About The Hill TImes

About The Hill Times

The very first issue of The Hill Times rolled off the presses on Oct. 5, 1989, changing the coverage of Canadian federal politics and government forever.

We've been on a roll ever since.

The Hill Times is an independently-owned newsweekly based in Ottawa. We break ground and blaze trails every week. We're an influential must-read and we write for the savvy, political and government insider.

Ottawa City Magazine calls us "influential." Globe and Mail columnist Lawrence Martin says we're "feisty." The Globe and Mail calls us "hot." CTV's Ottawa bureau chief Bob Fife says The Hill Times is a "must-read for anybody or anyone who cares about the democratic process." Some MPs have called us "the inside-the-beltway bible." Robin Sears calls us the "political insiders' bible." And The Toronto Star's Susan Delacourt says The Hill Times "delves into political and policy matters that we in the daily, national press can only scratch on the surface."

Our readers include Cabinet ministers, MPs, Senators, political staffers, lobbyists, 'backroomers,' political junkies, and some of the top decision-makers in the country, including influential players in Parliament, Cabinet, the Prime Minister's Office, the Privy Council, the Finance Department, Treasury Board, the Department of National Defence, the Justice Department, and more.

We have been giving political players and decision-makers a key platform to communicate with each other within government since 1989.

The Hill Times conducts and publishes exclusive surveys and lists every year, including the famous "The 100 Most Influential List," "The Top Lobbyists List," "The Terrific Twenty-Five Staffers List," "The Annual Best and Worst in Federal Politics List," and the tongue-in-cheek "Annual Sexy and Politically Savvy Survey."

In 2002, our "Who Supports Whom List" of the Liberal caucus attracted weeks of sensational national media attention.

We also publish "Public Policy Briefings" issues every year inside our regular issues. Each policy briefing includes an in-depth Q&A interview with the key Cabinet minister responsible along with guest columns from the relevant government and political players involved. In 2009, we will be taking a look at Health, Transportation, Environment, Innovation, Economy and Regional Development, Defence and Security, Agriculture, Energy, Renewable Energy, Climate Change and Management, Aerospace, Technology, Communications and Intellectual Property, Innovation, and Natural Resources.

The Reporting

The Hill Times breaks exclusive stories every week.

The newsroom is led by editor Kate Malloy, and includes deputy editor Bea Vongdouangchanh, assistant deputy editor Abbas Rana and reporters Cynthia Münster and Harris MacLeod.

Read Cynthia Münster's substantive 'Civil Circles' column to learn more about the federal bureaucracy. Read Bea Vongdouangchanh's 'Legislative Process' column to get the inside track on bills and initiatives coming down the pipeline. Read Abbas Rana's wildly popular 'Hill Climbers' column to track political staffers in Ottawa and across the country. Do not miss Vongdouangchanh's Heard on the Hill column, or Harris MacLeod's laugh-out-loud 'Party Central.' Read Kate Malloy's probing 'The Q&A' interviews with news-making authors, or Tom Korski's cutting and cutthroat 'Political Reporting' column. Read Angelo Persichilli's 'Backrooms' column to find out more about what's going on inside the government and Liberal caucuses. Follow 'The Spin Doctors,' 'The Wiseguys,' 'Lobbying,' and soak up Jake Wright's insider, exclusive pictures.

Our columnists also include: Andrew Cardozo, John Chenier, Sheila Copps, Michel Drapeau, Chantal Hébert, Greg Elmer, David Jones, Joe Jordan, Warren Kinsella, Tom Korski, Brad Lavigne, Denis Massicotte, Sean Moore, Tim Powers, Ken Rubin, Pierre Sadik, W.T. Stanbury, James Travers, and Nelson Wiseman.

Be informed. Be inside the loop. Enjoy.

Embassy newsweekly

In 2004, The Hill Times owners launched our second edition, Embassy, newseekly. In Embassy, we delve more deeply into the international side of Canadian politics. Embassy quickly won over our established readers, who include politicians, top bureaucrats and political staffers and broke new ground by adding policy-focused public servants, Canadian staffers at international forums, and diplomats to our already impressive roster of readers. After only four years, Embassy's readership is now up to the same level as our Monday issue of The Hill Times.

Published twice a week, Embassy and The Hill Times are thorough, influential, news-breaking, and thought-provoking.

Unique to our newsweeklies, our political and public servant readers turn to Embassy and The Hill Times for the information they need to make informed decisions in their jobs. In our 2007 Pollara readership survey, some 80 per cent of readers said they must read every issue of Embassy and The Hill Times to stay up to date.