Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan

Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan (July 18, 1848 – January 28, 1938) was a Canadian newspaper publisher.

Born in Athelstan, Canada East (now Hinchinbrooke, Huntingdon County, Quebec), Graham was the son of Robert Walker Graham, a Scottish land owner, and his wife, Marion Gardner (d.1874), daughter of Colonel Thomas McLeay Gardner (1792-1854), of Edinburgh and Huntingdon.

He was educated at the Huntingdon Academy until the age of fifteen. After terminating school, he served his apprenticeship as office boy and later business manager under his uncle, E. H. Parsons, a journalist, who published the Commercial Advertiser, and afterwards the Evening Telegraph in Montreal. In 1865, he was appointed Secretary-Treasurer of the Gazette Printing Company.

In 1869, along with George T. Lanigan and perhaps journalist Thomas Marshall (his role is disputed), he founded the Evening Star (later The Montreal Star), a one-cent daily. At first the Star's specialty was sensational news and scandals, and did not win favour with the educated public of Montreal. After it gained good circulation among workers, Graham, with some business ability, gradually changed it into a respected, powerful, and lucrative newspaper. Graham soon acquired full control of the paper.

Later Graham founded two weeklies, the Family Herald and Weekly Star, with a national circulation in rural districts, as well as the Montreal Standard, which catered to Montreal's urban population.

He also gained control of the Montreal Herald, a liberal daily, and was president of the Montreal Star Publishing Company.

Graham's publishing business prospered and he became one of the most powerful media executives in Canada. His newspapers' editorials greatly influenced the federal government's decision in 1900 to send troops to participate in the British offensive in the Second Boer War.

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