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The Toronto Star is a Canadian broadsheet daily newspaper. As of 2015, it was Canada's highest-circulation newspaper in overall weekly circulation: although a close second to The Globe and Mail in daily circulation on weekdays, it overtakes the Globe in weekly circulation because the Globe does not publish a Sunday edition. The Toronto Star is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part of Torstar's Daily News Brands division.

In July 2020, Torstar agreed to sell the company to NordStar Capital LP. On July 31, the Ontario Superior Court of Justice rejected an appeal against the plan.

The Star (originally known as the Evening Star and then the Toronto Daily Star) was created in 1892 by striking Toronto News printers and writers, led by future Mayor of Toronto and social reformer Horatio Clarence Hocken, who became the newspaper's founder, along with another future mayor, Jimmy Simpson.

The Star was first printed on Toronto World presses, and at its formation, The World owned a 51% interest in it as a silent partner. That arrangement only lasted for two months, during which time it was rumoured that William Findlay "Billy" Maclean, The World's proprietor, was considering selling the Star to the Riordon family. After an extensive fundraising campaign among the Star staff, Maclean agreed to sell his interest to Hocken.

The paper did poorly in its first few years. Hocken sold out within the year, and several owners followed in succession until railway entrepreneur William Mackenzie bought it in 1896. Its new editors, Edmund E. Sheppard and Frederic Thomas Nicholls, moved the entire Star operation into the same building used by the magazine Saturday Night. This would continue until Joseph E. "Holy Joe" Atkinson, backed by funds raised by supporters of Prime Minister Wilfrid Laurier, bought the paper. The supporters included Senator George Cox, William Mulock, Peter Charles Larkin and Timothy Eaton.

Atkinson was the Star's editor from 1899 until his death in 1948. The newspaper's early opposition and criticism of the Nazi regime saw it become one of the first North American papers to be banned in Germany.

Atkinson had a social conscience. He championed many causes that would come to be associated with the modern welfare state: old age pensions, unemployment insurance, and health care. The Government of Canada Digital Collections website describes Atkinson as a "radical" in the best sense of that term.... The Star was unique among North American newspapers in its consistent, ongoing advocacy of the interests of ordinary people. The friendship of Atkinson, the publisher, with Mackenzie King, the prime minister, was a major influence on the development of Canadian social policy.

Atkinson became the controlling shareholder of the Star. The Star was frequently criticized for practising the yellow journalism of its era. For decades, the paper included heavy doses of crime and sensationalism, along with advocating social change. From 1910 to 1973, the Star published a weekend supplement, the Star Weekly.

Shortly before his death in 1948, Joseph E. Atkinson transferred ownership of the paper to a charitable organization given the mandate of continuing the paper's liberal tradition. In 1949, the Province of Ontario passed the Charitable Gifts Act, barring charitable organizations from owning large parts of profit-making businesses, that effectively required the Star to be sold.

Atkinson's will had directed that profits from the paper's operations were "for the promotion and maintenance of social, scientific and economic reforms which are charitable in nature, for the benefit of the people of the province of Ontario" and it stipulated that the paper could be sold only to people who shared his social views. The five trustees of the charitable organization circumvented the Act by buying the paper themselves and swearing before the Supreme Court of Ontario to continue what became known as the "Atkinson Principles":
A strong, united and independent Canada
Social justice
Individual and civil liberties
Community and civic engagement
The rights of working people
The necessary role of government

Descendants of the original owners, known as "the five families", still control the voting shares of Torstar, and the Atkinson Principles continue to guide the paper to this day. In February 2006, Star media columnist Antonia Zerbisias wrote on her blog:
Besides, we are the Star which means we all have the Atkinson Principles—and its multi-culti values—tattooed on our butts. Fine with me. At least we are upfront about our values, and they almost always work in favour of building a better Canada.

From 1922 to 1933, the Star was also a radio broadcaster on its station CFCA, broadcasting on a wavelength of 400 metres (749.48 kHz), whose coverage was complementary to the paper's reporting. It was closed following the establishment of the Canadian Radio Broadcasting Commission and the introduction of a government policy that in essence restricted private stations to an effective radiated power of 100 watts. It would continue to supply sponsored content to the CRBC's station CRCT (later becoming the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's station CBL), which arrangement would last until 1946.

In 1971, the newspaper was renamed the Toronto Star and moved to a modern office tower at One Yonge Street by Queens Quay. The original Star building at 80 King Street West was demolished to make room for First Canadian Place. The new building originally housed the paper's presses. In 1992, the printing plant was moved to the Toronto Star Press Centre at the Highway 407 & 400 interchange in Vaughan. In September 2002, the logo was changed, and "The" was dropped from the papers. During the 2003 Northeast blackout, the Star printed the paper at a press in Welland, Ontario.

Until the mid-2000s, the front page of the Toronto Star had no advertising aside from lottery jackpot estimates from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).

On May 28, 2007, the Star unveiled a redesigned paper that features larger type, narrower pages, fewer and shorter articles, renamed sections, more prominence to local news, and less so to international news, columnists, and opinion pieces. However, on January 1, 2009, the Star reverted to its previous format. Star P.M., a free newspaper in PDF format that could be downloaded from the newspaper's website each weekday afternoon, was discontinued in October 2007, thirteen months after its launch.

On January 15, 2016, Torstar confirmed the closure of its Vaughan printing presses and that it will outsource printing to Transcontinental Printing, leading to the layoff of all 285 staff at the plant as Transcontinental has its own existing facility, also in Vaughan.

In April 2018, the Toronto Star expanded its local coverage of Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, Halifax, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Regina, Saskatoon and London with rebranded daily newspapers, previously known as Metro, as StarMetro.

In 2018, the Toronto Star acquired iPolitics, a political news outlet.

The Star is one of the few Canadian newspapers that employs a "public editor" (ombudsman) and was the first to do so. Its newsroom policy and journalistic standards guide is also published online.

Other notable features include:
a community editorial board, whose members write opinion articles that sometimes criticize the paper
an immigration/diversity reporter
charitable campaigns that solicit contributions from readers
a half page to full page of letters from readers every day
results of daily online polls and comments about them
an annual competition honouring Toronto's best employers
a full colour comics page every day (with half of a page of "Saturday Strips" on Sundays, and one section consisting of "Sunday Strips" on Saturdays)
one page of puzzles, such as crosswords, riddles, jumble, quote puzzles, word search, Sudoku, and contract bridge results, daily (with two pages of puzzles, bridge results, and chess results in the comics section on Saturday, and three Sudoku puzzles from easy to hard and another page of puzzles on Sundays)

The Star says it favours an inclusive, "big tent" approach, not wishing to attract one group of readers at the expense of others. It publishes special sections for Chinese New Year and Gay Pride Week, along with regular features on condominiums and shopping. In the late 2000s, the newspaper has promoted "a new deal for cities".

Daily Sections
A Section:
The “A” or main section of the Toronto Star captures the feel of living in one of North America's most multicultural and dynamic cities. Local news from around the Greater Toronto Area plus stories from across Canada, as well as from health, education, science and the environment provide comprehensive news coverage with award-winning quality.

Regular Columns:
Rosie DiManno column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
Slinger column runs Tuesday and Thursday.
The Fixer feature runs Tuesday through Saturday, in the GTA pages.
Heather Mallick column runs Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Bob Hepburn column runs Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Canada Pages Regular Features:
A daily digest of brief items from across the country.
Ottawa Insiders column runs Saturday.

World & Comment:
World & Comment leads off with our signature foreign coverage followed by the Comment pages: Editorials, which provide the voice of the Star, including the newspaper's unique Atkinsonian liberal view, Letters and Ideas. The daily (Monday through Friday) Ideas page is a forum for opinions, ideas and outside voices.

The World section front is unique in the marketplace, offering prominent and predictable space for coverage from our foreign bureaus in Asia, the Middle East, Europe and Washington.

Regular Features:
Global Voices column appears Monday.
Worldview. Twice-a-week column appears Tuesday and Thursday.
Canadians Abroad, showcasing the lives of Canadian expatriates.
A daily digest with updates from around the world.

Living (Monday-Saturday):
A robust, and comprehensive lifestyle destination for today's time-starved reader. Living features a cross-section of all lifestyle topics such as Parenting, Family, Relationships, Food and Nutrition, Health, Fashion and Beauty, Home décor and style, plus much, much more!

Regular Features:
Ellie advice column appears Monday through Saturday.
Horoscopes column runs Monday through Saturday (on Sunday the horoscopes run in Entertainment).
Recipe runs Monday through Saturday
Observed, a 200-word piece about some item or event that defines the zeitgeist, runs Monday through Friday.
The rating of new products by nutritionists runs Tuesday.
Critical Care column runs Tuesday.
905 Restaurant Review runs Wednesday.
Food and recipe column runs alternate Wednesdays and restaurant review on Saturday.
Fashion Notebook runs Friday.
Shopping News runs Friday.
Comedy column runs Thursday.
Deep Thoughts highlights of university research runs Thursday.
DIY Style on fashion and craft runs Thursday.
What's Brewing beer column runs alternate Wednesdays.
Shopping features on Saturday: Shop Like a Pro, Enlightened Shopper, Top Shop, My Toronto 10, Test Drive.
Local Heroes profiles of local people doing extraordinary things runs Saturday.
Shoestring Shopping Guide runs Saturday.
Diet Decoder review of diet books runs alternate Saturdays.
Direct Access column on disabilities on alternate Saturdays.
Store Gazing column on Saturday.
Pet advice column runs every Saturday.
Queer Culture column runs alternate Saturdays.
Parenting column runs every Monday.
Single Dad column runs every other Monday.
The $100 Solution decorating advice piece runs every other Saturday.
The Ecologic beauty and environment column runs every other Friday.
Second Opinion, which dissects health studies as they're available.

Entertainment:
Entertainment appeals to a broad range of interests, from the highbrow to the popular, and from movies and stage, to dance, music and more. We celebrate celebrity, with coverage focusing on stars, locally in the GTA, and abroad from Hollywood to Bollywood. The Toronto Star has more entertainment content readers than the total readership of each of the competing dailies in the city.

Regular Columns:
TV column runs Monday through Thursday.
Arts column runs Wednesday.
Greenlight column runs every other Friday.
Movie column runs every other Friday.
Classical music column runs on Saturday.
Visual Arts column runs on Saturday.
Anti-Hit List runs on Saturday.
Stargazing double-truck spread runs on Sunday.

Sports:
Sports provides comprehensive coverage of local, national and international competition - high schools, the NHL, CFL, MLB, NBA, the Olympics and much more. There's news, issues and personalities, all complemented by our well-recognized stable of excellent columnists.

Regular Features:
TV column runs Monday and Friday.
Baseball column runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Damien Cox hockey column runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday.
Bruce Arthur general interest column runs Tuesday-Friday.
Dave Feschuk basketball/general column runs Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday.
Cathal Kelly general interest column runs Sunday and Monday.
Weather page is anchored at the top of the back page, 7 days a week.

Business:
In Business, more local stories and more consumer-focused news and columns set us apart from the competition. We emphasize stories that our readers can relate to in their day-to-day lives, on topics such as retail, cars, personal finance, technology, telecom, real estate, social justice, and the environment. We aim to cover the big business news of national and international interest.

Regular Columns:
Ellen Roseman on personal finance and consumer issues runs Saturday Sunday, Tuesday.
David Aston on finance, pensions etc., runs Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
Portfolio Doctors runs Sunday.
Tony Wong on tech gadgets runs Monday.
Jennifer Wells on law runs Monday.
Rudy Lukko on mutual funds runs every other Saturday.
Gordon Pape on the big picture runs Monday.
Bill Carrigan on the stock market runs Friday.

Ideas:
Ideas is a mix of national and city issues stories, with tips of the hat to other subject areas. This is a Thinking section with a capital T and its beauty lies in its diversity. The section is committed to promoting social justice and other classical Star values, known as the Atkinson Principles, in an interesting and disciplined way through important journalism, while providing a mix of stories the reader finds engaging and fun to read.

Regular Features (Saturday):
Main feature on issues important to the GTA and Canada.
Faith and Ethics - a weekly page with diverse content beyond traditional views.
Science & Environment - a weekly page anchored by the Kate Allen column.
Web Forum, with answers to Friday’s question, and posing a question for Monday’s Ideas page.

Regular Features (Sunday):
Main feature.
A secondary feature on front page.
Ten Things We Learned This Week, also on the front.
Picture/1,000 Words, Off the Rack and Invented Words.
Microscope and a secondary feature.
Feature; and Quick Questions.
Books section.
Sudoku.
Endnotes - the closing page feature. Page also includes a weekly cartoon or visual essay from Dusan Petricic; and Word of the Week, which looks into the history and layered meanings of a word prominent in the news.

Weekly sections
Wheels (Saturday)
The Toronto Star’s well renowned Wheels section, offers readers the latest information on new models and industry trends while examining a host of automotive issues. The section is filled with detailed articles, tips and suggestions for car buyers - and car buffs. Over half a million Torontonians read Wheels content each Saturday.

Travel (Thursday and Saturday)
Every Thursday and Saturday readers of the Toronto Star Travel sections journey around the world to destinations, both near and far, assisted on their travels by the Star's premier and seasoned travel writers. Our myriad of stories ignites excitement for popular sun destinations, exotic locales, family holidays and adventures of a lifetime. With high household incomes and a propensity to travel, our readers are a strong match for your travel advertising and marketing messages.

New in Homes (Saturday)
New In Homes gives potential homebuyers vital information to help them make informed decisions in Canada's No. 1 real estate market. Every Saturday, over 730,000 Torontonians read content within the Star's New In Homes section. That's more readers than the total readership of the M-F Globe and Sat. Post combined!

Condos (Saturday)
Condos focuses on the booming world of condos, townhouses and lofts, and provides valuable information on the do's and don'ts of condo buying plus great decorating ideas and the latest in design trends.

Thursday Homes & Condos (Thursday)
Every reader of the Toronto Star has one thing in common: a place they call home, be it a small rental unit in the downtown, a luxurious condo, a modest inner-city semidetached, or a palatial home in suburbs. These readers will all feel right at home with this section: it has stories about storeys. Big condos to low rises with plenty of turf given over to new houses. There is something for everyone. Most importantly, the section comes out on Thursdays – just in time for buyers to plan their weekend open house hunting. Timing is everything they say.

Puzzles and Comics (Saturday)
On Saturday, the Star provides added entertainment for readers. They are treated to five pages of comics, plus two pages of puzzles, bridge, and chess - everything to make your weekend more enjoyable.

StarWeek (Saturday)
StarWeek is a valuable daily planning tool for dedicated readers. Over 50 pages of content including: detailed show listings by half hour time blocks, a daily “Worth Watching” feature, TV-based puzzles and games, and more.

New York Times (Sunday)
Thought-provoking, insightful and entertaining. The New York Times and Book Review attracts an affluent and educated audience.