About Aylmer Express

Aylmer Express

Overview

The Aylmer Express is an independent community weekly newspaper serving Aylmer and East Elgin County in southwestern Ontario. Published every Wednesday by The Aylmer Express Co. Ltd. from its office at 390 Talbot Street East in Aylmer, it styles itself "The Voice of East Elgin," and in a 2018 edition its masthead carried the line "The Voice of East Elgin for over 130 years." The paper covers town council and municipal politics, agriculture in one of Ontario's richest farm belts, schools, sports, churches, service clubs, obituaries and the ordinary civic record of Aylmer and the surrounding townships of Malahide and Bayham and the village of Springfield.

The Express is owned locally and led by John H. Hueston, its president, who is identified in the paper's masthead and in trade coverage as its owner and publisher. It is a member of the Ontario Community Newspapers Association (OCNA), whose directory lists it with no publishing group — the marker of an independent — and credits its edition with a circulation of 2,727.

History

The Express is documented in print by the early 1890s: the Elgin County branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, in its December 2012 Talbot Times, quoted education reporting from the Aylmer Express of March 12, 1891, and the Elgin County Archives holds complete or partial runs of the paper among its local newspaper holdings. The paper's own account of its longevity is the masthead claim carried in its 2018 editions — "The Voice of East Elgin for over 130 years" — which places its origins in the nineteenth century; no more precise founding date is asserted here, as none was verified in the sources consulted.

Across that long run the Express has remained a locally owned town paper, printed from its Talbot Street base. Its press has also served the community beyond the weekly: in 2022 the Aylmer-Malahide Museum & Archives thanked the Aylmer Express for printing its local medical history book, Just What the Doctor Ordered. The paper's editions have earned provincial and national recognition over the years — an award edition preserved by the OCNA printed the paper's own tally of category placings under the line "Local coverage that earns national and provincial recognition," listing first-place finishes for its agricultural coverage, a Golden Quill honour, its news section and a special edition, alongside a second place for a story entry. In the county's media landscape, the St. Thomas & District Chamber of Commerce's community profile lists the Express as the weekly community newspaper for the Aylmer area, distinct from the St. Thomas Times-Journal daily to the west.

The most recent chapter in its ownership story is outward-looking rather than a change at home: in early February 2026, Hueston joined Ray Stanton, president of London Publishing, in signing an agreement to buy The Eganville Leader in Renfrew County from Gerald Tracey, ending 82 years of Tracey family ownership; the transaction took effect March 1, 2026, with the Leader's daily operations unchanged, as Masthead Online reported on March 4, 2026. The purchase made the Aylmer publisher a co-owner of one of the Ottawa Valley's oldest independents while the Express itself continued under the same local ownership.

Programming and Content

Municipal politics is the paper's home beat. For the October 2026 municipal election, the Town of Aylmer's official election page — updated October 7, 2026 — lists the Aylmer Express as host of an all-candidates meeting on September 29, 2026 at the East Elgin Community Complex, the kind of civic forum role the paper has long played. Its news pages follow Aylmer town council and the township councils of East Elgin, development and budget debates, and the provincial and federal representation of Elgin County.

Agriculture is a second pillar: East Elgin is tobacco-, corn- and livestock-farming country, and the paper's farm coverage has been among the categories in which its editions have won awards. Around those pillars sits the full community-weekly mix — school news from East Elgin Secondary School and the area's elementary schools, minor and junior hockey and other local sports, church and club notices, business news from Talbot Street, letters to the editor (which the masthead asks be kept to 300 words, signed, and submitted by noon Monday), family announcements and obituaries. Its pages also carry items of record from across the county, from the Old Imperial Farmers' Market to community fundraisers, giving the paper the feel of a civic bulletin board as much as a news report.

Audience and Reach

The OCNA directory credits the Express's edition with a circulation of 2,727, presented here as the association's listing rather than an audited figure. Its subscription terms in a 2018 masthead were $47 a year within Canada and $160 outside Canada, under Publications Mail Agreement No. 40012174. The paper's market is Aylmer and the East Elgin townships — a compact, agriculturally rooted readership in the eastern half of Elgin County, distinct from the St. Thomas-centred west of the county — reached through home delivery, local sales and the paper's website.

Digital Presence

The Express publishes online at aylmerexpress.com, directing readers there "for breaking news" in its print masthead, and maintains a Facebook presence under /AylmerExpress, which the masthead promotes for community photos and news. The website carries the paper's news, announcements and obituaries on a continuing basis — Express obituary and community items dated January through March 2026 appear in national obituary digests drawn from the site — and it serves as the paper's storefront for subscriptions and advertising between Wednesday editions. Its print and digital operations acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada, as the masthead records. Alongside the newspaper, the Hueston operation runs a commercial graphics and printing business from the same Talbot Street address, listed in business directories as the Aylmer Express Graphics Group — the modern form of the print-shop sideline that small-town papers have traditionally carried.

Ownership and Organisation

The Aylmer Express is published by The Aylmer Express Co. Ltd., 390 Talbot Street East, Aylmer, with John H. Hueston as president. The paper describes itself on its own pages as a paper that "employs local people, is owned locally and its future depends on local prosperity and support," a statement carried in its masthead material. Trade coverage of the 2026 Eganville Leader purchase likewise identifies Hueston as "Aylmer Express owner John Hueston" and as publisher of the Express. The business combines the weekly newspaper, its website and commercial printing under the one roof, and the OCNA lists the title without a publishing group, confirming its independent status. A business directory profile of the graphics group puts the combined operation at between 11 and 20 employees and names Renee Hueston as a vice-president for strategy and business development — figures presented here as the directory's listing rather than the company's own published count.

Contact and Availability

The Aylmer Express office is at 390 Talbot Street East, P.O. Box 160, Aylmer, Ontario N5H 2R9, with office hours of 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. listed in the Elgin County business directory. Telephone is 519-773-3126 and fax 519-773-3147, per the paper's masthead. Published email addresses appearing in the paper and in directories include info@aylmerexpress.ca for general contact and advertise@aylmerexpress.ca for advertising. The print edition is published weekly on Wednesdays, and current news is available at aylmerexpress.com.