Ottawa Citizen

Established as the Bytown Packet in 1845 by William Harris, it was renamed the Citizen in 1851.^[6] The newspaper's original motto, which has recently been returned to the editorial page, was Fair Play and Day-Light.^[7]

The paper has been through a number of owners. In 1846, Harris sold the paper to John Gordon Bell and Henry J. Friel.^[8] Robert Bell bought the paper in 1849, and sold it to I.B. Taylor in 1861.^[9] In 1877, Charles Herbert Mackintosh became the principal owner, and he later sold it to Robert and Lewis Shannon.^[10]

In 1897, the Citizen became one of several papers owned by the Southam family.^[11] It remained under Southam until the chain was purchased by Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc. in 1996.^[7] In 2000, the chain was sold to Canwest Global, which was taken over by Postmedia Network in 2010.^[12][13]

The editorial view of the Citizen has varied with its ownership, taking a reform position under Friel,^[8] and a conservative position (supporting John A. Macdonald) under Mackintosh.^[10] When the Liberals defeated the Tory government in 1896, the owners of the Citizen decided to sell to Southam, rather than face an expected cut in government revenue.^[11] In 2002, the Citizen's publisher, Russell Mills, was dismissed following the publication of a story critical of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and an editorial calling for Chrétien's resignation.^[14]

The Citizen published its last Sunday edition on July 15, 2012. This move meant 20 fewer newsroom jobs, and was part of a series of changes made by Postmedia.^[15] The Citizen stopped producing a print edition on Mondays as of 17 October 2022, due to the costs of printing and delivery, but it continued to publish a digital Monday edition.^[2]

The pre-2014 logo depicted the top of the Peace Tower of Canada's Parliament Buildings in Ottawa. In 2014, the newspaper adopted a new logo showing the paper's name over an outline of the Peace Tower roof on a green background.

The Ottawa Citizen's circulation in 2009 was 123,856 copies daily. Its circulation dropped by 26 percent to 91,796 in 2015.^[16]

In Spring 2022, the Ottawa Citizen's unduplicated print and digital average weekday audience was 231,000, and its unduplicated average weekly audience was 490,000.^[4]

• Scott Keir Anderson, editor-in-chief from 1996 to 2007^[17]
• Peter Calamai (1943–2019), editorial pages editor^[18]
• Canadian daily newspapers
• Randall Denley, long-time Ottawa Citizen writer who retired in 2012^[19]
• Bob Ferguson (1931–2014), sports journalist and writer^[20]
• Terry Glavin, Ottawa Citizen writer until 2020^[21]
• Charles Gordon, writer and columnist at the Ottawa Citizen from 1974 to 2005^[22]
• John Honderich, Ottawa Citizen reporter from 1973 to 1976^[23]
• Kelvin Kirk, artist at the Ottawa Citizen^[24]
• Eddie MacCabe (1927–1998), journalist, sports editor and writer^[25][26]
• Russell Mills, editor-in-chief of the Ottawa Citizen from 1976 to 1984, then publisher^[27]
• Gerry Nott, editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2014^[27]
• Andrew Potter, editor-in-chief from 2013 to 2016^[27]
• Jane Taber, political reporter^[28]
• James Travers, editor-in-chief from 1991 to 1996^[29]