Times Colonist Newspaper Canada is an English-language daily newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was formed by the merger, in 1980, of the Victoria Daily Times, established in 1884, and the British Colonist (later the Daily Colonist), established in 1858 by Amor De Cosmos, who was also British Columbia’s second Premier.
The Times Colonist is owned by the Glacier Newspaper Group.
Local news receives the greatest prominence in the Times Colonist. Stories and photographs about Greater Victoria are often featured on the front page. But the newspaper also has national and international stories, plus sections covering the arts, sports, and business.
According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, the average daily paid circulation for the Times Colonist, Tuesday to Friday, was 57,823 for the six months ending March 31, 2011. This a drop of 10.3% from the previous year. As a result the paper is attempting to raise revenue by charging readers who read more than twenty on-line digital articles a month.
The Times Colonist is published six days a week (Tuesday to Sunday – before June 2009 it was published seven) and is sold by subscription or at newsstands. There was no reduction in subscription rates when the colonist reduced production to six days per week. There is also a free daily paper produced by Black Press, which runs a chain of local community newspapers. Black Press produces twice-weekly community papers that compete with the Times Colonist for readership and are distributed for free, through home delivery and in boxes in high-traffic public areas.