About Barrie Advance

Barrie Advance

The Barrie Advance is a community newspaper serving Barrie, Ontario — the fast-growing city at the head of Kempenfelt Bay, an hour north of Toronto. Founded in 1987 by Metroland Media Group, the Advance absorbed the Barrie Banner — a community paper with more than 20 years of history in the area — shortly after its first issue, becoming the Banner Advance and later the Barrie Advance. The paper serves as the head office for Metroland's Simcoe County division and, after three decades in print, now publishes digitally through Simcoe.com, the regional news hub for Simcoe County.

Overview

Barrie — a city of about 150,000 on Kempenfelt Bay, at the gateway to Ontario's cottage country — is one of Canada's fastest-growing cities: the technology sector, the regional health centre, Georgian College, the tourism of the bay and the ski country, and the commuter connection to Toronto via Highway 400 and GO Transit. The Barrie Advance is its community newspaper: the newsroom covers Barrie city council, the surrounding municipalities, the courts, health care (including Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre), education (Georgian College), the technology sector, tourism and the region's deep sporting culture.

The paper's distinction is its role: the head office of Metroland's Simcoe County division — the Alliston Herald, Collingwood Connection, Midland Mirror, Orillia Today and their sister publications all report through Barrie — and its survival in a market whose daily paper, the Barrie Examiner (founded 1864), was closed in the 2017 Postmedia-Torstar swap. The Advance carries the community-paper tradition forward in one of Ontario's boom cities.

History

The Barrie Advance reopened shop in October 1987 on Patterson Road, founded by Metroland Media Group with Dana Robbins as publisher — a new community paper for a booming city. (An earlier paper of the same name had published its final issue in March 1940 before being purchased by the Examiner.) Shortly after publishing its first issue, the Advance purchased the former Barrie Banner, a community newspaper with more than 20 years of history in the Barrie area; the paper changed its name to the Banner Advance to incorporate the two newspapers, later evolving into the Barrie Advance.

The Advance grew with the city through the boom decades: the technology companies arriving along the 400 corridor, the subdivisions spreading across the former farmland, the rise of Georgian College into one of Ontario's leading polytechnic institutions, the expansion of Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre into a regional referral hospital, and the tourism of Kempenfelt Bay — the marina, the waterfront festivals, the summer crowds. The paper documented the growing pains of a boomtown: the traffic, the infrastructure debates, the farmland preservation fights, the downtown's struggles and revivals. Few community papers anywhere have chronicled so rapid a transformation, from a lakeside town of 40,000 to a mid-sized city of 150,000 in a single generation. It became the head office for Metroland's Simcoe County division, coordinating the Alliston Herald/Courier, Collingwood Connection, Midland Mirror and Orillia Today. For three decades it published in print, with circulation of 63,800, delivered free to Barrie's households. Then, like the rest of Metroland's community papers, it transitioned to digital-only: Metroland discontinued the print edition after three decades, and the Advance now publishes through Simcoe.com — the regional hub carrying the Barrie Advance, Bradford West Gwillimbury Topic, Innisfil Journal, Midland Penetanguishene Mirror, Stayner Sun and their sister publications.

Content and Sections

The modern Advance is built around Barrie and Simcoe County. Barrie city council anchors the coverage — the paper follows the mayor and council of one of Canada's fastest-growing cities, where debates over growth, sprawl, the waterfront, transit and the downtown are constant — extending to the surrounding municipalities of Simcoe County. The courts beat covers the region's legal community; health reporting follows Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre; education coverage spans the school boards and Georgian College.

The technology sector receives sustained attention reflecting the region's economic transformation: the tech companies along the corridor, the innovation ecosystem anchored by Georgian College's research centres, the commuters to Toronto and the remote workers who chose Barrie for the bay. The paper's growth coverage — the subdivisions, the intensification debates, the infrastructure investments, the municipal politics of a city doubling in a generation — is among the most sustained in Ontario community journalism, read by the developers, the planners and the residents living through the boom. Tourism coverage follows Kempenfelt Bay, the ski country, the summer festivals and the gateway-to-cottage-country economy. The environment — the bay, the watershed, the greenbelt pressures — is a constant thread. Sports coverage centres on the OHL's Barrie Colts — among junior hockey's best-supported franchises — the region's deep minor-hockey culture and the outdoor life of the bay. Opinion pages carry editorials, columns and letters from across the region, and feature sections cover arts, food, homes, health and community life. The paper focuses on local news above all — the council decisions, school news, neighbourhood stories and community events that define a community paper.

Coverage and Audience

The Advance serves Barrie and Simcoe County — a market of roughly 500,000 people across the city and the county's sixteen municipalities. Its audience is the region's technology workers, health-care professionals, educators, commuters, tourism workers and the families of one of Canada's boom regions.

Print circulation was reported at 63,800 in its print era; the paper now publishes digitally through Simcoe.com, reaching readers across the county. The paper's political coverage carries weight at Queen's Park — the region's ridings are among the most closely watched in the province, and the Advance's reporting on growth, the waterfront, health care and county government is routinely cited provincially. Its archives document Barrie's transformation from a lakeside town into a mid-sized city — the boom years, the technology era, the waterfront's reinventions and the making of modern Simcoe County: a record of one of the great municipal growth stories in contemporary Canada.

Ownership

The Barrie Advance is owned by Torstar Corporation through its Metroland Media Group division, which founded the paper in 1987. In 2020 Torstar was acquired by NordStar Capital, the private investment firm of Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett, which pledged to uphold the Atkinson Principles. Within Torstar, the Advance shares corporate services, national content and digital platforms with the Toronto Star and the company's other papers, while serving as the head office of Metroland's Simcoe County division.

Digital Presence

The Advance's digital home is Simcoe.com — Metroland's regional news hub for Simcoe County, carrying the Barrie Advance alongside the Alliston Herald, Bradford West Gwillimbury Topic, Collingwood Connection, Innisfil Journal, Midland Penetanguishene Mirror, Orillia Today and Stayner Sun. The site offers continuously updated local news, council coverage, Colts reporting, opinion, photo galleries and community features, optimized for the region's readers.

On social media the Advance distributes breaking news — winter storms on the 400, waterfront developments, Colts scores — and community stories to a large Barrie following, one of the most engaged local-news audiences in Simcoe County. As of 2026, the Barrie Advance continues to publish digitally — the community paper of record for one of Canada's fastest-growing cities, nearly 40 years after its founding on Patterson Road, still the head office of Simcoe County's community press and still free to every door.

Journalism Internship Program

In 2026, Metroland announced it was relaunching its journalism internship program with 20 new editorial intern positions across Ontario — summer and year-long placements aimed at rebuilding the community-news talent pipeline in the post-print era.