Torstar Syndication Services
 | |
Formerly | Toronto Star Syndicate |
|---|---|
| Print syndication | |
| Founded | 1930 |
| Headquarters | Canada, Toronto, Ontario |
Area served | Canada |
| Services | Distributes news, syndicated features, comic strips, photos, graphics to more than 500 daily and weekly newspapers |
| Parent | Star Media Group |
| Divisions |
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| Website | http://www.torstarsyndicate.com |
Torstar Syndication Services (TSS) is an operating division of Star Media Group led by the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. (Star Media Group is a division of Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a Torstar Company.)
Torstar Syndication Services provides value-added services to publishers, companies, governments and consumers by collecting, packaging and distributing content. Activities also include managing content rights, and marketing and licensing content similar to King Features Syndicate. Torstar Syndication Services is King Features Syndicate’s distribution partner in Canada. TSS supplies news, syndicated features, comic strips, photos, and graphics to more than 500 daily and weekly newspapers in Canada and worldwide. All content is collected, packaged and distributed by Torstar news editors.
History
Torstar Syndication Services is the largest syndicate in Canada. It started operation in 1930, and was formerly known as the Toronto Star Syndicate. The first major syndicated item was the Superman comic strip published in the Toronto Star and other dailies worldwide in the late 1930s and early 1940s.
TSS provides text and graphic content, such as articles, comics and photos. Content is acquired from both internal and external sources and provided to various publications worldwide, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Hamilton Spectator and many others. TSS operates similarly to other well known syndicates like The Canadian Press and King Features Syndicate. Content gained from internal sources include Torstar properties, such as Toronto Star, The Hamilton Spectator, The Record, and Metroland Media Group. Content from external sources is acquired from other syndicates and publications. TSS also provides content by freelance creators, like advice columnist Ellie Tesher who writes Ask Ellie. TSS packages, distributes and re-sells and/or licenses this to a diverse client base. The TSS client base includes other publishers (i.e. New York Times), researchers and research services, large corporations, government agencies, film and television, clipping services, public and business libraries, various newspaper publications, and the general public.
Divisions
Torstar Syndication Services has three areas:
Torstar Syndicate Sales division provides editorial content to newspapers and other media. This may include material produced by Torstar newspaper writers and columnists, comics and features from King Features Syndicate of New York, a division of Hearst Communications and one of the oldest and largest syndicates in the world. Some content that is submitted by freelance Canadian creators is also used. Torstar Syndicate also provides editors to look over the syndicated material to make sure it is correct.
Torstar Syndication Services - Licensing provides various online research databases and media monitoring companies with licenses to grant subscribers access to Torstar content. Some of the current vendors that provide online access to databases with Torstar content include FP Infomart, ProQuest Micromedia, Factiva, Lexis Nexis, Thomson Dialog, and EBSCO.
PARS International Corporation is the authorized reprint, permissions/licensing agent for the Toronto Star. A full suite of products and services are available through PARS, ranging from hardcopy and electronic reprints to plaques, posters, and permissions/licensing, including photocopies. PARS can be contacted to request a quote.
Getty Images provides online access to thousands of historic or recently published Toronto Star photos that can be licensed through TSS. King Features Syndicate distributes top-quality cartoons and columns that can be licensed through TSS as well for a wide variety of purposes.
Toronto Star Historical Newspaper Archive (previously Pages of the Past) is a fully searchable, web-based archive that contains every published page in PDF format as they actually appeared on every issue of the Toronto Star, from 1894 to 2015. Content from the published pages include stories, photos, ads and classified, stock tables, sports statistics, movie listings, obituaries and more. Specific stories, events, columns, reviews and more can be searched by keyword. The Star’s searchable text goes back from 1985 to the present day. Past digital content can be accessed online from December 2016 to the present. It is also available to corporate, government, institutional and library markets, and is available to consumers.
Star Store was a division of TSS and ceased operation on March 2018. Star Store was an archive of almost one million images, covering local, national and international events for the past 100 years, and sold Toronto Star photographs and full-page reprints for both personal and commercial use. Photographs are no longer available for personal use purchase, but can still be purchased for commercial use through Getty Images. Reprints can be purchased through PARS International Corporation.
Comic strips and panels
- The Amazing Spider-Man
- Arctic Circle
- Baby Blues
- Barney Google and Snuffy Smith
- Beetle Bailey
- Between Friends
- Bizarro
- Blondie
- Brilliant Mind of Edison Lee
- Buckles
- Crankshaft
- Curtis
- Deflocked
- Dennis the Menace
- Dustin
- The Family Circus
- Flash Gordon
- Funky Winkerbean
- Hägar the Horrible
- Heaven's Love Thrift Shop
- Henry
- Hi and Lois
- Intelligent Life
- Judge Parker
- The Katzenjammer Kids
- Lockhorns
- Mallard Fillmore
- Mandrake the Magician
- Mark Trail
- Marvin
- Mary Worth
- Moose & Molly
- Mother Goose and Grimm
- Mutts
- On the Fastrack
- Pajama Diaries, The
- Pardon My Planet
- Phantom
- Piranha Club
- Popeye
- Prince Valiant
- Pros and Cons
- Retail
- Rex Morgan, M.D.
- Rhymes with Orange
- Safe Havens
- Sally Forth
- Sam and Silo
- Sherman's Lagoon
- Shoe
- Six Chix
- Slylock Fox & Comics for Kids
- Take it from the Tinkersons
- Tiger
- Tina's Groove
- Todd the Dinosaur
- Zippy the Pinhead
- Zits
Columnists
Business & Personal Finance
- David W. Myers, “About Real Estate”
- Eric Tyson, “Investors’ Guide"
- Dale Dauten and J.T. O’Donnell, “J.T. & Dale Talk Jobs”
- Jeanne Fleming and Leonard Schwarz, “Money Manners”
- Julie Jason, “Investment and Retirement Planning”
Commentary
- Bob Franken
- Rich Lowry
Entertainment
- Steve Becker, “Contract Bridge”
- Dana Block, “Daytime Dial”
- Sally Huss, “Happy Musings”
- Chuck Blount, “On Poker”
- Vicki Farmer Ellis, “Sew Simple”
- Lifestyle & Advice
- Terry Kovel and Ralph Kovel, “Antiques and Collecting”
- Ellie Tesher, “Ask Ellie”
- Ray Magliozzi, “Car Talk”
- David Ferguson, “Creative Space”
- Debbie Travis, “House to Home”
- Ken Hoffman, “Drive-Thru Gourmet”
- Arthur Frommer and Pauline Frommer, “Frommer’s Travel”
- Jacyln London, “Good Housekeeping”
- Heloise, “Hints from Heloise” and “Heloise Classified Hints”
- Harlan Cohen, “Help Me, Harlan!”
- Anindya Datta, “Mobilewalla”
- Ricardo Larivée, “Ricardo”
- Carolyn Evans-Hammond, “Sipped”
- Kelly Carrell, “Super Handyman”
- Christopher Elliott, “Travel Troubleshooter”
Mind & Body Fitness
- Ruth Westheimer, “Ask Dr. Ruth”
- Jeanne Jones, “Cook It Light”
- Mehmet Oz and Michael Roizen, “Drs. Oz and Roizen”
- Joe Graedon and Teresa Graedon, “The People’s Pharmacy”
- Keith Roach, “To Your Good Health”
Politics
- Amy Goodman and Denis Moynihan, “Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan”
- Paul Wells and Chantal Hébert, “National Affairs”
Sports
- Jack Nicklaus, “Play Better Golf With Jack Nicklaus”
- Phil Franké, Jim McLean, Keith Lyford, and Dana Rader, “Master Strokes”
- Ken Willis and Godwin Kelly, “NASCAR This Week”