Toronto Evening Telegram
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| Type | Newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Broadsheet |
| Owner(s) | John Ross Robertson; John Bassett - part owner |
| Founded | 1876 |
| Political alignment | Populism, Conservative |
| Ceased publication | 1971 |
| Headquarters | Toronto Telegram Building (now part of Commerce Court) and later 444 Front Street West, Toronto, Ontario |
The Toronto Evening Telegram was a conservative, broadsheet afternoon newspaper published in Toronto from 1876 to 1971. It had a reputation for supporting the Conservative Party at the federal and provincial level. The paper competed with the liberal The Toronto Star. "The Tely" strongly supported Canada's imperial connection with Britain as late as the 1960s.
The Toronto Evening Telegram was founded in 1876 by publisher John Ross Robertson. He had borrowed $10,000 to buy the assets of The Liberal, a defunct newspaper, and published his first edition of 3,800 copies on April 18, 1876. The Telegram's editor from 1876 to 1888 was Alexander Fraser Pirie (1849-1903), a native of Guelph. Pirie had worked for the Guelph Herald which was his father's paper. The newspaper became the voice of working-class, conservative Orange (Protestant) Toronto. In 1881, Robertson erected a building for the paper at the southwest corner of King and Bay Streets. John R. Robinson succeeded Pirie as editor-in-chief in 1888 and held that position until his death 40 years later.
The Telegram focused on local issues and became the largest circulation daily in Toronto, but lost that position in 1932 to The Toronto Star and never regained it. During the early 20th century, The Tely (as it was popularly known) was one of the first Canadian newspapers to introduce a Saturday (and briefly in 1957, Sunday) colour comics section (which by its later years spanned two sections), and a radio (and after 1952, television) magazine with listings for the entire week. Following the death of Robertson's widow in 1947 (Robertson had died in 1918), the paper was bought by George McCullagh, the publisher of The Globe and Mail, for $3.6 million. "Evening" was dropped from the paper's name in 1949.
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