Montreal Star
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A copy of The Montreal Evening Star from 1869
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| Type | Daily newspaper |
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| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | 1869-1925, Hugh Graham and George T. Lanigan; 1925-1963, John Wilson McConnell; 1963-1979, Free Press Publications |
| Founded | January 16, 1869 |
| Political alignment | Canadian federalism |
| Language | English language |
| Ceased publication | September 25, 1979 |
| Headquarters | Montreal, Quebec, Canada |
The Montreal Star was an English-language Canadian newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It folded in 1979 in the wake of an eight-month pressmen's strike.
It was Canada's largest newspaper until the 1950s and remained the dominant English-language newspaper in Montreal until shortly before its closure.
The paper was founded January 16, 1869, by Hugh Graham, 1st Baron Atholstan and George T. Lanigan as the Montreal Evening Star. Graham ran the newspaper for nearly 70 years. In 1877, The Evening Star became known as The Montreal Daily Star. By 1899, it reached a daily readership of 52,600 and by 1913 40% of its circulation was outside of Montreal.
By 1915, the Montreal Star dominated the city's English-language evening newspaper market and Graham was able to out-perform his competitors who closed and assured him control of the English-language market.
In 1925, Graham sold the Montreal Star to John Wilson McConnell, but continued to operate the newspaper until his death in 1938. McConnell also owned two other newspapers, the Montreal Standard and Family Herald.
Beginning in the 1940s, the Montreal Star became very successful, its circulation was nearly 180,000 copies and it remained around that level for approximately thirty years.
In 1951, the Montreal Star launched its Weekend Magazine supplement (subsuming the former Montreal Standard), with an initial circulation of 900,000.
After McConnell's death in 1963, Toronto-based FP newspaper group, owner of The Globe and Mail and the Winnipeg Free Press acquired the Montreal Star. Thomson Newspapers later acquired the FP chain in 1980.
In 1978, a strike by pressmen (printers' union) began and lasted eight months. Although the strike was settled in February 1979 and the Star resumed publication, it had lost readers and advertisers to the rival paper The Gazette, and ceased publication permanently only a few months later on September 25, 1979. The Gazette acquired the Star's building, presses, and archives, and became the sole English-language daily in Montreal. Prior to the strike the Star had consistently out-sold The Gazette.
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