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Winnipeg Free Press Web Site
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From the day the first edition rolled off the presses in 1872, the Winnipeg Free Press has been an integral part of the city and province it serves. The newspaper, founded two years before the City of Winnipeg was incorporated, has faithfully recorded the growth and development of a muddy Prairie settlement into one of Canada's leading cities and the capital of a thriving province of more than one million people. Indeed, there is no other major newspaper in Canada that is so closely associated with the hopes, dreams and ambitions of its readers than the Free Press.

Over the years, the newspaper has gained a reputation as the province's leading source of news, information and debate about local matters and ideas, as well as Manitoba's voice on national and international issues. It is a reputation that can be traced back to the original owner and editor of the Free Press, W.F. Luxton, and his partner John A. Kenny.

At the turn of the century, two developments were crucial to the growing success of the Free Press and its eventual development as one of Canada's great newspapers. One was the acquisition of the newspaper by Sir Clifford Sifton, a man who distinguished himself as a powerful cabinet minister in the government of Sir Wilfrid Laurier and would be remembered as one of the patriarchs of Western Canada. The other was Sifton's decision to hire John W. Dafoe as editor of the newspaper and E.H. Macklin as its chief business manager. Together, these three men provided the Free Press with the journalistic and commercial leadership required to outlast its competitors and maintain its position as the single largest selling newspaper in Manitoba.

It was during these years that the Free Press cemented its reputation as the leading voice of Western Canada, thanks in large measure to the talents of John Dafoe. Writing on the editorial page of the Free Press, Dafoe consistently and elegantly put forward the case for Western Canadian interests.

Over the years, the Free Press has continued to build on the foundation laid down by Sifton, Dafoe and Macklin. As the city and province grew, so did the newspaper's circulation. By the mid-1980s, the Free Press had outgrown its once-grand downtown quarters at 300 Carlton Street and began developing plans for construction of a $150-million plant on Mountain Avenue, in the city's northwestern corner.

Completed in 1991, the new building and its equipment represented the latest in newspaper technology. The three state-of-the-art computerized presses are capable of world-class colour reproduction and can each print newspapers at a rate of 75,000 per hour.

Today, under Rudy Redekop's leadership, the Free Press has redefined itself as a full-service marketing and communications company and focussing its energy on the things it does best: providing news and information to subscribers along with the marketing reach that comes with the ability to distribute newspapers to an average of 150,000 seven days a week, including over 200,000 on Saturdays. This has meant redefining the role of the newspaper by creating new sections and overhauling existing ones to ensure the content is focussed on the interests of readers. It has also meant finding better ways to serve advertisers, mostly through the creation of specially products and supplements tailored to meet the need of the customer.

Redekop's Free Press is very different from the one published by Luxton and Kenny more than 125 years ago. However, one thing remains the same: the Free Press's commitment to quality journalism and its dedication to promoting the intellectual, social and economic growth of the community it serves.