The Sault Star

The Curran family era

The Sault Star was founded by two brothers, John Edward Gardiner (Jack) Curran and James W. Curran who purchased the Sault Courier, which had begun publishing around 1895, from lawyer Moses McFadden and his brother Uriah in 1901.^[2] James Curran had already established a career in the newspaper industry when he arrived in the city in July 1901, having been city editor of the Toronto Empire and news editor of the Montreal Herald.^[3]

The Currans published the first edition of The Sault Star, then a weekly, on August 31, 1901 from a small frame building on East Street in the city's downtown using a hand-operated flat-bed printing press that had earlier printed one of Winnipeg's first newspapers.^[4] The weekly was published and distributed on Thursdays.

The first edition of the Sault Daily Star was published on March 16, 1912 and sold for two cents a copy with a total circulation of fewer than 2,000.^[4] The new paper promised readers more current news than they might read in Toronto-based papers delivered by rail. Relying on a special wire run and operated by the CPR Telegraph Company, the Currans boasted that "The Sault Daily Star will give the news just one day ahead of the Toronto papers. It will print Monday's news on Monday and deliver the paper to all of Algoma on Monday."^[5]

Among the first stories covered by the new daily in 1912 was the news that Sault Ste. Marie would be incorporated as a city later that year.^[4] The newspaper in 1917 reported the use of "trick or treat,"^[6] ten years earlier than the 1927 example of the phrase that the Oxford English Dictionary reports as its earliest use.^[7]

In 1905, James Curran replaced the second-hand equipment with new modern presses of the day and moved the-then The Sault Weekly Star to a two-story building at 374 Queen Street East in the city's downtown. That location was expanded three times to meet larger circulation of the Weekly Star and the daily that followed. In 1951, the much larger staff operation of the Sault Daily Star moved across the street to a new building at 369 Queen Street East which was expanded further in 1958.

The Star signed a collective agreement with staff in its composing room during this period. The first contract with Local 746 of the International Typographical Union representing 12 employees in May 1941 secured these workers a weekly wage of $34. Over the years, this bargaining unit would expand, starting with photoengraving staff and later adding newsroom, library, circulation and mailing staff.^[8] This union would eventually become Local 746 of the Communications Workers of America.

The Star invested in technology to modernize and improve how the paper was produced. In March 1952 it installed a photo engraving and news photo service. In September of that year it became one of 27 papers using a typesetter system to convert Canadian Press wire stories into type set for print in the day’s paper.^[9]

James W. Curran remained the paper's publisher and owner until 1941. From that year until 1975 the newspaper was led by his eldest son Robert L. Curran as publisher, his son John A. Curran as managing editor, daughters Nan Rajnovich as women's page editor, and Catharine McAdam, as well as numerous grandchildren.^[4]

Southam Press

After 74 years and three generations of family ownership, in April 1975 Robert Curran, publisher of the Sault Daily Star, and eldest son of James Curran, announced the sale of the paper to Southam Press, one of the Canada’s largest publicly owned newspaper publishing companies. At the time the Toronto-based Southam owned 13 other dailies, trade magazines and other holdings. Not disclosed at the time, the value of the sale was estimated $3.4 million.^[10]

While news and editorial policies would be set by the new owner, Southam reassured staff and readers the paper would otherwise continue to operate as it had. Southam’s president emphasized that decisions about the content of the paper, pricing and staffing would continue to be made locally.^[11]

The sale gave the Star access to Southam’s bureaus in Ottawa, Toronto, Washington, London, Paris and Peking, as well as to the Financial Times news service. Employees were assured of future opportunities and security as result.

The sale ended the Star’s boast of being the largest independently owned daily in Northern Ontario. At the time of sale, the Star had 180 employees and a circulation of over 23,000.^[12]

Shortly after, Bill Dane became the paper’s first publisher under Southam’s ownership with the retirement of Robert Curran in mid-May 1975. Formerly publisher of the Owen Sound Sun Times, Dane was tapped for his experience having taken that paper under group ownership in 1969.

Among its early decisions, the new publisher dropped "Daily" from the paper's name that year. Other content changes included a new monthly business section, a Friday TV listing and a colour comics section on Saturdays.

Southam’s ownership provided capital to modernize and invest in new technology. In February 1979, the paper moved from its Queen Street location to a new 30,000 square foot, $1.4 million facility at 145 Old Garden River Road in the city's north-east. At the same time, the paper moved from letter press to offset printing.^[4]

Under Southam, the decision was made to close the commercial printing business that had been operated alongside by the paper. This operation was shuttered in November 1980 with the loss of 12 full-time jobs.

After 12 years in the role, Dane retired as publisher in 1987. Cliff Sharp, publisher of the North Bay Nugget and former Sault Star advertising manager took on the role for less than two years. He was replaced by Southam executive E. Paul Wilson in August 1988^[13] who would retire four years later.

1992 labour disruption

On the afternoon of June 19, 1992, newsroom, photography, advertising, composing, circulation and mail employees set up a picket line in front of the Sault Star building. The 65 members of the Communications Workers of America, Local 746 had been without a contract for nine months and were at loggerheads with management.

Issues centred around compensation and job security at a time when Canada’s newspapers, fighting television for advertisers and audiences, were reducing staff costs to as a path to profitability.^[14]

Following a 12-week labour disruption, the union agreed to a new three-year contract that offered modest wage increases and promised no layoffs for nine months.^[15] The Star had continued to publish during the labour dispute relying on management, non-unionized part-time employees and replacement workers. This contributed to tensions at the paper that lasted for some years.

In July 1992, during the midst of the dispute, Southam announced that Montreal Gazette general manager Bob Richardson would replace Wilson as publisher.

Hollinger International

In 1996, Southam was acquired by Hollinger International, a Toronto-based media company owned by businessman Conrad Black, that had been buying up papers across Canada to amass what for a time was the country’s largest newspaper chain.

Osprey Media Group & Quebecor Media

In August 2002, facing bankruptcy Hollinger sold The Sault Star and 28 other Ontario-based community papers to the newly formed Osprey Media for $220 million. Osprey was headed by Michael Sifton, who had formerly run the division of Hollinger responsible for the Star and other small papers. The new owners stressed that local control would remain over news operations.

In June 2007, Quebecor Media, owners of the Sun tabloid chain purchased Osprey, including the Star and 53 other Canadian papers for $517 million.^[16]

Calling it "a necessary step for us to reduce our labour and capital expenses to help offset the dramatic declines in advertising revenues we are experiencing as a result of the economic downturn," in April 2009, the publisher moved pre-press production to a non-unionized facility in Barrie which was handling similar duties for other Sun Media papers. This decision resulted in the loss of three full time graphics and layout jobs at the paper.^[17]

In May 2014, Sun Media announced that printing of the Sault Star would be moved to the facilities of the North Bay Nugget, resulting in the loss of 23 jobs in the press and mailing room. As a result, print copies of the paper would be produced 440 km to the east and delivered daily to retailers and subscribers.^[18] The city council reacted critically to the job cuts calling on “Sun Media [to] reconsider its plan to cut jobs in Sault Ste. Marie and consider the impact of their decisions on local news services.”^[19]

The presses were removed from the Star's headquarters in June 2017.^[20] The press was removed from the Star's headquarters in June 2017.[10]

Postmedia

In 2015, Postmedia acquired Sun Media from Quebecor, including the Star and its other papers.

As part of its strategy to raise capital across its newspaper holdings by divesting of assets and real estate, in May 2017 Postmedia sold the Sault Star's headquarters at 145 Old Garden River Road to DiTommaso Investments for an undisclosed sum.^[20]

The Star's 18 employees continued to operate from a leased portion of the building until November 2020, at which point Postmedia vacated the building entirely, with staff working from home permanently.^[21]

The Star ceased publishing a Monday print edition in 2018.^[22] In June 2022, citing the "changing media landscape in North America and our own digital transformation" the Star announced that the print edition would only be published on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, meaning there would be no print edition or digital e-edition on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.^[23]

Publishers

• James Watson Curran (1901-1952)

Journalists and columnists

• Catharine Dixon, reporter (1976-1978)
• Bob MacKenzie, sports writer (1979-1981)
• Brian Vallée, staff writer (1962-1970)