Launched in 1879 by editor William Loe Smith, it is the oldest still-extant newspaper in the Northern Ontario region.[2]
The paper is nationally most noted for winning the Michener Award for public service journalism in 1982, for its investigation into the high local suicide rate.[3] The investigation led to the launch of a community-operated suicide prevention hotline.[4]
The paper was acquired in 1970 by Rick McCutcheon, who had joined the paper as an editor in 1968.[4] He remains the paper's owner and publisher emeritus today, although he is semi-retired and day to day operations as editor and publisher are now handled by his daughter Alicia McCutcheon.[5] In 2020, Rick McCutcheon was inducted into the Ontario Community Newspapers Association's Hall of Fame.[6]
In 2001, the paper acquired the formerly competing Manitoulin West RecorderinGore Bay.[2] Both titles are still in operation as of 2020.[5]
