| Cambridge Reporter | |
| Founder: | Peter Jaffray |
| Foundation: | (as the Galt Reporter) |
| Owners: | Torstar Corporation |
| Publishing Country: | Canada |
| Issn: | 0841-6281 |
The Cambridge Reporter, previously the Galt Reporter, was a local daily newspaper in Southern Ontario serving the community of Cambridge, Ontario, Canada.
The newspaper was founded in 1846 as the Galt Reporter by Peter Jaffray, a Scottish settler, originally from Stirlingshire, who immigrated to Galt in 1844. Before immigrating, Jaffray had worked at the Edinburgh printing and publishing firm of Oliver and Boyd, then worked for twenty-two years at the Shrewsbury Chronicle in Shrewsbury, England.[1]
Jaffray founded the Reporter after resigning from a predecessor newspaper named the Dumfries Courier, which was the first newspaper published in Galt. James Ainslie was an early partner in the Reporter publication, and for some time it was published out of a building he owned, which was at the corner of Main Street and Ainslie Street in Galt.[2] Ainslie and Jaffray had a falling out over political content in the newspaper, however, and the partnership was dissolved; Ainslie followed the Reform movement, while Jaffray was "an unyielding and sturdy Conservative."[3] Afterward, Ainslie founded his own rival weekly newspaper, the Dumfries Reformer, which was later purchased by James Young in 1853.[4]
In 1973, the paper changed its name to the Cambridge Reporter after the city of Galt merged with the towns of Preston and Hespeler, and parts of the townships of Waterloo and North Dumfries, to form Cambridge.
In February 2002, the publication frequency was reduced from daily to twice-weekly.[5]
In 2003 the Cambridge Reporter was closed by parent Torstar Corporation, with a final paper published on September 19, 2003. The Cambridge Reporter at the time was Canada's oldest operating newspaper.
Metroland Media Group, owned by Torstar, operates the Waterloo Region Record and the Cambridge Times, which has expanded since the closure of the Cambridge Reporter.
A new online-only Cambridge Reporter was launched by Colin Carmichael in June 2008. Although it has the same name, the website is not affiliated with the original newspaper.
Shortly thereafter Torstar relaunched its own news portal. News stories are not original to that publication but instead come from other newspapers such as the Record and the Cambridge Times.