Calgary Sun

Infobox Newspaper
name = Calgary Sun


type = Daily newspaper
format = Tabloid
foundation = 1980
owners = Quebecor
headquarters = Calgary, Alberta
political = Conservative
editor =
publisher =
website = [http://www.calgarysun.com/ www.calgarysun.com]

The "Calgary Sun" is a daily newspaper published in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is a division of Sun Media, a Quebecor company.

First published in 1980, the tabloid-format daily replaced the long-running broadsheet newspaper, "The Albertan" soon after it was acquired by the publishers of the "Toronto Sun".

The newspaper, like most of those in the Canadian "Sun" chain, are known for short, snappy news stories aimed primarily at working class readers. The "Sun's" layout is based somewhat upon that of British tabloids.

Features

Page Six

Page Six has traditionally been a "gossip" or light-hearted current events/opinion page focusing on local events. Currently, the Calgary Page Six is written by Kelly Doody, a former Canadian National team swimmer.

unshine Girl

The Sunshine Girl, is a daily glamour photograph of an amateur model, usually dressed in a bikini. This idea was also borrowed from British papers, although in accordance with Canadian morality standards, no nudity is allowed and models must be 18 years of age or older (unlike the UK version in which topless models as young as 16 were at one point allowed, although this age limit was recently raised to 18). Originally placed on the third page of the publication (as per the UK format), "Sun" management in the early 1990s decided to relocate the feature to the Sports section as it was felt the photo interfered with the paper's ability to present serious news stories up front. This attitude was later adopted by the other "Sun" newspapers in Canada. The "Calgary Sun" has considered dropping the Sunshine Girl feature on numerous occasions, and has run occasional "trial balloon" issues without a Sunshine Girl, but reader support for the feature remains strong and the paper's newsroom fields many reader complaints whenever the Sunshine Girl is omitted. A Sunshine Boy photo feature used to appear regularly, but has since been cancelled.

Local weeklies

For many years, the "Calgary Sun" also published a popular local weekly, "The Calgary Mirror", which covered community news; the Sun organization purchased the newspaper in the early 1990s. This publication, which originated in the 1950s and was also known at one time as "North Hill News", was discontinued in 2001. It was succeeded by "FYI Calgary In-Print", a free weekly newspaper intended to be a print equivalent of the "Sun's" much-publicized FYI Calgary news website (there was also an "FYI Toronto" newspaper published to tie-in with the "Toronto Sun"'s website). The new publication failed to click with readers and advertisers and was discontinued in May 2001 during a downsizing of Sun Media; the website abandoned the FYI concept about a year later and rebranded itself as Calgarysun.com.

Format

On Oct. 2, 2006, the Sun underwent a major redesign, introducing a new logo (actually it finally adopted the logo used at several other "Sun" newspapers for several years previously), and revamping its typeface usage for both bodytext and headlines. In February 2007, Sun Media launched a Calgary edition of its free daily "24 Hours", which shares editors and editorial staff with the "Calgary Sun".

Distribution and circulation

The "Calgary Sun" is one of four daily newspapers currently serving the Calgary area. The second is "The Calgary Herald". The third and fourth are "Metro News" and "Rush Hour News". Distribution is done by subscription, direct sale (such as at newsstands), or by newspaper box. The latter was the target of public debate by City Council in early 2008 when at least one alderman claimed that the newspaper boxes were responsible for increased states of litter on public transit.

External links

* [http://www.calgarysun.com Calgary Sun]