Manitoba History
The rise and fall of the Winnipeg Citizen
For thirteen months and thirteen days in the late 1940s, Winnipeg had a third
daily newspaper – the Winnipeg Citizen. It was borne of high
hopes in the leftist community after World War II of founding a daily
that would present an alternative to the Winnipeg Free Press’s
advocacy of the Liberals and the Winnipeg Tribune’s support of
the Conservatives.
Established as a cooperative and financed through donations and small
loans, the Winnipeg Citizen attracted such future literary luminaries
as Margaret Laurence and James Gray to its reporting staff. But idealism
soon bowed to the harsh economic realities of publishing a newspaper.
Originally conceived as an eight-page, left-leaning tabloid with virtually
no advertising, the Winnipeg Citizen that hit the stands March
1, 1948, proved to be a fairly conventional product, not markedly different
than its local competition. Those on the left grew frustrated that the
paper wasn’t sufficiently progressive, while some on the right accused
it of being communist.
The Citizen struggled financially for the next year, but unable
to either pay its bills or reverse a circulation slide, it printed its
last edition April 13, 1949.
|
