BC Business
A media organization that has grown exponentially in both staff and readership since its inception three years ago, with a model that lets patrons read for free if they wish? That would be Victoria-based The Narwhal, a nonprofit and ad-free online publication that seeks to uncover stories about Western and...
A media organization that has grown exponentially in both staff and readership since its inception three years ago, with a model that lets patrons read for free if they wish? That would be Victoria-based The Narwhal, a nonprofit and ad-free online publication that seeks to uncover stories about Western and Northern Canada’s natural environment and the people who make their livelihoods from it.
The site was founded in 2018 by Emma Gilchrist and Carol Linnitt as an offshoot of their previous project, DeSmog Canada. Originally, they were the only two employees and had an audience of about 200 who paid to help fund their journalism. Today, The Narwhal has 11 staff and 2,600 paying members, who give an average of about $14 a month.
“We really see ourselves as bridge builders and make a very conscious effort not to further polarize issues that are quite polarizing,” says Gilchrist, who grew up in an oil-and-gas town in Alberta. “We try to feature the voices of all sorts of people who are impacted by changes to the natural world. That might be Indigenous Peoples or fishermen or loggers. Or even coal miners who are losing their jobs in a coal transition.”
The outlet is probably best known in this province for breaking the news that senior government officials knew the Site C dam was over budget and behind schedule about a year before they publicly stated it. But it’s also done highly regarded work on pollution in the Elk Valley and land-based salmon farming, among many other topics.
“Those are the type of stories I’m personally proudest of,” Gilchrist says. “Stories that really complicate the narrative about what an energy transition looks like and what someone who cares about the natural world looks like.”