About Niagara Falls Review

Niagara Falls Review

The Niagara Falls Review is a daily newspaper published in Niagara Falls, Ontario, serving the city and the nearby towns of Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake. Founded in 1879 by William Henry Anger and James Edwin Anger — and publishing daily since the 1930s — the Review has chronicled nearly 150 years of one of the world's most famous cities: the daredevils and honeymooners, the harnessing of the Falls for hydroelectric power, the rise of the tourism industry into a multi-billion-dollar economy, and the modern life of the border city. Owned by Torstar Corporation through Metroland Media Group and published Monday through Saturday. Wikipedia lists niagarafallsreview.ca as its website.

Overview

Niagara Falls — a city of about 95,000 on the Niagara River, across from Niagara Falls, New York — is one of the great tourist cities of the world: some 12 million visitors a year come for the Falls, the casinos, the hotels, Clifton Hill and the wine country nearby. The Niagara Falls Review is its daily newspaper: the newsroom covers Niagara Falls city council, the surrounding communities, the courts, health care, education, the tourism industry, the casinos, the border and the region's deep sporting heritage.

The paper's distinction is its market: the daily paper of record for a city whose economy and identity are unlike any other in Canada — a resort city where municipal politics turns on tourism, development and the casino revenues that fund the city's services. Like its sister paper the St. Catharines Standard, the Review was one of only five papers Torstar chose to keep publishing in the 2017 Postmedia-Torstar swap; the rest were closed.

History

The Niagara Falls Review has been the local newspaper in Niagara Falls since 1879, founded by William Henry Anger and James Edwin Anger. Its first offices were at 4656 Erie Avenue — then the Louis Fisher Cigar Store — from 1879 to 1889, then on Park Street, and from 1952 to 2014 at 4801 Valley Way; today the paper has no physical office, its newsroom distributed. Publishing daily since the 1930s, the Review chronicled the city's twentieth century: the daredevils going over the Falls in barrels and tightropes — the Review's front pages carried them all, from the nineteenth-century tightrope walkers to the twentieth-century barrel riders; the honeymoon trade that made Niagara Falls the honeymoon capital of the world; the harnessing of the river for hydroelectric power — the great generating stations at Queenston-Chippawa that lit Ontario and powered its industry, among the largest engineering works of their age; the two world wars, which filled the city's factories and took its sons; the post-war tourism boom, when the motels and attractions of Clifton Hill rose to serve the automobile age; the building of the casinos in the 1990s and 2000s, which remade the city's economy and its skyline; and the modern era of the resort city's reinvention, as Niagara Falls invested in its downtown, its cultural life and its year-round appeal.

Ownership followed the familiar path: through the twentieth-century chains into Sun Media/Quebecor and Postmedia in 2015. On November 27, 2017, Postmedia and Torstar announced the transaction in which Postmedia sold seven dailies to Torstar; the Review was one of only five acquired papers Torstar chose to keep publishing — the Exeter Times-Advocate and the others were closed. The paper has continued under Torstar's Metroland Media Group; in 2020 Torstar was acquired by NordStar Capital. The paper's archives — 999,936 searchable pages in the Newspapers.com collection, under the names The Evening Review (1914–1922), Niagara Falls Evening Review (1922–1970) and Niagara Falls Review (1970–2019) — document the daredevil age, the power developments, the tourism century and the making of the resort city.

Content and Sections

The modern Review is built around the Falls. Niagara Falls city council anchors the news pages — the paper covers the mayor and council with a dedicated city-hall bureau, reporting on a municipality whose politics turn on tourism development, casino revenues, hotel growth and the management of a world-famous natural wonder — extending to Fort Erie, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the surrounding communities. The courts beat covers the region's legal community; health reporting follows Niagara Health; education coverage spans the school boards and the region's colleges.

The tourism industry receives sustained attention reflecting the city's economic base: the hotels, the casinos (Fallsview and Casino Niagara), the attractions of Clifton Hill, the visitor economy and the labour force that serves 12 million visitors a year. The Review's reporting on the industry — the development deals, the labour disputes, the economics of the casino revenues that flow to the municipality, the competition with other destinations — is the most sustained local coverage of one of Canada's most important tourism economies, read by the industry itself and cited by provincial policymakers. The border — the crossings to New York State, the cross-border trade and tourism — is a constant thread. The hydroelectric legacy — the generating stations, the power politics — remains part of the paper's beat. Sports coverage centres on the region's hockey culture, the Niagara IceDogs of the OHL (who play across the river in St. Catharines), and the outdoor life of the gorge and the river. Opinion pages carry editorials, columns and letters from across the region, and feature sections cover arts, food, homes, health and community life.

Coverage and Audience

The Review serves Niagara Falls, Fort Erie and Niagara-on-the-Lake — a market of roughly 140,000 residents, plus the millions of visitors who pass through each year. Its audience is the region's tourism and hospitality workers, casino employees, health-care professionals, educators, small-business owners and the families of the border city.

Weekly circulation was reported at 119,080 as of 2013; the paper publishes Monday through Saturday in print with daily digital coverage. The paper's political coverage carries weight at Queen's Park — the region's ridings are closely watched, and the Review's reporting on tourism, the casinos, the border and municipal finance is routinely cited provincially. Its archives, reaching back to 1879, document the daredevil age, the harnessing of the Falls, the tourism century and the making of the resort city — a documentary record of one of the world's most famous places that no other institution holds.

Ownership

The Niagara Falls Review is owned by Torstar Corporation through its Metroland Media Group division, which acquired the paper in the November 27, 2017, transaction with Postmedia. 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 Review shares corporate services, national content and digital platforms with the Toronto Star, the Hamilton Spectator, the St. Catharines Standard and the company's other dailies and community papers, while maintaining its Niagara newsroom and editorial identity.

Digital Presence

Wikipedia lists niagarafallsreview.ca as the Review's website; the site is a continuously updated news operation: breaking news, council coverage, tourism reporting, opinion, photo galleries and video, optimized for the region's readers and the visitors planning their trips. The site runs on Torstar's shared digital infrastructure, offering digital subscriptions, e-edition replicas of the print paper and newsletters.

On social media the Review distributes breaking news and community stories to a large Niagara following. As of 2026, the Niagara Falls Review continues to publish — Monday through Saturday in print, daily online — nearly 150 years after the Anger brothers' first issue, still the daily paper of record for the city at the Falls.

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