Seventy years of communication,
one story at a time
Every company has an origin story. Ours starts in 1956, in the basement of a family home on Dufferin Street in Toronto.
Two years after immigrating to Canada from southern Italy, Gaetano Gagliano bought a single hand-fed letterpress and began printing wedding invitations and business cards for his local community. He named the company after St. Joseph, the patron saint of workers and of Canada, in honour of the country that had given his family a fresh start. With the support of his wife, Giuseppina, and their children, he built the business one impression at a time. Their full story, one of determination, faith and love, is worth reading in SJC's beginnings.
What began with one press was really built on something bigger: a belief in the power of communication to inform and inspire. Seventy years later, that belief still shapes everything we do.
How we grew
As communication evolved, SJC evolved with it.
In the late 1960s, the company expanded into offset printing, adopting new technology to increase speed, scale and quality. Through the 1970s and 80s, the business grew into the largest privately owned print operation in the country.
In the 1990s, as audiences and their habits changed, SJC moved beyond print into graphic design, creative production, branding and photography. A small print business was becoming a fully integrated communications company.
The 2000s brought the media era. SJC entered magazine publishing, acquiring beloved Canadian brands including Toronto Life and FASHION, then adding Maclean's, Chatelaine, Today's Parent, HELLO! Canada and Canadian Business in 2019. That growth established SJC as Canada's largest consumer magazine publisher, with trusted media brands that now reach more than 23 million Canadians each month.
Where we are today
Seventy years after that first letterpress, SJC still prints magazines, catalogues, custom publications and brochures. But today, communication lives everywhere: in print, on screens, through video, at live events and across every channel in between.
Brands need content that moves faster, travels further and connects wherever their audiences are. That's why SJC brings creativity, media, technology and data together, creating original content, stories and experiences that make people's lives better. That includes Content Factori™, our AI-powered content production platform, and Audience+, SJC Media’s first-party data platform that helps advertisers reach engaged audiences across our trusted media brands.
The tools have changed many times over seven decades, and they will keep changing. What hasn't changed is the understanding at the heart of the business: communication is about people. The stories we tell. The experiences we create. The connections we build together.
Watch the story
Our 70th anniversary video brings this journey to life, from archival photos of the basement press to the work our teams are doing today.
The next 70 years begin the same way the first did, with a belief that communication connects people, and that connecting people makes all our lives better.
Thank you to our associates, clients and partners for being part of the story so far.
