LEGENDARY TORONTO STAR PUBLISHER HONDERICH DIES Canadian Broadcasting Corporation 9 November 2005 Beland Honderich, the gruff newsman who built The Toronto Star into the biggest daily newspaper in Canada, died in Vancouver Tuesday at the age of 86 from the effects of a stroke. Honderich became editor-in-chief of the The Star in 1955 and a director a year later. In 1966, he was elected president and publisher of Toronto Star Limited, eventually adding the title of chairman and chief executive officer of the newspaper's parent company, Torstar Corporation. He retired as publisher in 1988. Prime Minister Paul Martin expressed his condolences on Honderich's death. "During his long and distinguished career, Beland Honderich established himself as a determined visionary in the rough-and-tumble world of journalism," Martin said. He added that Honderich "transformed The Toronto Star and, in many ways, helped transform the craft of journalism. His passing truly marks the end of an era in the continuing story of the media in Canada." Re-making The Star: from sensation to substance Honderich transformed The Star into a newspaper of substance, said veteran reporter Val Sears, who worked under him. "He realized, with the advent particularly of television, that the entertainment function of the newspaper had to be replaced by an information kind of newspaper. He transformed The Star from a rather sensationalist newspaper into one that had a huge appeal to the growing middle class throughout Toronto and particularly in the suburbs." Though he was a tough boss, he stood up for his reporters and "what you were always sure of was that he knew what he was doing, what he wanted," Sears added. Despite being an intimidating figure to editors and reporters who worked in the newsroom, Honderich was also dedicated to maintaining the principles of socially conscious founder Joseph Atkinson. "He had the kind of social conscience that appealed to people like me and others who had a sense that newspapers were more than commodities, but had a social function too," Sears said. Honderich was also a defender of newspaper independence. In 1970 Honderich appeared before the Davey Commission, which was investigating cross-media ownership in Canada. Although the practice was nowhere near the level it is today, Honderich still saw it as a threat to economic competition, and intellectual and cultural diversity. "Multimedia ownership poses a similar but even more complicated problem than chain ownership," he said at the time. "As the public interest is best served by having many voices in the field of communications, the ownership by one person or company of a newspaper and/or radio and television stations must be questioned." A newspaper legacy Honderich's contributions to the news business were recognized in 1986 when he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. Born in Baden, Ont., near Kitchener, Honderich began his newspaper career as a paperboy. Later, during the Second World War, he served as a wartime replacement at the Star. He would eventually spend a half-century at the paper, working as a reporter, copyeditor and foreign correspondent before becoming editor-in-chief and then publisher. While he is best known as a publisher, Honderich was a union activist in his early days. In 1948, he helped unionize workers at the paper under the Toronto Newspaper Guild, becoming president of the new union. Honderich's son, John, was to follow in his father's footsteps, working as editor for six years before becoming the publisher in 1994. The younger Honderich left the paper in 2004. "My father was a unique figure in the history of Canadian newspapering," John Honderich said Tuesday. "His passion for quality journalism, his zeal for maintaining the traditions and beliefs of the Star, his desire for change and helping others, along with strict standards in how a paper should be run, all together made for quite a unique individual. "He would like to be remembered as a man who endeavoured to make a useful contribution to society." Funeral arrangements for Beland Honderich have not been finalized. --------------------------- Beland Honderich: A Tribute Paid by Ted Honderich C.B.C obituary HOME to T.H. website HOME to Det & Free website