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In the lead up to International Women’s Day, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, in partnership with the Canadian Women’s Foundation, hosted a panel discussion on reporting intimate partner violence (IPV). With over 40% of Canadian women experiencing gendered violence from an intimate partner, this “shadow pandemic” demands sensitive and ethical journalism.

Our panel comprised seasoned journalists who shared their experiences and insights on the challenges and responsibilities of covering IPV. This event sparked a collaborative dialogue on establishing best practices for reporting IPV, ensuring victim support, and shaping public discourse for better policy responses and outcomes for survivors.

Molly Hayes is a national reporter for The Globe and Mail, which she joined in 2017 as the inaugural recipient of an investigative reporting fellowship through the Canadian Journalism Foundation. She reports on issues relating to crime and social justice–taking a particular focus in recent years on intimate partner violence and gender-based violence in Canada. Her 2022 series with colleagues on IPV and femicide received the Landsberg Award, for coverage of women’s equality issues. Molly was also a previous finalist for the Landsberg Award in both 2020 and 2021.

Landsberg-Award nominee Jana G. Pruden is an award-winning feature writer at The Globe and Mail, and the host and co-creator of the hit narrative podcast series, In Her Defence.

The former crime bureau chief of the Edmonton Journal, Jana previously worked at the Regina Leader-Post, the Medicine Hat News, the Prairie Post and the Interlake Spectator. She is also a sessional journalism instructor at MacEwan University and a presenter at Pandemic University Pop-Up School of Writing.

In 2020, Jana was chosen as the Minifie Lecturer at the University of Regina’s School of Journalism. Her lecture, entitled Give Me Rewrite: Drafting a New Future for Journalism, can be watched on video here, or read here.

Her writing has also appeared on Longform, Longreads and Byliner, and in magazines such as The Walrus, Reader’s Digest and Sharp.

Hannah Sung is a co-founder of the award-winning Media Girlfriends, a production company led by journalists of colour who prioritize inclusion in media. She is a 20+ year veteran of Canadian media, previously working at the Globe and Mail, CBC and TVO. Hannah began her career in music television at MuchMusic, where she was the host of shows including MuchNews and The NewMusic. In 2020, she was the Asper Fellow at the University of Western Ontario. She created At The End Of the Day newsletter and podcast featuring conversations on how to care for ourselves and others in a pandemic world.

Michael Friscolanti is Editor-In-Chief of Village Media, which owns and operates 23 local news websites across Ontario, as well as The Trillium based at Queen’s Park. An award-winning journalist and author, he was a reporter at The Toronto Star and National Post before joining Maclean’s as a Senior Writer. His in-depth coverage has earned four National Magazine Awards and three CAJ Awards for investigative journalism.

Anna Maria Tremonti is a long-time journalist who has traveled Canada and the world covering societal change, political upheaval, and armed conflict.  As a reporter for CBC Radio and Television, she worked across Canada before being posted in Berlin, London, Jerusalem and Washington.

She was a host of CBC TV’s the fifth estate, and the founding host of CBC Radio’s flagship current affairs program The Current for 17 years before shifting into podcast production. The limited interview series “More” was released in early 2020.  “Welcome to Paradise”, released in 2022 explores her own story of intimate partner violence and the long-term consequences of such abuse.  She was also a UBC Journalism Fellow in the 2022/23 academic year.

In today’s shifting journalism landscape, where traditional revenue streams falter amidst fragmented digital platforms and declining ad revenues, news outlets – particularly new and entrepreneurial ones – are seeking innovative models that prioritise access to news and informed communities.

Our panel features industry upstarts who are creatively rethinking how to deliver value to audiences and build healthy, diversified mission-driven businesses.  Join us to explore how these trailblazers are building active communities and reshaping the future of news through novel revenue models.

The virtual discussion took place on February 27 and featured Anita Li, founder and editor in chief of The Green Line, Graham Watson-Ringo, Vice President of Success and Growth  at News Revenue Hub, which plays a crucial role in funding quality journalism, and Dru Oja Jay, Publisher of The Breach. Brett Chang, founder and CEO of The Peak moderated.

Anita Li is a longtime journalist, news entrepreneur, media consultant and educator. Currently, she is the founder, CEO and editor-in-chief of The Green Line, a local Toronto-based news outlet.

Anita teaches journalism innovation to graduate students at Toronto Metropolitan University and community-driven journalism to undergraduate students at Centennial College in Toronto. In addition, she coaches media executives and news entrepreneurs at the City University of New York’s Craig Newmark Graduate School of journalism.

Anita has over a decade of full-time experience as a multi-platform journalist in three markets: Toronto, New York City and Ottawa. She started her career as a reporter and editor at Canadian legacy publications, including The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and CBC. After that, she worked in strategic, management-level roles at American digital media outlets, such as Complex, Fusion and Mashable. Most recently, Anita was director of communities at The Discourse, a disruptive new player in the Canadian media scene that fills in gaps in news coverage for underserved communities. As a writer and reporter, she has been published in New York Magazine, Poynter, Policy Options and other publications across North America.

Anita is an expert in community-driven journalism, audience engagement, news entrepreneurship, consumer revenue business models, newsroom diversity, media ethics and journalism innovation; she’s spoken on these topics in press interviews and at conferences worldwide. Anita has also consulted a wide range of journalism outlets and institutions, including CBC Manitoba, American Press Institute, Journalists for Human Rights, Toronto Public Library, Pink Triangle Press, Carleton University, Indiegraf, Liisbeth, Facebook Journalism Project’s Sustainability Accelerator, Google’s Project Oasis via Local Independent Online News (LION) Publishers, Radio Cité 97.9 and Informed Opinions.

Anita is a member of the 2020-21 Online News Association board of directors, as well as an alum of the inaugural 2016 Poynter-NABJ Leadership Academy for Diversity in Digital Media. She also co-founded Canadian Journalists of Colour, a rapidly growing network of racialized media-makers in Canada, in 2018. To keep up with Anita, subscribe to The Other Wave, her newsletter about challenging the status quo in journalism

Graham Watson-Ringo is Vice President of Success and Growth with the News Revenue Hub where she helps local news outlets create strategies to become profitable and sustainable. Graham, a 20-year journalism veteran, spent the bulk of her career working in sports journalism with major metros such as the Dallas Morning News and St. Louis Post-Dispatch before moving into digital journalism with ESPN and Yahoo. She left sports to pursue holistic digital strategy at the San Antonio Express-News before eventually fostering a love of nonprofit journalism at the San Antonio Report, where she served three years as managing editor. Graham is a lover of the full-funnel approach, well-crafted CTAs, killer UX, and insider journalism speak.

Graham is a graduate of the journalism school at the University of Missouri – Columbia and played goalkeeper for three seasons on the Tigers’ women’s soccer team. Graham is also graduated from the inaugural year of the Executive Leadership Program at the Craig Newmark School of Journalism at CUNY. She currently serves on the board of the APSE Foundation, which helps to foster diversity in sports journalism at the managerial level. Graham resides in San Antonio, Texas with her husband and three children.

Dru Oja Jay is a writer, organizer and web developer based in Val David, Quebec. Currently serving as Executive Director of CUTV and Publisher of The Breach, he is a co-founder of the Media Co-op, Journal Ensemble, Friends of Public Services and Courage. He is co-author, with Nikolas Barry-Shaw, of Paved with Good Intentions: Canada’s development NGOs from idealism to imperialism.

Brett is Co-Founder and CEO of The Peak – a daily newsletter, podcast and content studio helping Canada’s modern business leaders get smarter and stay informed with news and content that’s fast, entertaining, and digestible. Since starting in 2020, The Peak now reaches an audience of over 100,000 across newsletters, podcasts, events, and social media, including hosting The Peak Daily – Canada’s no. 1 most listened to business podcast. In June 2023, Brett announced the acquisition of The Peak by Moses Znaimer’s ZoomerMedia for $5m. Brett is a serial entrepreneur and prior to The Peak started companies in digital communications and the cannabis industry. In addition, Brett was one of first few employees at Uber Canada where he helped drive and develop public policy for major cities across the country.

The Canadian government passed Bill C-18, the Online News Act, on June 22, 2023. This bill “aims to enhance fairness in the economic relationship between news businesses and online platforms by enhancing the bargaining position of news businesses relative to that of large and dominant digital news intermediaries.”  The legislation, which comes into effect in December 2023, will require tech giants Meta and Google to make agreements with news publishers to compensate them for revenue-generating news content that appears on their sites. In response, both tech companies have removed links from Canadian news sites from their platforms. This panel will discuss the potential implications of this legislation for journalists, news outlets, news consumers and Canadian democracy. 

The virtual discussion took place on September 20,  2023 at 1:00 p.m. ET. It featured lawyer and law professor Dr. Michael Geist; Brian Myles, publisher, Le Devoir, Tai Huynh , founding editor-in-chief and publisher of The Local, Natalie Campbell, senior director North American Government and Regulatory Affairs, The Internet Society, and Paul Samyn, editor, The Winnipeg Free Press. Dr. Mary Lynn Young moderated.

AI technologies have the potential to profoundly change how journalism is produced and consumed. Newsrooms are now experimenting with machine learning to generate news and information on current affairs, health, real estate listings, quizzes, and sporting events. New advances have increased the speed at which large data work can be completed, and the scope of work that artificial intelligence can undertake. As AI and machine learning take their place in the newsroom, what are the editorial and ethical responsibilities for adopting these new technologies?

The virtual discussion featured Aimee Rinehart, Program Manager for the Associated Press Local News AI Initiative, Hamilton Nolan, Labour Reporting Fellow for In These Times,  Gina Chua of Semafor, and Patrick White,  Director of the journalism program at the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM). Felix M. Simon, of the Oxford Internet Institute moderated.

Extreme weather patterns around the world have brought new urgency to the need to connect audiences to the climate story. In short: our climate is at a breaking point. In a time of news avoidance, how can newsrooms create compelling climate journalism that both connects with audiences and communicates the sobering reality of the situation? Climate solutions journalism has been one tactic, but is it working? 

This J-Talk event brought together climate journalists, academics and editors who are telling the climate story to discuss how to make climate journalism more engaging and impactful with global audiences.

The webcast was 60 minutes: 45 minutes of moderated conversation, followed by 15 minutes of audience Q&A. 

The virtual discussion featured journalist Steph Kwetásel’wet Wood, a member of The Narwhal team, which received the 2023 CJF Award for Climate Solutions Journalism; Dr. Anabela Bonada, of the Intact Centre on Climate Adaptation; Mark Hertsgaard, Co-Founder and Executive Director, Covering Climate Now and  Diego Arguedas Ortiz, Network Manager of the Oxford Climate Journalism Network at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. Laura Lynch, host of CBC’s award-winning climate solutions show What On Earth?, moderated. 

#JournalismMatters to democracy; how can we ensure it matters to more people?

Newsrooms everywhere are grappling with the challenge of connecting with, and engaging audiences that exist at the margins of traditional news media consumption. How do we bring these underserved audiences –  including young people, racialized communities, and news avoiders and detractors – to trustworthy sources of news? What can journalists and news organizations do  to meet the critical information needs of all members of our communities?

This J-Talk event brought together journalists and editors who are succeeding in reaching new audiences and convincing detractors by identifying gaps, experimenting with innovative approaches, and launching new strategies to better serve underserved audiences.

The webcast is 60 minutes: 45 minutes of moderated conversation, followed by 15 minutes of audience Q&A.

The virtual discussion took place on March 23, 2023, at 1:00 p.m. ET, and featured journalist, director and producer Juleyka Lantigua of LWC Studios, Phoebe Connelly director of Next-Generation Audience Development, The Washington Post, and Priyanka Vora of Axios. Rebecca Zamon of The Globe and Mail moderated.

Online harm and harassment is one of the most significant safety issues facing women journalists today, and is on the rise globally, according to a 2021 report by the International Center for Journalists. Digital attacks aimed predominantly at women and racialized journalists are intended to belittle, discredit, humiliate and, ultimately, undermine trust in facts and jeopardize press freedom. 

In Canada, several journalists – nearly all racialized women – were recently targeted by an escalating hate campaign through encrypted email services, threatening ‘real-world’ sexual violence and harm. 

As part of the 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence, the Canadian Journalism Foundation, in collaboration with the #NotOk campaign and the Canadian Women’s Foundation, welcomed three journalists to share their insights on online violence against women journalists in Canada, the challenges they face and perspectives on solutions and supporting others in the industry. 

The virtual discussion took place on November 30 and features journalist, broadcaster and co-founder of Media Girlfriends, Garvia Bailey; freelance journalist Christina Frangou; and Toronto Star producer and co-host of This Matters podcast, Saba Eitizaz. CBC News correspondent Salimah Shivji moderated this discussion.

Garvia Bailey is a co-founder of Media Girlfriends Inc. Her career in media spans close to two decades as a producer, host and columnist for the CBC and JazzFM. She is a co-founder of jazzcast.ca, a 24-hour streaming service that amplifies the roots of jazz as an African-American-derived art form. Garvia is the recipient of the 2019 RTDNA award for opinion writing and a 2017 Silver Medalist at the New York Radio Awards. She is a jurist for the prestigious Canadian Hillman Prize for investigative journalism. Garvia’s work is centered around inclusion, care and excellence in journalism. @garveyschild

Saba Eitizaz is the co-host and producer of the Toronto Star’s daily news podcast “This Matters.” She is a multimedia journalist who has previously worked for the CBC, BBC World Service and Voice of America. Before moving to Canada, she reported from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and the UK. Her work has mostly been focused on human rights and social justice. @sabaeitizaz

Christina Frangou is an independent journalist based in Calgary who writes about health and social issues. Her work has appeared in Maclean’s, The Globe and Mail, Chatelaine and The Guardian, among others. She’s been honoured with a National Newspaper Award and two National Magazine Awards for feature writing, and she is the 2022 recipient of the Landsberg Award, granted by the Canadian Women’s Foundation and Canadian Journalism Foundation for bringing greater profile to women’s equality issues. @cfrangou

Salimah Shivji is the India correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, based in Mumbai. She has worked with CBC News for nearly two decades and has covered the political scene in Ottawa, as well as major world events such as the war in Ukraine, India’s Covid-19 crisis, Sri Lanka’s economic upheaval, and the Trump White House. @salimah_shivji

The Canadian Journalism Foundation’s (CJF) J-Talks series returned in person on October 4 with an inside look at investigations into sexual abuse allegations in organized hockey.

The Canadian Journalism Foundation’s (CJF) popular J-Talks Live kicked off its fall season with a special two-part event focused on news startups. Startups have become a recent bright spot in a media industry struggling to survive in the digital era and post-pandemic environment. Indeed, dozens of startups are thriving by filling coverage gaps such as community news and topics often overlooked by mainstream newsrooms.

In the two-part virtual event, the CJF showcased 10 visionaries to share their insights on their growing media sector, new business models and current challenges.

At the second event, on Thursday, September 15 at 1 p.m. EDT, the CJF presented the new wave leaders of recent outlets that are filling coverage gaps and connecting with new audiences.  The featured speakers are Brett Chang, co-founder, and CEO of The Peak; Matthew DiMera, founder of The Resolve; Eden Fineday, business aunty and contributing storyteller, IndigiNews; and Anita Li, founder, and CEO of The Green Line. Linda Solomon Wood, CEO and editor-in-chief of Canada’s National Observer leads this discussion.

The Canadian Journalism Foundation’s (CJF) popular J-Talks Live kicked off its fall season with a special two-part event focused on news startups. Startups have become a recent bright spot in a media industry struggling to survive in the digital era and post-pandemic environment. Indeed, dozens of startups are thriving by filling coverage gaps such as community news and topics often overlooked by mainstream newsrooms.

In the two-part virtual event, the CJF showcased 10 visionaries to share their insights on their growing media sector, new business models and current challenges.

At the first event, on Tuesday, September 13 at 1 p.m. EDT, the CJF welcomed news start-up ecosystem builders – leaders of outlets that have grown in influence since their introduction. The featured speakers are Emma Gilchrist, co-founder, editor-in-chief, and executive director of The Narwhal; Chuck Lapointe, CEO and co-founder of Narcity Media Group; Farhan Mohamed, co-founder of Overstory Media Group; and Brandi Schier, CEO of Discourse Community Publishing. Leading this discussion is Erin Millar, CEO, and co-founder of Indiegraf Media and founder and former CEO of Discourse Media. Indiegraf Media won the inaugural CJF-MJP Digital News Innovation Award in 2021.