislators are called MNAs (Members of the National Assembly; ). The lieutenant governor of Que ...
. The paper was sold again in 1979 to lawyers David Cannon, Jean Lemelin, Ross Rourke and broadcaster Bob Dawson, who later passed it on to David Cannon. It was then bought by Karen Macdonald and François Vézina on 1 January 1993. On 1 August 2007 it was sold to Peter White, former Hollinger executive and Mr. White sold it to Pierre Little in 2009, a New Brunswick native.About us: Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph: History of the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph website; In November 2010, majority shares were sold to Ray Stanton of London, Ontario.


Claims of seniority

The ''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'' claims to be North America's oldest newspaper due to the following: * The ''
Maryland Gazette ''The Gazette'', founded in 1727 as ''The Maryland Gazette'', is one of the oldest newspapers in America. Its modern-day descendant, ''The Capital,'' was acquired by The Baltimore Sun Media Group in 2014. Previously, it was owned by the Capita ...
'' began publication in 1727, though it ceased publication in its tenth year and the name was only revived in 1922. * The ''
New Hampshire Gazette ''The New Hampshire Gazette'' is a nonprofit, alternative, bi-weekly newspaper published in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Its editors claim that the paper, which all but disappeared into other publications until the late 1900s, is the oldest news ...
'' began publication on 7 October 1756 and continues as a weekly today. However, the name disappeared for a time and the new version was started from scratch by a different owner who had not purchased the paper from a previous owner. * In Canada, the ''
Halifax Gazette The ''Halifax Gazette'' was Canada's first newspaper, established on March 23, 1752, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. It was published weekly by John Bushell, who had been carrying out a project that had been initiated by his partner Bartholomew Green, ...
'', founded in 1752, claims to be "Canada's first newspaper." However, its official descendant, the ''Royal Gazette'', is a government publication for legal notices and proclamations rather than a proper newspaper. * The ''
Newport Mercury ''The'' ''Newport Mercury'', was an early American colonial newspaper founded in 1758 by Ann Smith Franklin (1696–1763), and her son, James Franklin (1730–1762), the nephew of Benjamin Franklin. The newspaper was printed on a printing pres ...
'' began as a weekly in 1758 and still publishes news today under the same name, ceasing publication only for a short period during the
American Revolution The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
.NewportDailyNews.com: About Us
, accessed 26 June 2008.
* Finally, there is the ''
Hartford Courant The ''Hartford Courant'' is the largest daily newspaper in the U.S. state of Connecticut, and is advertised as the oldest continuously published newspaper in the United States. A morning newspaper serving most of the state north of New Haven and ...
'', founded 29 October 1764, a few months after the ''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph''. However, the ''Courant'' claims that it, not the ''Chronicle-Telegraph'', is the oldest newspaper in North America, since it has never missed a day of publication since its foundation while the ''Chronicle-Telegraph'' briefly ceased publication during the 1775 Siege of Quebec. The ''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'' therefore has a defendable claim to being the oldest newspaper that still publishes news in Canada.


Archive scanning partnership with Google News

In 2008 the ''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'' joined the
Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google ...
microfilm A microform is a scaled-down reproduction of a document, typically either photographic film or paper, made for the purposes of transmission, storage, reading, and printing. Microform images are commonly reduced to about 4% or of the original d ...
scanning project to make its newspaper archives more accessible via Google's free news archive search service.Little, Pierr
''Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph'' Archive Partnership with Google
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, 8 September 2008, retrieved 13 March 2009;
Publisher Pierre Little stated that: and that:


See also

*
Google News Google News is a news aggregator service developed by Google. It presents a continuous flow of links to articles organized from thousands of publishers and magazines. Google News is available as an app on Android, iOS, and the Web. Google ...
*
List of early Canadian newspapers This is a list of early Canadian newspapers. This includes newspapers in all the former colonies now a part of Canada, which published prior to the War of 1812. The earliest Canadian newspaper was the '' Halifax Gazette'' which first published on ...
*
List of newspapers in Canada This list of newspapers in Canada is a list of newspapers printed and distributed in Canada. Daily newspapers Local weeklies Alberta * Bashaw – ''Bashaw Star'' * Bassano – ''Bassano Times'' * Beaumont – ''Beaumont News'' * Beaverlodg ...
*
List of online newspaper archives Archives of newspapers are held in many libraries, either in the original format, on microfilm or other physical formats. Digital archives of newspapers, some searchable via the internet, also now exist. The following is a list of archives that s ...


References


External links

*
First publications (June 21, 1764 - September 27, 1764) via The Internet Archive website
* {{Authority control Publications established in 1764 Newspapers published in Quebec City English-language newspapers published in Quebec Weekly newspapers published in Quebec 1764 establishments in the British Empire Quebec Anglophone culture in Quebec City