Newspaper marks 130 years in print

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 19/01/2012 (5251 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

New technology and innovations have forced major changes to the newspaper industry since the Brandon Sun’s original owner, Will White, printed the paper’s first edition on Jan. 19, 1882.

In a small frame building located near what is now 13th and Rosser, White cranked out that first four-page edition on a hand press.

Sun readers can now access their daily news in more ways than ever before — from social media sites like Twitter, Facebook and Google+, to our website at brandonsun.com — and of course, our six-day print edition.

Yet as we mark our 130th year today, we note that our dedication to the citizens of Brandon and western Manitoba remains as strong as it ever was.

“I’m struck more by the continuity than I am by the change,” Brandon Sun publisher Eric Lawson said. “When we started 130 years ago, we had the basic task that I think you could describe in exactly the same terms today.”

And that’s to be the leading source of information and conversation in the community, as well as a strong supporter and a pillar of that community.

“That was true 130 years ago, and that’s true now.”

The Sun is the fifth-oldest daily newspaper in Western Canada — fourth if you count all papers directly west of the city.

From its humble beginnings, the paper has grown with the city of Brandon, the headlines marking the years as our city expanded and prospered.

The Sun was under White’s hand for 14 years despite a brief financial interruption, and then went through a series of different owners and publishers until it was taken over by J.B. Whitehead in 1903.

Three generations of Whiteheads would successfully operate the Sun for the next 82 years, including E.C. Whitehead, who assumed full control of the paper on the death of his father in 1941. Under E.C., the Sun’s circulation grew from 3,000 to more than 11,000 subscribers.

His two sons, Joseph and Lewis, both took an active role in the operation and management of the newspaper, but it was Lewis who eventually took over from his father in 1961, after his brother died of polio in 1953 at the age of 28.

During his tenure, the Sun’s reputation travelled much farther than the borders of Manitoba. Maclean’s magazine once described the paper as “the Cadillac of Canada’s small dailies.”

Ownership of the Sun passed to Thomson Newspapers, Ltd. in 1987 after Lewis was forced to abandon his beloved newspaper due to ill health. Then in November 2001, the FP Canadian Newspapers Limited Partnership acquired the Sun and the Winnipeg Free Press from Thomson.

Following what has been a continent-wide trend in the modern newspaper industry, Brandon’s daily consolidated printing operations with its sister paper in 2010, and both papers are now printed from the company’s Winnipeg location.

As he looks forward to the months and years ahead, Lawson says the Sun will have a renewed and refocused commitment to provide readers with exceptional local coverage of our community.

“Our emphasis over the next year or two is to really put out a strongly local newspaper in our size range,” Lawson said. “We want to make sure we’re completely in touch with our community. That I think is really our job. That’s our core business now — being a terrific community daily.

“One of the things we want to do this year is add some resources to the newsroom. And the biggest goal I have for the newspaper, is to add a lot more local content. Adding more resources to the newsroom is part of that.”

As well, he intends to encourage more content from the community at large, including new columns by local writers and more graphic elements from local designers or cartoonists in the region.

“I hope to see more contributions of all kinds from the community and staff.”

For generations, the Brandon Sun has been at the forefront of information and conversation in western Manitoba. It is both a proud and humbling legacy, one that we will nurture in the years to come.

We trust you will continue to join us.

» mgoerzen@brandonsun.com

Brandon Sun, Jan. 19, 2007

And, to coincide with the city's 125th anniversary, we printed a special section, below:

Brandon Sun 125