About Times Colonist

Times Colonist

The Times Colonist is an English-language daily newspaper published in Victoria, British Columbia, and the oldest daily newspaper in Western Canada. It was formed on September 2, 1980, by the merger of two historic Victoria papers: the Victoria Daily Times, established in 1884, and the British Colonist (later the Daily Colonist), established in 1858 by Amor De Cosmos — who would become British Columbia's second premier — and described as B.C.'s first newspaper "of any permanence." Owned by Glacier Media through the TC Publication Limited Partnership, the Times Colonist publishes in broadsheet format six days a week (Tuesday through Sunday) with a digital news operation at timescolonist.com, serving Greater Victoria and Vancouver Island as the capital region's paper of record.

Overview

Victoria, British Columbia's capital, is a city of about 95,000 anchoring a metropolitan region of nearly 400,000 on the southern tip of Vancouver Island — a community defined by provincial government, the Canadian Forces base at Esquimalt, the University of Victoria, tourism and a large retiree population. The Times Colonist is its daily newspaper and the dominant newsroom on the Island: the paper gives the greatest prominence to local news, with Greater Victoria stories and photographs routinely leading the front page, while also carrying national and international coverage and sections devoted to the arts, sports and business.

As the capital-city daily, the Times Colonist holds a distinctive franchise in B.C. journalism: the provincial legislature sits in Victoria, and the paper's legislature bureau covers the premier, the cabinet and the opposition with the proximity no Vancouver newsroom can match. Its identity is that of a community broadsheet — sober, locally rooted and civically engaged — owned not by a national chain but by Glacier Media, the Vancouver-based publisher with deep roots in Western Canadian community journalism.

History

The Times Colonist's lineage reaches back to the colonial era. The British Colonist was founded in 1858 by Amor De Cosmos, a newspaperman and political agitator who would later serve as British Columbia's second premier; it was, in the phrase historians still use, B.C.'s first paper "of any permanence." De Cosmos edited it until 1866, when D. W. Higgins took over and would remain at the helm for the next twenty years. The paper became the Daily Colonist and chronicled Victoria's gold-rush origins, its years as the commercial capital of the Pacific coast, Confederation, and the long twentieth century of the province's development.

The Victoria Daily Times was established in 1884 as a competitor, and for nearly a century the two papers divided Victoria's readership — the Colonist the morning establishment voice, the Times the afternoon alternative. By the late 1970s the economics of two competing dailies in a mid-sized market had become untenable, and on September 2, 1980, the papers merged to form the Times Colonist, ending 96 years of rivalry.

The merged paper passed through the ownership of CanWest Global Communications in the 2000s — when it stood alongside the Vancouver Sun, the Province and the other Canwest dailies — before arriving at its current owner, Glacier Media, which holds it through the TC Publication Limited Partnership. Through all these changes the paper has maintained its Victoria newsroom and its capital-city identity, publishing six days a week (it dropped Monday publication in June 2009, having previously published seven days).

The paper's archives are a treasure of Pacific-coast history: the first sixty years of the British Colonist are available online with free access, and the combined 126-plus years of coverage span every B.C. premier and Canadian prime minister, the moon landing, both world wars, and Victoria's evolution from colonial outpost to modern capital.

Content and Sections

The modern Times Colonist leads with Greater Victoria: city council, the Capital Regional District, the region's municipalities (Saanich, Oak Bay, Langford, Colwood and the West Shore communities), the courts, the schools, the University of Victoria and Camosun College, health care, and the development pressures of one of Canada's most desirable — and expensive — places to live. The legislature bureau covers provincial politics from a few blocks away, giving the paper an unmatched vantage on the government it holds to account.

National and international news rounds out the report, and the paper's sections cover arts and entertainment (Victoria's theatre, music and festival scenes are disproportionately vibrant for a city its size), sports (the WHL's Victoria Royals, university athletics and the region's deep amateur-sport culture), and business (tourism, technology, the public sector and real estate). Opinion pages carry editorials, columns and letters from across the capital region, and feature sections address food, homes, health, travel and community life. The paper also offers an e-edition — a digital replica of the printed pages — alongside its website.

Coverage and Audience

The Times Colonist serves Greater Victoria and, more broadly, Vancouver Island — a market of nearly 900,000 people across the capital region, the mid-Island cities and the coastal communities. Its audience reflects the region's character: public servants, military families, university communities, retirees and the tourism and service workers who power the Island economy.

Print circulation has followed the industry's downward arc: average daily circulation was reported at 58,297 in 2015, with press runs falling below 31,000 daily from 2016 into the 2020s, and below 35,000 on weekdays, Saturdays and Sundays as of 2018. The paper competes for readership with Black Press's twice-weekly community papers, which are distributed free through home delivery and street boxes — a competitive dynamic unusual among Canadian provincial capitals. Digital readership has grown as print has declined, and the paper has experimented with metered paywalls, at one point limiting free online reading to twenty articles a month.

Ownership

The Times Colonist is owned by Glacier Media through the TC Publication Limited Partnership. Glacier Media is a Vancouver-based publisher with a portfolio spanning community newspapers, business publications and digital media across Western Canada — including, among others, the Vancouver Sun's former sister publications and a range of B.C. community titles. Within Glacier, the Times Colonist operates with a Victoria-based publisher and editor, Dave Obee, and a newsroom that was staffed by about 50 reporters, columnists, photographers, editors, designers and assistants as of 2015.

Glacier's ownership gives the Times Colonist a different corporate identity from the Postmedia-owned dailies of the mainland: a Western Canadian publisher focused on community and regional journalism rather than a national chain. The paper shares some corporate services with Glacier's other properties while maintaining its editorial independence and its Victoria newsroom at 201-655 Tyee Road.

Digital Presence

The Times Colonist's website, timescolonist.com, carries the paper's daily journalism online: breaking news, legislature coverage, e-edition access, newsletters, photo galleries and community features, serving readers across Vancouver Island and the province's diaspora. The site's sections mirror the print paper — news, sports, business, entertainment, life, opinion — with subscriber services, obituaries and classifieds among its most-used features.

On social media the paper distributes breaking news, Royals coverage and community stories to a following concentrated in the capital region. It offers digital subscriptions and e-editions alongside its Tuesday-to-Sunday print product. As of 2026, the Times Colonist continues to publish as the capital region's paper of record — the direct descendant, through the 1980 merger, of Amor De Cosmos's British Colonist of 1858, and the oldest daily newspaper in Western Canada.

The September 2, 1980 merger joined two Victoria institutions: the Daily Times of 1884 and Amor De Cosmos's British Colonist of 1858 — the future premier's paper. The result is the oldest daily newspaper in Western Canada: the capital's record through the colonial era, the province's growth and the modern island city.