About Winnipeg Sun

Winnipeg Sun

The Winnipeg Sun is a daily tabloid newspaper published in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and the populist alternative to the broadsheet Winnipeg Free Press in Manitoba's capital. Founded in 1990 as the Manitoba outpost of the Sun tabloid chain, it has spent more than three decades serving Winnipeg's working-class readers with punchy headlines, extensive sports coverage, crime and courts reporting, and an unapologetically conservative editorial voice. In June 2024 the paper entered a new chapter when Postmedia Network sold it — along with the Portage la Prairie Graphic Leader, the Kenora Miner & News and Postmedia's Winnipeg commercial printing operations — to The Klein Group Ltd., a Manitoba-owned company headed by former Sun publisher Kevin Klein. The Sun continues to publish daily in tabloid format with a digital news operation at winnipegsun.com.

Overview

The Winnipeg Sun is the youngest of Manitoba's dailies and the most combative: a tabloid built on the Sun chain's formula of short, direct stories, big photographs, deep sports coverage and opinion with an edge. Where the Winnipeg Free Press serves the city's establishment, the Sun serves its lunch counters, job sites and sports bars — crime and courts, city hall, consumer advocacy, and wall-to-wall coverage of the NHL's Winnipeg Jets, the CFL's Blue Bombers and the city's deep hockey culture.

The paper publishes daily in tabloid format with digital editions, and its website operates as a continuously updated news service. Its editorial stance is openly conservative and populist, consistent with the Sun chain's identity across Canada, and its columnists and editorial campaigns are closely watched at Winnipeg city hall and in the Manitoba legislature.

History

The Winnipeg Sun was launched in 1990 as Sun Media's Manitoba tabloid, extending the chain that had begun with the Toronto Sun in 1971 and grown to include the Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa Suns. It entered a market long dominated by the Winnipeg Free Press and the now-defunct Winnipeg Tribune, offering readers a daily choice between the Free Press's comprehensive broadsheet journalism and the Sun's populist tabloid energy.

Under Sun Media and then Quebecor, the Sun built a loyal readership with its formula of concise local news, aggressive Jets and Bombers coverage, and right-of-centre commentary. In 2015 Postmedia Network acquired Sun Media from Quebecor, bringing the Winnipeg Sun under the same corporate roof as the National Post, the Financial Post and the chain's broadsheet dailies. The paper continued to publish as a distinct tabloid brand within Postmedia, sharing back-office and digital infrastructure while preserving its editorial voice.

The most significant recent event in the paper's history came on May 27, 2024, when Postmedia announced a definitive agreement to sell the Winnipeg Sun, the Portage la Prairie Graphic Leader and the Kenora Miner & News — along with Postmedia's Winnipeg Press Commercial Print division and the papers' digital properties — to The Klein Group Ltd. The deal, scheduled to close on or about June 1, 2024, returned the Sun to Manitoba ownership: the Klein Group is headed by Kevin Klein, a former Winnipeg Sun publisher who also served as a Winnipeg city councillor and Manitoba cabinet minister. Postmedia said employees at each paper were expected to continue in their roles with no job losses anticipated, and the papers' local teams would continue to be supported by Postmedia's national voices and opinions under a continuing relationship.

Content and Sections

The Winnipeg Sun's content follows the Sun chain's three pillars: news, sports and opinion. News coverage emphasizes the local and the immediate — Winnipeg city council, crime, courts, traffic and the pocketbook issues affecting Manitoba families — written briefly and directly in the tabloid style. The paper's police and courts reporting is among its most-read content, and its consumer-advocacy journalism has a long tradition of taking up readers' causes.

Sports is the Sun's signature. Jets coverage is the paper's beating heart — beat reporting, columns, trade speculation and the passionate fan culture of a city that fought to bring NHL hockey back — supplemented by deep reporting on the Blue Bombers (CFL champions and one of Canadian football's flagship franchises), the AHL's Manitoba Moose, the WHL's Ice (before their relocation), university athletics and the province's deep minor-hockey culture. The paper's sports columnists are among the most influential voices in Manitoba sports media.

Opinion is where the Sun's identity is sharpest: editorials and columnists articulating a populist conservatism — skeptical of government, supportive of law enforcement, attuned to suburban and working-class concerns — that distinguishes it from the Free Press's more centrist tone. The daily Sunshine Girl, a fixture of the Sun chain, remains one of the paper's most recognizable features. Entertainment, lifestyle, automotive and real-estate content complete the package.

Coverage and Audience

The Winnipeg Sun serves Winnipeg and the surrounding communities of southern Manitoba — a market of more than 850,000 people in the capital region. Its audience skews working and middle class: tradespeople, small-business owners, Jets and Bombers fans, and commuters who want their news fast, plain-spoken and entertaining.

Print circulation has declined with the industry-wide migration to digital, but the Sun's digital audience extends its reach across Manitoba and beyond. Politically, the paper's influence exceeds its circulation: its columnists and editorials are closely read by Manitoba politicians, and its campaigns on crime, taxes and provincial policy have repeatedly shaped debate at the legislature. The 2024 sale to Manitoba ownership was widely covered as a significant moment for local media in the province.

Ownership

The Winnipeg Sun is owned by The Klein Group Ltd., a Manitoba-owned news media company headed by president and CEO Kevin Klein. The Klein Group acquired the Sun, the Graphic Leader and the Kenora Miner & News — plus Postmedia's Winnipeg commercial printing operations — from Postmedia Network in June 2024, in a transaction whose financial terms were not disclosed. Klein, a former publisher of the Sun, also served as a Winnipeg city councillor and a Manitoba cabinet minister before returning to newspaper ownership.

Under the sale terms, employees at each paper continued in their roles, and the papers maintain a continuing relationship with Postmedia under which their local teams are supported by Postmedia's national voices, opinions and perspectives. The structure gives the Sun Manitoba-based ownership with access to national content — a hybrid model the Klein Group has presented as combining local accountability with national reach.

Digital Presence

The Sun's website, winnipegsun.com, extends the tabloid formula to the web: breaking news updated throughout the day, Jets and Bombers coverage, opinion columns, photo galleries and video, optimized for mobile readers. The site offers digital subscriptions, e-edition replicas of the print paper and newsletters.

On social media the Sun is an aggressive distributor of its content, pushing breaking stories, sports takes and opinion pieces to a large Manitoba following. Its newsletters and e-editions serve subscribers across the province, and its digital operation continues to grow as print readership declines industry-wide. As of 2026, the Winnipeg Sun continues to publish daily as Manitoba's tabloid alternative — under local ownership once again, more than three decades after Sun Media first brought the tabloid formula to Winnipeg.

The 1990 Sun chain outpost became Winnipeg's populist tabloid: the working-class alternative to the Free Press, punchy and conservative. The May 27, 2024 sale to Kevin Klein's The Klein Group Ltd. — not Postmedia — made it one of Canada's few independently owned city tabloids: Winnipeg's Sun, still shining.

Note: the project inventory listed this paper's owner as Postmedia; ownership was verified as The Klein Group Ltd. (June 2024) from Postmedia's sale announcement and updated accordingly.