Happy birthday to the Sun

TORONTO - The Little Paper That Grew is now middle-aged.

The Toronto Sun is 40 years old Tuesday.

“It has been 40 great years. Our readers are special and they keep us engaged and honest,” Sun publisher Mike Power said.

"We have to be grateful to the people who support us. We have great relations with our advertisers, but what makes the Sun special is the staff. Our employees do a great job and they care about the paper and online," he said.

"It is a success story built on years of hard work. We should celebrate our 40th. We are well-positioned but the best is yet to come.”

The Toronto Sun rose out of the ashes of the Toronto Telegram Nov. 1, 1971, and there was no publishing gap between the two papers.

The Sun — which is owned by Sun Media and is a subsidiary of Quebecor — was modelled after British tabloid news papers.

The paper’s first editor, legendary Canadian journalist Peter Worthington, is still a Sun columnist.

“I have been here throughout and it is an important paper. When we came along, some people thought three papers in the city was one too many. Now we have four papers and all of them are different,” Worthington said.

“If you only want hard news get one of the other papers. If you want opinions, buy the Sun. The Sun presents a point of view that other papers don’t have,” Worthington said.

“The good old days are right now.”