About Le Journal de Québec

Le Journal de Québec

Le Journal de Québec is the French-language tabloid daily of Quebec City — the highest-circulation newspaper in the capital of Quebec, and the populist voice of the francophone Quebec City region. Founded on March 6, 1967, by Pierre Péladeau, the founder of Quebecor, it is the sister paper of the much larger Le Journal de Montréal. Printed in tabloid format and aligned with right-wing populism, Quebec nationalism and Quebec sovereigntism, it has been the working person's paper of the capital for nearly 60 years. It publishes at journaldequebec.com.

Overview

Quebec City — the provincial capital, a city of about 550,000 in a metro of 840,000, the cradle of French North America — has long been a two-newspaper town in French: the staid, broadsheet Le Soleil for the establishment, and the brash, tabloid Journal for everyone else. Le Journal de Québec is the tabloid: punchy, populist and sovereigntist, with a sports section, columnists and the street-level energy that made the Journal brand the dominant francophone press in Quebec. Its newsroom covers the National Assembly, Quebec City hall, the courts, the police, sports — the Remparts, the Rouge et Or, the Capitales — entertainment and the capital region's neighbourhoods.

The paper's distinction is its role: the paper of the people in the city that governs Quebec — the counterweight to Le Soleil in the capital's media debate. Its editorials are populist and nationalist, its columnists among the most widely read conservative voices in francophone Quebec, and its sports coverage — particularly of junior hockey — is a regional institution. The Journal's front pages on National Assembly scandals, municipal boondoggles and language-politics controversies are fixtures of the capital's conversation, quoted on Quebec City's talk radio — the most politically influential radio market in francophone Canada — and argued about in the government towers. In a city where everyone works for or around the state, the Journal's adversarial, taxpayer-first energy has a permanent audience.

History

Le Journal de Québec was founded on March 6, 1967, by Pierre Péladeau — three years after he launched Le Journal de Montréal — as Quebecor's capital-city paper. The young labour lawyer who worked out the paper's first labour agreement was Brian Mulroney, who would become Canada's prime minister. Péladeau's tabloid formula — big headlines, strong columnists, sports-first, populist politics — was transplanted to the capital, where it found a loyal readership among the city's working class, suburbs and public servants.

The paper's history includes one of the great labour battles of Quebec journalism: a lockout of unionized employees (members of the Canadian Union of Public Employees) that began in April 2007 and continued until July 2008 — the longest-running lockout in the history of the Québec media until then. As an answer to the lockout, the workers launched their own free daily newspaper, MédiaMatin Québec. The Journal continued to publish through the lockout. On November 27, 2012, the paper launched a special edition for the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region, with several pages of local news for the region; it had previously published a Saguenay edition from 1973 to 1981. The paper's offices are at 450, avenue Béchard in Quebec City.

Content and Sections

The modern Journal is built around the tabloid formula. The National Assembly anchors the political coverage — the paper covers the premier, the government and the opposition with a populist, nationalist energy — alongside Quebec City hall, the courts, the police and crime reporting. The paper's columnists — on politics, city affairs and culture — are widely read and widely argued-with.

Sports coverage is a cornerstone: the QMJHL's Quebec Remparts — the junior team that fills the Videotron Centre, the Memorial Cup champions, the heirs of the Nordiques' civic passion — the Université Laval Rouge et Or football dynasty, the Capitales baseball team and the region's deep hockey culture receive wall-to-wall coverage, with columnists, beat writers and fan-first energy. The Journal's Remparts beat is among the most-read junior-hockey coverage in the country, and its columnists' campaigns — for an NHL return, for the new arena, for the Nordiques' memory — are part of the capital's sports folklore. The finance section Argent, the entertainment section Spectacles and the Saturday supplements — Weekend, Évasion (travel) and the Salut Bonjour Magazine — round out the paper. The editorial pages carry a consistent populist-nationalist voice. The paper's signature line is "Un vrai journal, un journal vrai" — a real paper, a true paper.

Coverage and Audience

The Journal serves Quebec City and the Capitale-Nationale region — a market of roughly 840,000 people — with a readership that skews working-class, suburban and nationalist. Its audience is the capital's tradespeople, small-business owners, public servants, sports fans and the region's families.

Print circulation was reported at 82,048 on weekdays, 89,989 on Saturdays and 82,537 on Sundays as of 2014. Quebecor's 2025 media kit reports 1.4 million multi-platform readers per week — 557,000 print readers a week, 225,000 readers a day on weekdays, 511,000 on Saturdays — with digital reach of 1.5 million unique visitors, 7.5 million sessions and 16.6 million page views per month. The paper's political coverage carries weight at the National Assembly: its columnists shape the nationalist conversation, its Hill-style coverage of the legislature is read by ministers and MNAs, and its scoops on government waste, language-law enforcement and municipal scandal have repeatedly made provincial news. In referendum-era Quebec the Journal was the sovereigntist street's paper; in the twenty-first century it remains the nationalist right's loudest daily voice. Its archives, reaching back to 1967, document the modern capital — the Quiet Revolution's aftermath, the referendums, the Nordiques' departure and the making of twenty-first-century Quebec City.

Ownership

Le Journal de Québec is owned by Quebecor Média, the media arm of Quebecor Inc. — the empire Pierre Péladeau founded in 1965, now led by his son Pierre Karl Péladeau. Within Quebecor, the Journal shares content, columnists and digital platforms with its sister paper Le Journal de Montréal and the TVA network, while maintaining its Quebec City newsroom and editorial identity.

Quebecor is one of Canada's largest media companies, vertically integrated across newspapers, television (TVA, LCN), telecommunications (Videotron, Freedom Mobile) and digital — a convergence empire in which the Journal's journalism feeds the group's television, web and mobile platforms. The paper's lineage — from Péladeau's 1967 founding through the Quebecor empire's growth to the digital age — connects the tabloid revolution to the modern francophone press.

Digital Presence

The Journal's website, journaldequebec.com, is a continuously updated tabloid operation: breaking news, National Assembly coverage, Remparts reporting, columnists, entertainment, photo galleries and video, optimized for the mobile-first reader. The site runs on Quebecor's shared digital infrastructure, offering digital subscriptions, e-edition replicas and the mobile app.

On social media the Journal distributes breaking news, sports and columnists to a large Quebec City following. As of 2026, Le Journal de Québec continues to publish daily — in print and online — nearly 60 years after Péladeau's founding, still the tabloid voice of the capital, still "un vrai journal, un journal vrai" — still the capital's tabloid, still the people's paper.

Péladeau's 1967 gamble on the capital paid off: the Journal de Québec became the highest-circulation paper in Quebec City — the tabloid of the public servants, the suburbs, the working class. The Brian Mulroney footnote — the future prime minister negotiating the paper's first labour agreement as a young lawyer — is pure Quebec political lore. Nearly 60 years on, the Journal remains the capital's populist voice: big headlines, strong columnists, sports-first.