# Above the Fold: A Personal History of the Toronto Star - Hardcover

by **John Honderich** (Author)

**A remarkable memoir and journalistic history of the _Toronto Star_, the newspaper that has shaped and continues to shape the issues most important to Canadians.**

_Don't let them ruin the newspaper. . ._ These were the dying words of Beland Honderich to his son, John. The newspaper was the _Toronto Star_, founded in 1892 by Joseph E. (Holy Joe) Atkinson and, to this day, one of the world's leading and most respected socially liberal broadsheets. For the second half of its legendary--and sometimes controversial--history, both John and his father, as successive editors, publishers, and family owners, made it into the newspaper we know today. The _Star_ has been, at different times, home base to the likes of Ernest Hemingway, Morley Callaghan, Pierre Berton, June Callwood, Peter C. Newman, Gary Lautens, Robert Fulford, Richard Gwyn, Christie Blatchford, Michele Landsberg, Chantal Hébert, Joey Slinger, and many more. It also brandishes a corporate history unlike any other. In an extraordinary exercise of arbitrary power, the Ontario government held veto power over all of the _Star's_ operations until the paper eventually evolved to the five families of the Torstar Voting Trust, one of which were the Honderichs. And in that process, those families committed in court to observe and promote the intellectual and spiritual basis on which the _Star_ has always operated.

Completed just weeks before the author's untimely death, _Above the Fold_ gives us an on-the-ground account of how the _Star_, once known primarily for its tabloid sensationalism and screaming headlines, transformed into a bastion of journalistic quality that routinely wins the industry's highest honours and accolades. Honderich writes about the paper he loved and the challenges it faced over the years, including crippling strikes, boardroom battles, soaring egos, the vicious newspaper wars with various competitors, and, most recently, the shift away from print. He also delves deeply into his relationship with his father, who could be remarkably cold and unfeeling toward his son and others, earning the nickname "The Beast." There was great love between the two men but it came at a cost both professionally and, of course, personally. Always worried about accusations of nepotism as he rose to the top job at the paper, John felt he needed to prove himself that much more, which he did--and then some.

Honest, frank, generous, and highly informative, _Above the Fold_ is a personal history of one of the most storied and successful newspapers of our time, told through the lives of the father and son who ran it for close to half-a-century.  

### Author Biography

JOHN HONDERICH was the publisher of the _Toronto Star_ from 1994-2004, as well as President of Torstar Corporation. After receiving his law degree, he entered journalism in 1973 as an office boy and night reporter for the _Ottawa Citizen_, joining the _Star_ in 1976. He was a member of both the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario, and the 2019 recipient of the Canadian Journalism Foundation's lifetime achievement award. The Honderich family, along with the other four Voting Trust families, sold the _Star_ in 2020. John Honderich died in February 2022 at the age of 75.

**Number of Pages:** 368

**Dimensions:** 1.29 x 9.15 x 6.29 IN

**Illustrated:** Yes

**Publication Date:** November 01, 2022

## Details

- **Price:** 27.0 USD
- **Vendor:** Books by splitShops
- **Type:** Books
- **Tags:** Books by splitShops, Shopify Collective

## Variants

| Variant | Price | Available |
|---------|-------|-----------|
| Default Title | 27.00 USD | In stock |

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- Above the Fold: A Personal History of the Toronto Star - Hardcover

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