Former Toronto Star publisher John Honderich dead at 75
Global News
Honderich passed away in his Toronto home at the age of 75 on Saturday, Star spokesman Bob Hepburn said.
Known for his trademark bow ties and imposing six-foot-two presence, John Allen Honderich was an old-fashioned newspaperman with ink in his veins and a hearty lust for life.
The Canadian businessman who was the publisher of the Toronto Star from 1994 to 2004, has died.
Honderich passed away in his Toronto home at the age of 75 on Saturday, Star spokesman Bob Hepburn said.
Honderich, whose father was the late Beland Honderich, also a former publisher of the Toronto Star, was part of the Canadian newspaper industry from birth and much of his working life revolved around the media icon founded in 1892 and _ until recently _ partly owned by his family.
He accepted his role as a senior statesman and spokesman for the industry, defending it and demanding support from government and rivals alike.
“Canada is facing a crisis of quality journalism,” he wrote in a January 2018 editorial demanding the federal government act on recommendations in the Public Policy Forum’s The Shattered Mirror media report released in early 2017.
“If you believe, as I do, that a vigorous, investigative press is essential for a strong democracy, we should all be very concerned.”
Hepburn, who is also a columnist at the Star and counted himself a friend of Honderich’s, said they met in the 1980s when they were both working at the paper.