The
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, founded by William Brown (c. 1737-1789) as the
Quebec Gazette on 21 June, 1764, claims to be the oldest newspaper in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
. It is currently published as an English language weekly from its offices at 1040 Belvedere, suite 218,
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
,
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Formerly a
bilingualOfficial bilingualism is the term used in Canada to collectively describe the policies, constitutional provisions, and laws which give English and French a special legal status over other languages in Canada’s courts, parliament and administration....
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
-
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
publication, the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph celebrated its 245
th anniversary in 2009.
Founded as the
Quebec Gazette in 1764, it is a descendant of several newspapers published during the past three centuries.
The
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, founded by William Brown (c. 1737-1789) as the
Quebec Gazette on 21 June, 1764, claims to be the oldest newspaper in
North AmericaNorth America is the northern continent of the Americas, situated in the Earth's northern hemisphere and in the western hemisphere. It is bordered on the north by the Arctic Ocean, on the east by the North Atlantic Ocean, on the southeast by the Caribbean Sea, and on the west by the North Pacific...
. It is currently published as an English language weekly from its offices at 1040 Belvedere, suite 218,
Quebec CityQuébec , is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in the province – after Montreal, about to the southwest...
,
QuebecQuebec is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking identity and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
,
CanadaCanada is a country occupying most of northern North America, extending from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
.
Formerly a
bilingualOfficial bilingualism is the term used in Canada to collectively describe the policies, constitutional provisions, and laws which give English and French a special legal status over other languages in Canada’s courts, parliament and administration....
FrenchFrench is a Romance language globally spoken by about 65 million people as a first language , by 50 million as a second language, and by about another 200 million people as an acquired foreign language, with significant speakers in 57 countries. Most native speakers of the language live in France,...
-
EnglishEnglish is a West Germanic language that developed in England during the Anglo-Saxon era. As a result of the military, economic, scientific, political, and cultural influence of the British Empire during the 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries, and of the United States since the mid 20th century,...
publication, the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph celebrated its 245
th anniversary in 2009.
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.
In July 25, 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 the front of its name, 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 FleetRoy Herbert Thomson, 1st Baron Thomson of Fleet GBE was a Canadian newspaper proprietor and media entrepreneur.-Career:...
, now part of
Thomson ReutersThomson Reuters is an information company created by the Thomson Corporation's purchase of Reuters on 17 April 2008. Thomson Reuters shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange and the New York Stock Exchange . Thomson Reuters is a Canadian-controlled corporation operating from Midtown...
) which later sold the newspaper to publisher Herb Murphy. In 1972 it went from being a daily to its current weekly edition format.
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. On 1 January, 1993 it was then bought by Karen Macdonald and François Vézina. It was sold 1 August, 2007 and as of that time its new owner and publisher was Pierre Little, a New Brunswick native.
Claims of seniority
The
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph claims to be North-America's oldest newspaper due to following:
- The Maryland Gazette began publication in 1727, though it died in its tenth year and the name was only revived in 1922;
- The New Hampshire Gazette began publication on October 7, 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...
, 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 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 is the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen of Britain's colonies in North America at first rejected the governance of the Parliament of Great Britain, and later the British monarchy itself, to become the sovereign United States of...
. Though it cannot claim to be the oldest continually-published paper in North America, others have asserted that neither can the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph, which also ceased publication during the Siege of Quebec in November 1775;
- Finally, there is the Hartford Courant, founded October 29, 1764, a few months after the Quebec Chronicle Telegraph. The argument from the Courant is that it has never missed a day of publication since its foundation.
The
Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph therefore has a defendable claim to being the oldest
surviving newspaper that still publishes news in Canada, and the oldest in North America with
'continuous corporate bona fide buyouts' from proprietors to newer successors. No other newspaper has made this claim in North America and possibly the
New WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the non-Afro-Eurasian parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and possibly Australia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia,...
.
Archive scanning partnership with Google News
In 2008 the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph joined the
Google NewsGoogle News is an automated news aggregator provided by Google Inc. The initial idea, StoryRank—related to Google's PageRank formula—was developed by Krishna Bharat in 2001, the Principal Research Scientist of Google. No human is involved in the altering of the front page or story promotion, beyond...
microfilm scanning project to make its newspaper archives more accessible via Google's free news archive search service.
Publisher Pierre Little stated that:
- "This effort will open up a new world of possibilities for today's Internet users. You can search for everything from news of loved ones of past generations to news of major historical events"
and that:
- "....many readers visit the newspaper’s Web site to look for obituaries and conduct research on their ancestors
Genealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
. We could envision that thousands of families would be attracted to our archives to search for people who came over to the New World. ...We hope that will be a financial windfall for us."
See also