The Brantford Expositor

About The Brantford Expositor

The Brantford Expositor was founded in 1852 and currently resides at 53 Dalhousie Street in Brantford, Ontario. For over 150 years, the Brantford Expositor has been the primary source for Brantford Residents to receive news, events and advertising information for all of Brant County. The Brantford Expositor is also available to Paris and Burford residents and includes local news for their locations.
Brantford Expositor Statistics

The Brantford Expositor is published 6 days a week - Monday through Saturday - and has over 24,500 daily readers. 70% of adults over 18 are reached in the Brantford Expositor coverage area.

The History of the Brantford Expositor

The Brantford Expositor has been serving the people of Brantford, Ontario, for over 150 years. It was first founded in 1852, 25 years after Brantford was named and 25 years before Brantford became incorporated as a city.

Today the Brantford Expositor is Brantford’s sole newspaper, but when its first issue saw print on the 12th of October, 1852, it entered a field already filled with three other newspapers: The Courier, Brantford’s first newspaper, the Herald and the Tribune. Of these four, however, only the Expositor would stand the test of time.

On that 12th day of October, 1852, the banner of the newspaper read “The Brantford Conservative Expositor.” In its early days it proudly espoused its political platform, made up of 12 points, as it sought to promote its Conservative ideals. In those early days it took its motto from famed British conservative thinker Edmund Burke: “It is undoubtedly the business of Ministers to consult the inclinations of the people, but they ought to take great care that they do not receive that inclination from the few persons who happen to approach them.”

Its Conservative stance was short-lived. Two and a half years after its initial publication, in 1855, the Brantford Expositer saw a change in ownership and political bent. Conservative was dropped from the banner, leaving the name by which it is known today: the Brantford Expositor. It changed from a Conservative paper to a Liberal one, a political stance it held for over 60 years before it adopted an official independent stance in 1919.

In 1871 the success of the Brantford Expositor had grown enough that it warranted its own building for its headquarters. From its start in 1852 the paper had been published in various offices around town, but on June 30, 1871, it moved to its own building on Colborne Street. The building still stands although its offices have since moved a number of times.

Around this same time the Expositor also changed its publication schedule. Since 1852 the Expositor had been a weekly publication, coming out every Tuesday. This changed to a tri-weekly schedule, and starting in April of 1873 became a daily publication. The Brantford Expositor is still published daily (excepting Sundays).

As Brantford grew, so did the Brantford Expositor. Much of its competition fell by the wayside, and in 1919 it purchased the Courier, Brantford’s oldest paper which was the only remaining from the Expositor’s first days. It was at this time the Expositor ceased holding an official political stance, moving to its modern independent stance.

Over the intervening decades, the Brantford Expositor has continued to grow and serve the needs of the people not only of Brantford but all of Brant County. Today it is headquartered at 53 Dalhousie Street. It is available not only in Brantford but in Burford and Paris as well, providing local news for local residents of these areas. The paper currently boasts a daily readership of 24,500, quite a feat for a paper which began at a time when there were only 4-5,000 residents in all of Brantford.

Brantford Expositor Website

For the latest news and events happening in Brantford, please visit http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/.