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Contribute to the future of J-Source

In this open letter to J-Source readers, Christopher Waddell, the director of the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University and a J-Source Transition Team member, explains the site's new business plan and how you can support the project. Dear J-Source reader, I am writing to ask you to consider offering your financial support for a national…

In this open letter to J-Source readers, Christopher Waddell, the director of the School of Journalism and Communication at Carleton University and a J-Source Transition Team member, explains the site's new business plan and how you can support the project.

Dear J-Source reader,

I am writing to ask you to consider offering your financial support for a national project that has, for several years, pursued a single goal: to foster quality journalism in Canada. The Canadian Journalism Foundation has been the major financial supporter for The Canadian Journalism Project (J-Source.ca) since its birth in 2007, and it will continue to support the publication into the future but not at the same level after the end of 2013. I am asking you to help ensure its continuing health and growth. 

J-Source and its French sister, ProjetJ, are Canada’s leading sources for information, education and debate about journalism. On the web, on Twitter and in a weekly newsletter, they provide news about the media business, a place where journalists and others can discuss issues of ethics and excellence, and they have become a vital Canadian educational resource for journalism students across the country. 

The project started as a collaboration among the country’s leading journalism schools and organizations, managed and underwritten by the Canadian Journalism Foundation. While the Foundation will continue to provide substantial support, we are restructuring the project so that the various elements of J-Source and ProjetJ will be housed in and supported by several journalism schools. The English editorial centre will be at Ryerson University in Toronto, the French equivalent in Quebec City under the aegis of Université Laval; the publishing and business centre of the entire project will at Carleton University in Ottawa. In addition, there will be regional or specialized bureaus at journalism schools such as King’s College in Halifax, UBC in Vancouver, Mount Royal University in Calgary and Western University in London. This unprecedented collaboration by Canada’s leading schools will provide a bigger and richer selection of multimedia information and commentary than ever. A business plan for the revised venture projects self-sustainability by 2017.

To help get us there, the project has already received financial support from Ryerson, the RBC Foundation, the CJF and John Honderich among others. A campaign is underway to raise funds from Canada’s major media companies and the unions that represent workers at many news organizations. To date Torstar and Transcontinental Media have indicated their support with more joining in the coming weeks.

I am asking you to consider adding your support for the three-year transition period.

One aspect of our fundraising plan is a crowd-funding project through Carleton University. The J-Source/ProjetJ transition team hopes many of those, like you, who rely on J-Source/ProjectJ for news, informed commentary and lively discussion and debate about journalism and the media in Canada will consider contributing to this crowd-funding element of the overall fundraising plan.

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You can find all the details here – http://futurefunder.carleton.ca/projects/carleton-jsource/

Contributions made through the site are tax deductible and will receive receipts from Carleton University.

The growth of the J-Source/ProjetJ site and the almost 5,000 people who receive our weekly newsletter demonstrate how much you value the information J-Source/ProjetJ brings you.

Please take the time to consider this request. We need your support to ensure the J-Source/ProjetJ transition goes smoothly so that we can continue to grow.

Sincerely,

Christopher Waddell

J-Source Transition Team member,  Director, School of Journalism and Communication, Carleton University

Tamara Baluja is an award-winning journalist with CBC Vancouver and the 2018 Michener-Deacon fellow for journalism education. She was the associate editor for J-Source from 2013-2014.