About Owen Sound Sun Times

Owen Sound Sun Times

The Owen Sound Sun Times is a newspaper published in Owen Sound, Ontario, serving the Bruce-Grey-Owen Sound region at the base of the Bruce Peninsula. Tracing its lineage to The Times, founded in 1853, and The Sun, founded in 1893 — amalgamated in 1918, with daily editions from 1922 — the paper has chronicled more than 170 years of the region's history: the shipping and shipbuilding era on Georgian Bay, the agricultural settlement of Grey and Bruce counties, the rise of the tourism economy and the modern life of the Scenic City. Owned by Postmedia Network and published three days a week — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, with e-editions on the same days . Wikipedia lists owensoundsuntimes.com as its website.

Overview

Owen Sound — a city of about 22,000 at the head of the Owen Sound inlet on Georgian Bay, where the Niagara Escarpment meets the water — is the commercial capital of Grey and Bruce counties: the port, the hospitals, the regional services and the gateway to the Bruce Peninsula, Saugeen Shores and the cottage country of the southern Georgian Bay shore. The Owen Sound Sun Times is its newspaper: the newsroom covers Owen Sound city council, the surrounding municipalities of Grey and Bruce counties, the courts, health care (including the regional hospitals), education, agriculture, the nuclear industry (the Bruce Power site at Tiverton is among the world's largest nuclear generating stations), tourism and the region's deep marine heritage.

The paper's distinction is its age and its market: one of Ontario's oldest papers, serving a vast rural region — the two counties of Grey and Bruce — where it is the paper of record for dozens of small municipalities spread across the escarpment, the peninsula and the Lake Huron shore.

History

The Times was founded in Owen Sound in 1853, in the great age of the lake trade: the steamers, the grain, the timber, the shipbuilding yards that made Owen Sound one of the busiest ports on the upper lakes. The Sun was founded in 1893, and in 1918 the two rivals amalgamated to form the Sun Times; daily editions began in 1922. The amalgamated paper chronicled the twentieth century on Georgian Bay: the shipping era, when Owen Sound's harbour was among the busiest on the upper lakes; the railways that tied the port to the interior; the agricultural settlement of the counties, as the townships filled with Scottish, Irish and German settlers; the two world wars, which took the region's sons and filled its factories; the post-war rise of the tourism economy as the Bruce Peninsula, the escarpment and the Lake Huron shore became recreation country; and the modern era of the nuclear industry at Bruce Power, whose construction and refurbishment have been the region's defining economic events for half a century.

Ownership followed the familiar path of Ontario papers: through the twentieth-century chains into Sun Media/Quebecor's Osprey group, and to Postmedia Network in 2015. On January 31, 2023, the Sun Times changed from five-day publication to three days — Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday — with e-editions on the same days, reflecting the industry-wide retreat from daily print. Jennifer Kho has held the position of executive editor since June 2022. The paper's archives — with 573,928 searchable pages from 1927–2014 in the Newspapers.com archive — document the shipping age, the settlement of Grey and Bruce and the making of the Georgian Bay shore.

Content and Sections

The modern Sun Times is built around Bruce and Grey. Owen Sound city council anchors the news pages — the paper covers the mayor and council with a dedicated city-hall bureau — extending to the dozens of municipalities across Grey and Bruce counties: the towns, the townships, the villages of the escarpment, the peninsula and the Lake Huron shore. The courts beat covers the region's legal community; health reporting follows the regional hospitals, among the area's largest employers; education coverage spans the school boards and Georgian College's Owen Sound campus.

Agriculture receives sustained attention reflecting the region's identity as some of Ontario's finest farmland: the beef and dairy country, the apple orchards of the Beaver Valley, the cash crops. The nuclear industry — Bruce Power at Tiverton, one of the world's largest nuclear generating stations and the region's largest employer — is covered with a depth that reflects its centrality to the local economy. Tourism coverage follows the Bruce Peninsula National Park, the Bruce Trail, the cottage economy and the ski country. The marine heritage — the shipping, the shipbuilding, the lighthouses — is a constant thread. Sports coverage centres on the OHL's Owen Sound Attack, the region's deep junior-hockey culture and the outdoor life of the escarpment. Opinion pages carry editorials, columns and letters from across Bruce and Grey, and feature sections cover arts, food, homes, health and community life.

Coverage and Audience

The Sun Times serves Owen Sound and the counties of Grey and Bruce — a market of roughly 180,000 people across the city, the towns and the rural townships of the region. Its audience is the region's farmers, health-care professionals, nuclear workers, tourism operators, cottagers and the families of the Georgian Bay shore.

Weekly circulation was reported at 192,425 as of 2013. The paper publishes Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in print, with e-editions on the same days and daily digital coverage. The paper's political coverage carries weight at Queen's Park — the region's ridings are closely watched, and the Sun Times's reporting on the nuclear industry, agriculture and rural health care is routinely cited provincially. Its archives, reaching back to 1853, document the shipping age, the settlement of the counties, the agricultural century and the making of the Bruce-Grey region — a documentary record few institutions in Canada can match, and one that genealogists and historians of southwestern Ontario return to constantly for the births, the court reports and the editorials of 170 years.

Ownership

The Owen Sound Sun Times is owned by Postmedia Network Inc., Canada's largest newspaper chain, which acquired it in 2015 as part of its purchase of Sun Media from Quebecor. Within Postmedia, the paper shares national content, digital platforms and corporate services with the chain's other papers while maintaining its Owen Sound newsroom and editorial identity under executive editor Jennifer Kho.

Postmedia itself is publicly traded and majority-owned by the U.S. investment firm Chatham Asset Management. The paper's lineage — from The Times of 1853 and The Sun of 1893 through the 1918 amalgamation and the twentieth-century chains to Postmedia — connects the age of sail on Georgian Bay to the digital era.

Digital Presence

The paper's digital edition (Wikipedia lists owensoundsuntimes.com as its website) carries the Sun Times's journalism online: breaking news, e-edition access, newsletters, photo galleries and community features, serving readers across Bruce and Grey and the region's diaspora. The site operates on Postmedia's shared digital infrastructure, offering digital subscriptions and e-editions.

On social media the paper distributes breaking news and community stories to a following concentrated in the Owen Sound region. As of 2026, the Owen Sound Sun Times continues to publish — three days a week in print, daily online — more than 170 years after the founding of The Times, still the paper of record for the Bruce-Grey region.

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