Medicine Hat News celebrates 140 and counting

By ZOE MASON on October 29, 2025.

zmason@medicinehatnews.com

On Oct. 29, the Medicine Hat News marks its 140th anniversary.

The News is the longest-standing media outlet in Medicine Hat, continuing to grow and change with the city it serves. In honour of the anniversary, longtime subscribers, current employees and News alumni reminisced about the paper’s storied past and undeniable impact.

Legend has it, the News was born in a boxcar.

Two years after establishing Calgary’s first newspaper, the forerunner to today’s Calgary Herald, two Ontarians moved to the small railway town of Medicine Hat. It was October 1885, and Medicine Hat was a fledgling little outpost of the Canadian Pacific railroad, with just enough permanent residents that news was in demand.

It’s likely, although just short of certain, that Armour and Braden headquartered their publication, which they called the Medicine Hat Times, in a boxcar on N. Railway Street. They put out a paper once a week.

In 1894, a group of local businessmen formed the Medicine Hat Printing and Publishing Company and purchased the paper for $1,500. They renamed the publication the Medicine Hat Weekly News. Two years later, it was finally relocated to a brick-and-mortar building.

In January 1911, the News changed hands again, purchased by a company called the Medicine Hat News Ltd. That month, 26 years after it began publication, the News became a daily publication. By 1914 it landed in the location at the corner of Second Street and Sixth Avenue, where it would remain for nearly 70 years.

The First World War ushered in an era of hardship in the Hat, as it did everywhere else. Two rival papers were shuttered, but the News staggered on. When the Brandon Times went under in 1916, the News acquired its languishing flatbed press, finally modernizing the hand-fed machinery it had used for 30 years.

In 1948, when the wars were over and the paper remained, it was snatched up by Southam Inc., then one of the country’s most prominent media companies. Under Southam’s command, the News doubled its circulation in five years. Thus began the golden age of the Medicine Hat News, kicking off decades of expansion and increasingly ambitious reporting.

In 1958, the News acquired the neighbouring Empress Theatre and expanded, converting the theatre into storage and office space. The News even left the old stage, filling it with film rolls and flyers.

By the 1980s, business was booming. The paper employed more than 100 staff. The old three-level building downtown could no longer contain the News, which consisted of 20-plus reporters and photographers, a vibrant creative department and a capable array of business and advertising specialists. In 1981 the News built its new headquarters on Dunmore Road to accommodate that growth.

The day the News relocated to the Dunmore building was a Saturday. When the day’s paper had been produced, staff cleared out the press room. They had to tear down a wall to get the old presses out. After the presses were freed, they were reinstalled on Dunmore within the day. The paper didn’t miss a single day of publication.

In those days the News was a stepping stone for early career journalists with ambitions to work at major dailies, and it embraced its role as a jumping-off point for young reporters.

At its height, the News organized regular training sessions and workshops on topics like policy and law. One former managing editor fondly recalls a time when he could walk into a newsroom almost anywhere in Western Canada and see the familiar face of a News alumnus.

Shortly after the move, employees recall the 100th anniversary party, a merry bash at a barn outside the city full of drinks and dancing. It’s a memory of a vibrant, dynamic workplace that has, despite all efforts to the contrary, diminished in recent years.

Longtime employees have watched from inside the News as the journalism industry evolved.

Sometimes change was for the better. One former reporter recalls long, frustrating phone calls with The Canadian Press trying to restore service into Medicine Hat after storms, or snow damaged the poles and wires that carried news into town, effectively cutting off the Hat from the nation. These calls would come several times a season.

The paper changed hands and changed hands again. After 50 years with Southam, the News sold in 1998 to Thompson Newspapers, before it was purchased by the Southern Alberta Newspaper Group in 2002. In 2008, Glacier Media purchased a majority share in the paper.

Around the time Thompson took over, the News also transitioned to morning deliveries, after 112 years of afternoon circulation.

Often, change was painful. The staff at the paper has dwindled from a high of more than 100 people to its current staff of about 25.

Still, even as local publications across the country have collapsed, the News has hung on.

Tanya George began as a receptionist and worked her way up the business side of the paper. Today, her email signature reads: “Business & Credit Manager / HR Administrator / Accounts Receivable / Payroll.” In the paper’s heyday, her current role would have been filled by several people.

“I’ve spent my whole life here. I just had my 45-year anniversary,” said George. “I love what I do. We put out a brand new product every single day.

“People really enjoy getting their News. Especially first thing in the morning. They sit down with the News. They’re having their coffee with us.”

“I depend on it. I really appreciate the daily contact with my community,” said Bev Botter, a subscriber who’s read the paper for more than 50 years.

“I love that they deliver it early in the morning, and I know where to find it. I do the puzzles and I read all the articles. I’m quite committed to the newspaper, so I’m proud to be a longtime subscriber.”

Bill Milroy, another longtime subscriber, was once a paperboy himself. As a local business owner, he advertised in the News for many years. Today, he continues to read it.

“Today, it’s the only local news we have, so it’s more important than ever,” he said. “There’s no television station. Without the newspaper, we would be lost as to what’s going on.”

“It’s really important that the newspaper tries to survive,” said George. “It’s sad in another way, because I know newspapers probably won’t last forever.”

“As the Medicine Hat News recognizes our 140 years of publishing – we’d like to first of all thank the tens of thousands of subscribers, community supporters and advertisers for their loyal support,” said publisher Ryan McAdams.

“With this milestone it is also important to remind everyone how vital all local news organizations are to our everyday lives, and how democracy depends on these local news providers. Local news matters.”

Over 140 years, the News has remained committed to finding and telling the stories that matter to the people of Medicine Hat. Over the course of conversations for this article, former editorial staff recalled stories about train crashes, floods, exposés about financial mismanagement and photo ops with past prime ministers. Countless elections, sports championships and tales of local excellence have filled these pages.

Staff have passed through the newsroom and continued on to the country’s most esteemed publications. Others have built equally remarkable lives here in this community. Some staff who still work at the News climbed the ranks of the organization from delivering papers to building a lifelong career. For decades, the News has been a landing place for newcomers to Medicine Hat, and has sold more than one on staying permanently.

Generations of people working together under the banner of the News have filled these pages with today’s headlines and tomorrow’s history. The news of the world has found its way to Medicine Hat through these presses. And what’s more, the news of Medicine Hat has found its way to the world.

For the past 140 years, and for many more to come – thanks for reading.

This story was written with files from the book Run That By Me Again by former News librarian Peter Mehrer, and the book Frank Webber: Mirror on Medicine Hat by Brock V. Silversides.

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