Le Soleil (Quebec)

{{Short description|French-language daily newspaper in Quebec City, Canada}}{{Infobox newspaper

| name = Le Soleil

| image = Lesoleil.jpg

| image_size = 150px

| format = Compact

| foundation = 1896

| circulation = 74,899 weekdays
91,451 Saturdays
83,244 Sundays in 2015{{cite web|url=https://nmc-mic.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/2015-Daily-Newspaper-Circulation-Report-by-Title-SPREADSHEET_FINAL.xlsx|title=2015 Daily Newspaper Circulation Spreadsheet (Excel)|work=News Media Canada|access-date=16 December 2017}} Numbers are based on the total circulation (print plus digital editions).

| owners = Groupe Capitales Médias

| headquarters = 410, boulevard Charest Est
3rd Floor
Quebec City, Quebec
G1K 8G3

| editor =

| ISSN = 0319-0730

| website = [https://www.lesoleil.com lesoleil.com]

}}

Le Soleil (The Sun) is a French-language daily newspaper in Quebec City, Quebec. It was founded on December 28, 1896. It is distributed mainly in Quebec City; however, it is also for sale at newsstands in Ottawa, Montreal, New Brunswick and some places in Florida, where many Quebecers spend the winter. It has been owned by several media groups but is now a worker cooperative and is a member of the [https://publicite.lescoops.ca/ CN2i network].

Le Soleil was published first as a broadsheet, then in compact format since April 2006. It ceased its print edition in 2023 and is now a fully digital publication.

History

Le Soleil rose from the ashes of L'Électeur, the official newspaper of the Liberal Party of Canada, which shut down in December 1896. The first edition was published on December 28, 1896. one day after the disappearance of its predecessor, which shut down because the Catholic clergy had forbidden it to parishioners when the newspaper criticized the Church's electoral interference. It was renamed Le Soleil in reference to Le Soleil, a daily newspaper based in Paris by the same name.

In 1957, Le Soleil (then owned by Oscar Gilbert) cut ties with the Liberal Party of Canada to concentrate on news coverage. Daily circulation rose past 100,000 in the 1960s, and over 150,000 in the 1970s.

Beginning in 1973, many large corporations began to express interest in acquiring Le Soleil. Controversy was stirred when Paul Desmarais's Power Corporation of Canada announced its intention to buy the daily. It provoked the intervention of Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa because such a transaction would have concentrated 70% of Quebec francophone daily newspapers in the hands of a single company. Eventually, the paper was bought by Unimédia.

In 1987, Conrad Black's Hollinger Inc. acquired the newspaper, which would eventually pass into the hands of Groupe Gesca. Gesca was a wholly-owned subsidiary of Power Corporation of Canada and also owned owned most of Quebec's francophone dailies including La Presse, thus realizing Bourassa's fear.

In 2006, the newspaper had switched to a tabloid format at the same time as Sherbrooke's La Tribune and Trois-Rivières' Le Nouvelliste, all of which were then owned by Gesca. Recent declines in readership due to competition by Le Journal de Québec was the main explanation of the switch from a broadsheet format.

In 2015, Gesca sold Le Soleil and five other daily newspapers to Groupe Capitales Médias, run by former federal cabinet minister Martin Cauchon.{{Cite web |title=Gesca vend six quotidiens excluant La Presse |url=https://ici.radio-canada.ca/info/videos/1-7260118/gesca-vend-six-quotidiens-excluant-presse |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=ici.radio-canada.ca}} Cauchon's media group filed for bankruptcy in 2019. All five of its publications, including Le Soleil, were turned into workers' coops.{{Cite news |last=Chouinard |first=Tommy |date=2019-11-19 |title=Capitales Médias : Québec opte pour le modèle coop |url=https://www.lapresse.ca/affaires/medias/2019-11-19/capitales-medias-quebec-opte-pour-le-modele-coop |access-date=2025-05-09 |work=La Presse |language=fr-CA}}

Circulation

Like most Canadian daily newspapers, Le Soleil has seen a decline in circulation. Its total circulation dropped by {{formatnum: {{#expr: abs(100 - (78455 / 84772 * 100)) round 0}}}} percent to 78,455 copies daily from 2009 to 2015.{{cite web|url=https://nmc-mic.ca/about-newspapers/circulation/daily-newspapers/|title=Daily Newspaper Circulation Data|work=News Media Canada|access-date=16 December 2017}} In 2020, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the newspaper ceased its daily print edition, maintaining only its online activities as well as a weekly Saturday print edition; the Saturday edition was then abandoned in 2023.{{Cite web |last=Goudreault |first=Zacharie |date=2023-03-29 |title=Les six quotidiens régionaux de la CN2i annoncent la fin de leur édition papier |url=https://www.ledevoir.com/culture/medias/787279/medias-fin-du-papier-annoncee-pour-les-quotidiens-des-coops-de-l-information |access-date=2025-05-09 |website=Le Devoir |language=fr}}

:::::::::Daily average{{cite web|url=https://nmc-mic.ca/about-newspapers/circulation/daily-newspapers/|title=Daily Newspaper Circulation Data|work=News Media Canada|access-date=16 December 2017}} Figures refer to the total circulation (print and digital combined) which includes paid and unpaid copies.

{{#invoke:Chart | bar chart

| height = 270

| width = 360

| group 1 = 84772:80720:81730:80432:79518:79044:78455

| colors = DarkCyan

| units suffix = Copies

| group names =

| x legends = 2009:2010:2011:2012:2013:2014:2015

}}