Southam Newspapers is a Canadian newspaper chain owned by CanWest.

The newspaper service "Southam Inc" was created in 1904 by William Southam . He had been a delivery boy for the London Free Press, and by 1867 he had become part owner. He bought and transformed the failing Hamilton Spectator in 1877. In 1897 he bought up many other papers including the Calgary Herald, the Edmonton Journal, the Ottawa Citizen, the Vancouver Province and many more.

The Southam newspapers were sold to Hollinger in 1998. The company was subsequently broken up in 1999; the major market newspapers and the Southam name were sold to Canwest Global. Smaller market papers were sold to a variety of new owners, including Torstar and Osprey Media.