The Globe and Mail

TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA·FOUNDED 1844·theglobeandmail.com

The Globe and Mail is Canada's national newspaper of record, based in Toronto and owned by The Woodbridge Company, the Thomson family's private investment vehicle.

Overview

The Globe and Mail is a Canadian national daily newspaper based in Toronto, widely regarded as Canada's newspaper of record. It publishes national and international news, business, politics and analysis in print and online. The Globe describes its editorial role as "independent but not neutral." It is owned by The Woodbridge Company, the private investment vehicle of the Thomson family.

History

The Globe and Mail's origins trace to two competing Toronto newspapers: The Globe, a liberal paper founded in 1844 by Scottish immigrant George Brown, and The Mail, a conservative paper founded in 1872 by John A. Macdonald. The two competed until 1936, when publisher George McCullagh bought The Globe and, within a month, also bought The Mail and Empire (itself formed through an earlier 1895 merger), combining them into the independent newspaper The Globe and Mail. Following McCullagh's death in 1952, the paper passed through subsequent ownership before Thomson Newspapers acquired a 100 percent interest in FP Publications Ltd., the Globe's owner at the time, in 1980. The Globe's international coverage strengthened its reputation over subsequent decades; for more than a decade beginning in 1958, its Beijing bureau was a preferred source of China coverage for U.S. newspapers.

In 2001, The Globe and Mail was folded into Bell Globemedia Publishing Inc., a joint venture with Bell Canada Enterprises (BCE). In 2010, an 85 percent stake in the newspaper was purchased by The Woodbridge Company, the Thomson family's investment vehicle and majority owner of Thomson Reuters, as part of a broader asset transaction with BCE. Woodbridge acquired the remaining 15 percent stake from BCE in August 2015, giving the Thomson family full ownership. Phillip Crawley served as the Globe's publisher and CEO for 25 years before retiring; Andrew Saunders, previously the Globe's chief revenue officer, succeeded him as president and CEO effective September 1, 2023. David Walmsley has served as editor-in-chief since March 24, 2014.

Notable works

• 2019Ottawa bureau chief Robert Fife's reporting revealed that aides to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau had pressured then-attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould to arrange a settlement shielding engineering firm SNC-Lavalin from criminal prosecution. Wilson-Raybould resigned from cabinet days later, and Canada's federal ethics commissioner concluded in August 2019 that Trudeau had violated the Conflict of Interest Act. The Globe's coverage of the affair won the Canadian Journalism Foundation's Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism in 2020.

• 2023–2024Robert Fife and reporter Steven Chase's reporting on Chinese government interference in Canadian federal elections triggered a national debate and prompted Prime Minister Trudeau to appoint a special rapporteur to investigate; after that appointment drew criticism from all three major opposition parties, it gave way to a full public inquiry into foreign interference. The reporting won the 2024 Canadian Hillman Prize, awarded by the U.S.-based Sidney Hillman Foundation for journalism in the public interest.

Key personnel

• Editor-in-Chief David Walmsley

• President & CEO Andrew Saunders

• Chairman David Thomson

Audience

The Globe and Mail is distributed in print in five cities across western and central Canada alongside its digital edition. According to the most recently published readership figures cited by the company, the Globe is read by more than 6 million people weekly.

Location and contact info

Headquarters Globe and Mail Centre
351 King Street East
Toronto, Ontario M5A 1L1

Owner The Woodbridge Company (Thomson family)

Website https://www.theglobeandmail.com