The Hamilton Spectator first appeared on 15 July 1846 as The Hamilton Spectator and Journal of Commerce, a semi-weekly founded by Robert Smiley and a partner in a fast-industrialising lake port, with Smiley running it as a Conservative-leaning voice in local commercial life. In 1877 it was bought by William Southam, who made it the first title in what became the Southam chain, one of the largest newspaper groups in Canadian history. Southam was sold to Conrad Black in 1998, who passed the Spectator to Sun Media, and in 1999 it changed hands a third time to Torstar Corporation, publisher of the Toronto Star. On 26 May 2020 NordStar Capital, the private investment firm formed by Jordan Bitove and Paul Rivett, agreed to take Torstar private, closing that August. Rivett left in 2022 after a dispute, and an arbitrator awarded Bitove sole ownership. Today, The Hamilton Spectator is mainly focused on Hamilton municipal government and civic affairs, crime and courts, housing and local business, provincial and federal politics carried through wire services, sport and community coverage, published six days a week in print and daily online, from their base in Hamilton, Canada. One interesting fact: It no longer has a newsroom in the city it covers. Torstar closed the Spectator's physical offices in October 2023 to cut leasing costs, leaving roughly fifty editorial staff working remotely, and reference sources list the paper's headquarters as an address in Toronto.