Bringing The Indy into 2023

Can you believe 2022 is almost over? So much has happened in our community this year: everything from unprecedented labour action, a growing housing crisis, the fraught and fitful growth of new wind power and hydrogen industries, and huge queer homecoming in rural Newfoundland—plus a whole lot more. And our team has been there to report on all of it. 

Today, we launch our year-end membership campaign to raise $15,000 to support our journalism in the new year. In the coming weeks, you’re going to see us share more about the outsized impact of our journalism and our exciting plans for 2023 as part of it. We’ll be reflecting on the past and asking you to invest in our shared future. 

Would you consider making a donation to The Independent? Your support is essential to sustaining our local, progressive journalism and enabling us to cover critical issues in Newfoundland and Labrador that corporate media ignore.

What makes The Independent special? 

The Independent is a trailblazer in Canadian independent journalism. For more than a decade, we have provided readers in Newfoundland and Labrador and beyond with powerful investigative reporting, arts and culture coverage, and community-centred news and explainers—grounded in a commitment to decolonization and social justice, operating within a professional journalistic framework. We pride ourselves on our strong analysis and commentary sections that have provided space for a wider diversity of viewpoints, perspectives and insights than any other publication in the province’s history.

Why should I donate today?

The Independent is a non-profit digital media outlet funded primarily through donations from its readers and supporters. Since 2019—through five elections and a global pandemic—we have grown from a single staff editor supported by volunteers into an organization with two full-time staff, a second part-time editor, and a roster of paid freelance contributors. And as our capacity has grown, we have been able to publish more work—across more mediums, representing more parts of our province—than ever before. 

In 2022, Elizabeth Whitten–our most frequent contributor–continued to keep you up to date on every St. John’s City Council meeting, and the Parish Hall development hearings, not to mention her three part deep dive into the MUN tuition hikes and their repercussions, among many others, like setting the record straight on abortion funding in NL.

We don’t always break stories at the Indy, but when we do, they’re juicy. We were first to report on former PC leader Ches Crosbie’s financial support of the Freedom Convoy. It was our top-viewed story of the year.

Our very first summer student, Abby Cole, proved she’s one to watch with her popular explainers on the proposed West Coast wind farm and green hydrogen production, as well as the impacts of Airbnb on housing availability in St. John’s – all three of which made our top-ten most-viewed stories of the year.

We also launched the Seasplainer column with Jenn Thornhill Verma, later joined by Leila Beaudoin. Seasplainer travels from  boots to  boats in the harbours of the Northwest Atlantic to relay the latest information on fisheries and oceans in Canada. So far they have covered topics from iceberg-spotting, how fish stocks are measured, how fish prices are set and the consequences, lessons from thirty years of the cod moratorium, and accounting for climate risk in fisheries management. We look forward to more from this excellent team, as well as introducing more recurring columns like it.

This summer, as part of the province’s Come Home Year events, the very first Come Home Queer festival was held in the town of Small Point-Broad Cove-Blackhead-Adam’s Cove—a weekend-long celebration of queer love and belonging in rural Newfoundland that was 30 years in the making. Headlined by superstar musician Kellie Loder and punctuated by dancing, storytelling, and the grandest Pride parade the bay has ever seen, it was a commemoration of the past and a glimpse of a glorious future. As Editor-in-Chief, I was fortunate enough to witness this incredible homecoming, and capture the experience for our readers.

Other notable stories in our Top 10 were two crucial pieces of labour reporting from Rhea Rollmann on the strike actions at Choices for Youth and the City of Mount Pearl; and a thoughtful reflection on public safety and collective responsibility on George Street from Assistant Editor Sara Swain, who joined the team over the summer.

As we head into 2023, we’re asking for your support to help us sustain this momentum and expand our journalism in Newfoundland and Labrador to better serve our community. We’ll be able to deliver more regular features and columns from contributors you know and love. It will let us increase coverage on climate change, rural issues, arts and culture, municipal and provincial politics, health, labour, and deliver even more ambitious projects next year (like a new podcast!).

If finances allow, we hope you’ll consider contributing a one-time gift to this campaign, or sign up for a monthly donation. If that’s out of reach, a simple share can go a long way.

A group of donors has come together to pledge a matching fund of $1,500 to kick off our campaign.
That means the first $1,500 we raise will be doubled!

Thank you,

Drew Brown
Editor in Chief
The Independent