The London Free Press started as the Canadian Free Press, founded by William Sutherland in 1847, and began printing as a weekly press in 1849. In 1852 the paper was purchased by the Blackburn family, which retained ownership until 1997 when the firm was sold to Sun Media Corp. which was purchased in the same year by Quebecor Inc. The paper's primarily focused in southwestern Ontario, where it is the largest paper outside of Toronto with a strong regional readership.