If you speak only one language in Montreal zip codes today, you are in the vast minority. Not only that, you will find that not many sources of information outside of the Internet are open to you. While the city has had several English language newspapers in the past, even before the Internet began to send editors all over the world into anger management programs these publications were in trouble. In fact, all of the competitors of the Gazette had closed their doors before the Internet was even in the public consciousness.

The fact that the Montreal Gazette is today the only English language daily newspaper in the city might have the founder turning in his grave. Fleury Mesplet founded the original paper as a French language only publication. He actually served time in jail because he refused to endorse what he saw as catering, companies in Toronto demanding communication out of Quebec be in French.

Nevertheless, the slow evolution of this daily newspaper into an English language only one was inevitable. Today, you will find all the usual sections in any paper in the Gazette. If you are looking for district lofts, you can check out the real estate classifieds. Sports and world news, editorials and familiar English cartoons are all also included in the print versions of the paper.

Like all major newspapers, the Montreal Gazette now has a presence online so that it does not become a dinosaur. The main difference between the Gazette and online versions of other newspapers is that there is a definite effort afoot to deliver traditional, newspaper quality stories in a digital format. Headlines are easy to locate, with pictures and descriptive headlines such as on stories about home health care in Calgary. The site is also very easy to navigate, with the information most likely to be important to readers highly visible.

While the paper is geared towards the 8% of English primary speakers in Montreal, the Gazette does recognize not only that it is economically sound to appeal to the French majority, but polite as well. Over the last few years, it has made a definite effort to print stories that will appeal to a French readership, although still in an English language. The importance of bi lingual labels on aquarium decorations and other consumer goods in Canada, for example, continues to be a common headline offered to a sympathetic French majority.