Newspapers, 1891


Units

Area units:
1891 county boundaries are represented by a light gray line, and are shown for ease of comparison with the Newspapers by County, 1891 map.

Data units:
Newspaper locations are shown as flat squares coloured by their political viewpoint. They are also shown as 3-dimensional bar graphs coloured similarly by political viewpoint, but with a height proportional to their circulation (or approximate number of newspapers sold per issue).


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Legend Description

Newspapers by political viewpoint:
The colour of the squares and bar graphs represents the political viewpoint of each individual newspaper.

Note: specialized newspapers (i.e. agricultural, trade, etc.) were omitted from this map.

Circulation per issue:
Circulation per issue is shown by the height of the bar, which represents that newspaper. The bars are also coloured according to political viewpoint (see Newspapers by political viewpoint for key to colours).

Settlement:
Settled area refers to the "ecumene" or area of generalized continuous settlement.


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Layers

Checkbox controls the visibility of the coloured squares representing the politics of individual newspapers.
Checkbox controls the visibility of the bar graphs representing the number of papers sold per issue. The yellow box beside the word circulation controls the labels for the individual newspaper locations (city or town names).
NOTE: The labels are only visible when zoomed in, so if you click the yellow box and nothing happens, you must zoom in further and the labels will appear.
Checkbox controls visibility of Modern boundaries (current provincial and territorial boundaries), and is available for reference.

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Active Tools

 Active Layer: Newspaper Information is always the active layer. Use the tools below to get information on ...

Identify: Click on any of the coloured newspaper squares, or at the base of the newspaper bars to display the name of that particular newspaper.

Table: Click or drag a rectangle to select any of the newspaper locations. A table pops up showing information by town or city. See Table Fields below.

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Table Fields - Newspaper Information

Province Province in which the newspaper was circulated.
City or town City or town that the newspaper's content was focused on, and in which it was circulated.
Newspaper Name of the newspaper.
Issued Regularity of circulation, either weekly, semi-weekly or daily.
Politics Expressed political leaning of the newspaper.
Circulation Approximate number of newspapers circulated per issue.
Population 1891 Population of the city or town in 1891.
Date of town's first paper  Date of a city or town's first newspaper.
Note: this is not necessarily the date of the first publication of the newspaper listed in a particular record. All records for a city or town will list the same date.
Data files available: Newspapers_by_Location_1891.xls

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Legend Notes

This map identifies communities in which newspapers survived until 1891. Almost invariably the most independent newspapers were those based in major urban centres, not because their occupants were more intelligent but because they constituted the densest consumer market. As time passed, the symbiotic relationship between advertising and circulation strengthened. Advertisements consumed between one-third and two-thirds of the space in any given newspaper; by 1900 big-city dailies generated 75% of their revenues from advertisements. In 1891 there were 101 dailies in Canada, of which 36 were Conservative, 35 Liberal, and 30 Independent.

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