page_title: The Georgia Straight
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: The Georgia Straight / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Image taken about 2000 in my home in Cooktowon, Australia
context_page_description: The Georgia Straight is a free Canadian weekly news and entertainment newspaper published in a large "tabloid" format in Vancouver, British Columbia, by the Vancouver Free Press Publishing Corp. Often known simply as The Straight, it is delivered to newsboxes, post-secondary schools, public libraries and a large variety of other locations.
  As surveyed by VAC its per-issue circulation average as of January 25, 2011, is 119,971 copies, and its average weekly readership is 804,000 as of 2009. Its website traffic ranked 47,339 globally and 1,458 within Canada, according to February 27, 2012, figures from Alexa.
  "The Straight" has a long history of independent, unconventional editorials and content, and is known as a vocal critic of government, notably the former Liberal government of Gordon Campbell.
  In January 2020, the paper's acquisition by Media Central Corporation was announced, a few weeks after the same company announced a deal to acquire the similar Toronto publication Now.
context_section_description: The paper was founded as an underground newspaper in May 1967 by Pierre Coupey, Milton Acorn, Dan McLeod, Stan Persky, and others, and originally it operated as a collective.
  In April 1967: "The proposed paper was christened the Georgia Straight over beer at the Cecil Hotel. The name aims to play on the fact that the weather forecasts will offer free publicity: they're always issuing gale warnings for the Georgia Strait."
  On May 5, 1967, the first issue was presented and cost ten cents. It was originally a biweekly newspaper. On May 12, Dan McLeod was taken away in a paddy wagon and jailed for three hours for "investigation of vagrancy." College Printers refused to print the second issue,  but an alternative was found.
  In the 1972, original staff members left Georgia Straight to publish the competitor bi-weekly The Grape.
caption: Dan McLeod working on the Straight while visiting Cooktown, Australia, circa 2000
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