About The Sudbury Star

The Sudbury Star

The Sudbury Star is a daily newspaper published in Greater Sudbury, Ontario, and the largest daily paper in Northeastern Ontario by circulation. Founded in 1909, the paper has chronicled more than a century of the nickel capital's history: the mines and smelters, the labour movement, the environmental reclamation that turned a blackened moonscape into one of Canada's greenest cities, and the region's francophone and Indigenous communities. Owned by Postmedia Network. Wikipedia lists thesudburystar.com as its website. In late 2026 Postmedia announced it would end print publication of the Star and five other northern Ontario papers at the end of October 2026, replacing them with a centralized weekly print edition and continuing digital editions under their local brands.

Overview

Greater Sudbury — a city of about 166,000 spread across 3,600 square kilometres of the Canadian Shield, the largest city in Ontario by land area — is the economic capital of Northeastern Ontario: the nickel mines and smelters, the universities (Laurentian and the Université de l'Ontario français campus), Health Sciences North, and the gateway to the North. The Sudbury Star is its daily newspaper: the newsroom covers Greater Sudbury city council, the surrounding districts, the courts, health care, education (including the region's francophone institutions), the mining industry, labour relations and the region's Indigenous communities — the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Wahnapitei First Nations.

The paper's distinction is its regional primacy: the largest daily in Northeastern Ontario, the paper of record for the nickel basin. Its mining coverage — led for years by columnist Stan Sudol, a national voice on the mining industry — is read across the country.

History

The Sudbury Star was founded in 1909, as the nickel boom was remaking the Sudbury basin: the mines expanding, the smelters rising, the town filling with miners from across Europe — Finns, Poles, Ukrainians, Croatians, Italians — whose boarding houses, churches and labour halls would define the city's working-class culture for generations. The paper's early decades tracked the consolidation of the industry, the rise of the great unions, and the transformation of a rough mining camp into a modern city, reporting the strikes, the shutdowns and the booms that set the rhythm of life in the basin. The paper chronicled the industry's century: the strikes and labour battles, the INCO and Falconbridge eras, the two world wars (when Sudbury nickel was a strategic resource), and the environmental reckoning — the acid rain, the barren blackened hills, and then the great regreening, in which Sudbury became an international model of ecological restoration, planting millions of trees and winning UN recognition.

Ownership followed the familiar path: through the twentieth-century chains into Sun Media/Quebecor's Osprey group, and to Postmedia Network in 2015. The paper's offices are at 888 Regent Street in Sudbury.

In September 2026, Ottawa's Blacklock's Reporter broke the news that Postmedia would cease print publication of six northern Ontario papers — the Sudbury Star, North Bay Nugget, Sault Star, Timmins Daily Press, Elliot Lake Standard and the Mid-North Monitor of Espanola — at the end of October 2026. The Cochrane Times-Post would be shuttered entirely. The papers were to be replaced by digital editions carrying their local branding and a centralized weekly print edition called Northern News This Week. Postmedia said it would not eliminate editorial jobs in the transition; eleven printing and distribution jobs were affected. The announcement marked the end of daily print publication in Sudbury after 117 years — while the Star's digital edition continues.

Content and Sections

The modern Sudbury Star is built around the nickel capital. Greater Sudbury city council anchors the news pages — the paper covers a mayor and council governing one of Ontario's largest cities with a dedicated city-hall bureau — extending to the surrounding districts of the Northeast. The courts beat covers the region's legal community; health reporting follows Health Sciences North; education coverage spans the school boards, Laurentian University, Cambrian College and Collège Boréal.

The mining industry receives sustained attention reflecting the region's economic base: the mines, the smelters, the supply-and-services sector, labour relations and the environmental legacy. The paper's mining columnist Stan Sudol wrote a nationally read column on the industry. Labour coverage follows the unions — Sudbury's labour history, from the great strikes to the modern era, is among the richest in Canada. Indigenous affairs reporting covers the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek and Wahnapitei First Nations and the region's urban Indigenous community. The francophone community — one of Ontario's largest — is covered in depth. Sports coverage centres on the OHL's Sudbury Wolves, the Sudbury Spartans, university athletics and the region's deep hockey culture. Opinion pages carry editorials, columns and letters from across the Northeast, and feature sections cover arts, food, homes, health and community life.

Coverage and Audience

The Star serves Greater Sudbury and Northeastern Ontario — a market of roughly 200,000 people across the city and the surrounding districts. Its audience is the region's miners, health-care professionals, educators, public servants, francophone and Indigenous communities and the families of the nickel basin.

Print circulation was reported at 14,934 on weekdays and 15,423 on Saturdays as of 2011, with weekly circulation of 67,553 in 2013 — the largest daily in Northeastern Ontario. It published Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in print, with daily digital coverage. The paper's political coverage carries weight at Queen's Park and in Ottawa — Sudbury's ridings are among the most closely watched in the province, and the paper's reporting on by-elections and labour disputes has repeatedly made national news. Its mining and labour reporting is routinely cited across the country, and its environmental coverage — the regreening of the basin, the Sudbury Protocol on acid rain, the city's reinvention as a research centre — has drawn international attention to what was once considered a cautionary tale and is now a model of restoration. Its archives, reaching back to 1909, document the nickel century, the labour battles, the regreening and the making of the North — a record no other institution holds, and one that will keep growing in the paper's digital afterlife.

Ownership

The Sudbury Star is owned by Postmedia Network Inc., Canada's largest newspaper chain, which acquired it in 2015 as part of its purchase of Sun Media from Quebecor. Within Postmedia, the paper shares national content, digital platforms and corporate services with the chain's other papers while maintaining its Sudbury newsroom and editorial identity under publisher Andre Grandchamp and editor Don MacDonald.

Postmedia itself is publicly traded and majority-owned by the U.S. investment firm Chatham Asset Management. The paper's lineage — from its 1909 founding through the twentieth-century chains to Postmedia — connects the nickel-boom era to the digital age.

Digital Presence

The paper's digital edition (Wikipedia lists thesudburystar.com as its website) carries the Star's daily journalism online: breaking news, e-edition access, newsletters, photo galleries and community features, serving readers across the Northeast and the region's diaspora. The site operates on Postmedia's shared digital infrastructure, offering digital subscriptions and e-editions.

On social media the paper distributes breaking news and community stories to a large Northeastern Ontario following. As of 2026 — with print ending at the close of October and the digital edition continuing under the Star's brand — The Sudbury Star remains the daily paper of record for the nickel capital, more than 115 years after its founding.

Note: website left empty in frontmatter per project rule for url-unverified rows; Wikipedia lists thesudburystar.com as the paper's website.