Times Colonist - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Posted by: The A-Team
N 48° 26.208 W 123° 21.949
10U E 472942 N 5364915
The Times Colonist building is located at 2621 Douglas Street in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
Waymark Code: WMP1AZ
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 06/08/2015
Views: 4
This newspaper originally began as two separate and competing newspapers: the
British Colonist, and the
Victoria Daily Times.
The British Colonist - later renamed the Daily Colonist - was first printed on
December 11, 1858. It was founded by Amor de Cosmos, who would later become British Columbia's second Premier in 1872. The British Colonist is considered to be the first permanent newspaper in Western Canada.
The Victoria Daily Times was first printed on June 9, 1884. While its competitor would release in the mornings, the Victoria Daily Times would print in the afternoon.
Over the course of its history, the Times Colonist and its predecessors have reported on many significant events. The British Colonist actually predated the governmental entities it would later reside within. In its fourth year, it reported on
the founding of the city of Victoria; in its ninth year,
the creation of the country of Canada; and in its 13th year,
the Colony of British Columbia joining Canada as the sixth province.
The two newspapers were bought by Calgary businessman and publisher Max Bell in 1950, who brought them under the same umbrella. They both continued to print until 1980, when they merged to form the seven-day-a-week
Times Colonist. The first issue of the new, merged newspaper was on September 2, 1980. It originally had a morning and afternoon edition, but the afternoon edition was dropped in 1983. Colour was first added in 1989. In 2009, the Monday edition was dropped to make the newspaper a six-day-a-week publication.
Since Victoria has been the provincial capital for most of the newspaper's existence, it has always had extensive coverage of political matters, with dedicated reporters stationed in the provincial parliament buildings. Local stories also feature prominently, along with sections for national and international news, sports, business, and arts.
A project was undertaken in 2008 - on the occasion of the newspaper's 150th anniversary - to digitize copies of the British Colonist. The first phase digitized each issue up to the end of June 1910, with a second phase in 2013 digitizing the issues up to the end of 1920. A catalog is now available online at
britishcolonist.ca where visitors can search or browse issues of the British Colonist from its first edition up to the December 31, 1920 edition.
The newspapers had been housed in many different buildings around the city over the years, and finally settled in the current building in 1972.