PRESSE, LA

(French: "The Press"), French-language daily newspaper published in Montreal. Long the most widely circulated French-language daily newspaper in Canada and in the Western Hemisphere, it remains the largest of standard-size papers, as only the tabloid Le Journal de Montreal has a larger circulation. The paper was established in 1884. La Presse is highly regarded as a comprehensive, thorough daily. In the 1930s and '40s it had one of the largest circulations among Canadian papers in any language, with a weekday press run in the mid-1940s of more than 219,000, and 252,000 on Saturdays.