Ottawa Citizen to receive ‘key to the city’ to mark 175 years of capital coverage

The Ottawa Citizen will receive the key to the city it has covered for 175 years at a municipal awards ceremony later this year.

“This award will be presented to the Ottawa Citizen in recognition of your extraordinary accomplishments in sharing news and information in Canada’s capital for 175 years,” Mayor Jim Watson said in a letter to the newspaper.

The key to the city is the City of Ottawa’s most prestigious honour.

Andrew MacLeod, chief executive officer of Postmedia, the company that owns the Citizen, said he was grateful to the city and to the mayor for the honour.

Launched in March 1845 as The Packet — the name was changed six years later to the Ottawa Citizen — the newspaper is the oldest continuously operated business in the city.

To read more about this prestigious honour, please click here.