Montreal digital startups reimagine work in a struggling industry

Three outlets offer a way forward amidst grim news of closures and layoffs Continue Reading Montreal digital startups reimagine work in a struggling industry

For as long as I’ve been a journalist, I’ve heard that “journalism is in crisis” from a variety of sources: journalism professors, newsroom bosses, competitors, readers. But I’d argue that a crisis is temporary. What the journalism industry in Canada is experiencing is part of a much broader existential reckoning.

While we see frequent headlines about newsroom layoffs and shutdowns, less is said about how existing news outlets are actually serving their audiences – this despite widespread acknowledgment of declining public trust in media. This disconnect doesn’t help anyone.

And lost in a lot of the noise is the fact that a new crop of digital news startups has been growing in Canada, offering some hope for a better future. 

Their numbers may fluctuate, but projects like the University of British Columbia’s Global Journalism Innovation Lab have been tracking the news startup wave. They found 151 “new English-language organizations launched since 2000.” A survey by Lion Publishers last year found at least 270 “independent (and) digitally dominant” news outlets in Canada. 

Researchers with the Local News Research Project say we’ve lost more than 500 news outlets in the country between 2008 and Oct. 1, 2024. But across the same time period, they found another 388 local news outlets launched, with 260 still in operation.

Simply put, we don’t hear about the success stories as often. 

Over the past two years, I’ve studied how journalism is evolving thanks in part to a new(ish) subset of journalists – digital news startup founders – who are reconsidering what journalism looks like. You can listen to the results of that research in a podcast series, Reimagining Journalism: The Montreal Edition, available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts

My series is focused specifically on Quebec’s media market, which is distinctly multilingual and diverse, but shares many similarities with the rest of Canada’s. After moving to Montreal from Winnipeg, I wanted to explore my new local news landscape and its differences from the Prairies. 

In earlier research with Dr. Magda Konieczna at Concordia University, we found more than 100 local news outlets operating on the island of Montreal alone, with many catering to specific boroughs or communities. I wanted to dive deeper with qualitative analysis of some of these fledgling organizations, which are innovating in a supposedly dying industry. 

In the podcasts, I interviewed three news startup founders based in Montreal: Lela Savić of La Converse, Chris Curtis of The Rover and Gabrielle Brassard-Lecours of Pivot. I found some things in common across their three news outlets, although each person has their own individual approach to producing journalism. 

All three are solutions-oriented journalists who previously worked  in mainstream news. Their startups are proudly independent and less nostalgic about journalistic traditions than their legacy counterparts. And they are forging new approaches to information-gathering and collaboration.   

La Converse

Lela Savić founded La Converse in 2020. She is a Roma journalist who has previously worked for Métro Média, Radio-Canada and La Presse.

Her francophone non-profit (which recently launched an English website as well) produces articles, podcasts and video content focused on empowering BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour) communities. 

“I think it’s just not really normal the way our communities are covered in French-Canadian newsrooms,” she said. “And so it feels like our voices are not fully taken into consideration and I think there’s a need for an in-depth, community-powered media serving community.” 

La Converse focuses on dialogue journalism and having in-depth conversations with communities on topics that have ranged from racism and police brutality to the war in Gaza. Their series shining a spotlight on local “Hood Heroes” earned them recognition from Lion Publishers at their annual Sustainability Awards this year.

Savić’s team is also teaching young people about journalism through a program called L’École Converse (the Converse School). They have shown dozens of youth how to report and share stories through writing, podcasting and rap music.

Savić said the school helps young people reconcile their relationships with journalism, too. Its sessions have become the highlight of her week. 

“Somebody was telling me that it really feels like group therapy sometimes,” she said. “So yeah, there’s a lot of intimacy I think in the way we do things and that’s what we want.” 

The Rover 

Chris Curtis’s work on The Rover started after he left his reporting job at the Montreal Gazette. He wanted to pursue more long-form investigations, on his own terms, and “produce journalism for the people, not profit.”  

He saw early success in 2020, as his story on illegal dumping in Kanehsatà:ke helped spur the shutdown of a landfill with years’ worth of regulatory violations. That work later earned a Canadian Association of Journalists investigative reporting award and Curtis continues to lead reporting on the issue.

The Rover has also written about the toxic drug crisis, homelessness in Montreal and the politics surrounding language use in Quebec, among many other topics.

After four years, Curtis has grown his English-language news startup beyond just himself, supporting a rotation of freelancers, many of whom he hopes to mentor. The Rover has also ventured into podcasting

Financially speaking, The Rover’s subscriber revenue surpassed $100,000 in 2023, according to a March e-mail newsletter. As the project has grown, the pressure to stay afloat is immense, Curtis said. He has been vocal about these challenges.

“This is a gigantic part of my life, more than when I was at the Gazette. And the stories matter a lot to me, and getting them out matters a lot, and doing them right matters a lot,” he said.

Curtis reflected on how working in a bigger newsroom afforded him the ability to take breaks and recharge, a luxury he doesn’t necessarily have when working for himself. 

But ultimately, he gets to do the kind of journalism he feels proud of.

“The absence of really hard deadlines gives me an opportunity to revisit with some sources … or make sure that the angle is right and that we’re thorough. And the absence of someone telling me what my word count is does the same thing,” he said. “It allows me to explain and expand more.” 

Pivot

Gabrielle Brassard-Lecours has spent much of her career working in independent media and as a freelancer. She previously helped co-found Ricochet Media, which is celebrating its 10-year anniversary.

In 2022, she co-founded Pivot, a francophone media organization focused on progressive news coverage done via written articles, video content and podcasts. Pivot covers largely local and provincial news, with occasional international reporting, focusing on topics like housing, LGBTQ+ issues and the environment. 

Through its use of a non-profit co-operative model, Pivot has been able to access tax credits and government programs. Working under a co-op model also means any profits made are being reinvested into their workers, Brassard-Lecours said.

“I think media is a public good and any money that you make out of the media shouldn’t go into the pockets of one or two individuals. It should be reinjected within, you know, the journalists, the workers, the public,” she said.


While she had never planned on starting a news outlet (let alone two), Brassard-Lecours said she saw a need for progressive French-language news coverage, which she said was lacking in Quebec. 

“We have some critics and, you know, some mainstream media always tell us that we’re doing ‘activism journalism,’ which is not the case. But no media is neutral anyway,” she said. “We made the bet of being transparent about what we do and where we stand politically.” 

Pivot’s editorial and ethics policy is laid out in detail on its website.

As Canada moves from a few legacy media players to hundreds of independent news startups, Brassard-Lecours sees the fragmentation of the media landscape as beneficial to both Pivot and the public. News startups may not be the answer to all of journalism’s problems, but they are an answer that can help diversify the workforce and the stories we read, see and hear.

“It opens the door to other alternative media, and I’ve always encouraged media initiatives,” she said. “I think there’s space for everyone.” 

Jessica Botelho-Urbanski is a freelance journalist, podcast producer and researcher based in Montreal. Her podcast, Reimagining Journalism: The Montreal Edition, is out now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts