The Hockey News was founded in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in 1947 by Ken McKenzie and Will Cote. It is the second-oldest publication in North America devoted to one sport, following only
Ring Magazine (a boxing-based publication), which was founded in 1922. Readership developed quickly in the infancy of
The Hockey News with circulation reaching 20,000 copies within the first year of the publication's history; increasing to 50,000 by the year 1967 – when the
National Hockey League (NHL) expanded from six franchises to 12 – before reaching 100,000 a half-decade later in 1972. McKenzie assumed full ownership of
The Hockey News in 1968 after buying out founding partner Cote. He remained in control of the publication until selling it to Whitney Communications of New York in 1973. Despite the sale, McKenzie stayed with
The Hockey News as its publisher until 1980. Toward the end of McKenzie's run with
The Hockey News, some major overhauls began to take place. Printed and based out of Montreal since its very beginnings,
The Hockey News officially moved its offices to downtown Toronto in 1979. From the time of the move until 2003, printing mainly took place in a cluster of three southwestern Ontario cities (Hamilton, Pickering and Toronto) as well as some of the duties remaining in Montreal. In 2003, the printing of the magazine moved to Owen Sound, Ontario. At this time Tom Murray was brought on as the new editor. Under his stewardship
The Hockey News began to take on more of an edge and also began the use of colour on some pages of the publication for the first time. Award-winning Canadian journalist Bob McKenzie – no relation to founder Ken McKenzie – took over from Murray as editor in 1982. During this time the editorial slant became even tougher. With Bob McKenzie at the helm,
The Hockey News first introduced several "Special Issues," many of which remain staples of the magazine to this day, including Season and Draft Preview editions and the annual Yearbook. Whitney Communications sold
The Hockey News to
Transcontinental, Inc. in 1986. Five years later, Steve Dryden was brought in to replace the departing Bob McKenzie as editor. Like with the previous change in the editor, Dryden's tenure brought with it many new special editions of the publication, including Future Watch, People of Power and Influence and Season in Review. Although many changes were undertaken from the nascent days of the publication until 2003,
The Hockey News had remained, at its base, a tabloid newspaper the entire duration of that period. In 2003, the move was made to being a full-colour publication, complete with full bleeds and stapled pages. This restructuring was overseen by Jason Kay, who replaced Dryden in 2001 and remains the brand's editor in chief to this day. These changes were built upon when, in 2007,
The Hockey News moved to be a full-blown magazine, with a glossy cover and 8 x 10-inch pages. In November 2014, Transcontinental sold
The Hockey News and 14 other consumer magazines to
Quebecor Media's
Groupe TVA for $55.5 million. This made it a sister to the Quebecois sports network
TVA Sports, which had become the national French-language rightsholder of the NHL in Canada. It was in turn sold to W. Graeme Roustan in 2018. In January 2020,
The Hockey News announced an editorial partnership with
Sports Illustrated (whose editorial operation was recently sold to theMaven, Inc.), under which content from
The Hockey News would be featured on SI.com, and the two would collaborate on a network of team-specific websites. In March 2020, six days after the NHL announced the
suspension of the regular season due to COVID-19,
THN suspended publication and laid off eight full time staff, including editor-in-chief Jason Kay and senior writer Ryan Kennedy, while assigning two contract workers to update content on the magazine's website. Kay returned when
THN resumed full operation, and was still editor-in-chief in 2021, but the magazine was operating without an editor-in-chief by early 2022. In the fall of 2022, coincident with the first issue of its 76th publishing year, Ryan Kennedy became editor-in-chief. ==Brand extensions==