Hey everyone, Anita here. You might’ve noticed that I skipped last month’s newsletter. These past couple of months have been busy with travel, and then I experienced a significant family loss that has meant I’ve stepped away from work and spent more time with loved ones.

I’m still easing back into work, but in the meantime, I wanted to share an update on The Green Line and our excellent work to date (speaking of which, big congrats to my team for winning the International Center for Journalists’ News Creator Award for Excellence in Independent Video Journalism, as well as earning a 2025 Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) Awards nomination in the Community Broadcast category and three 2025 Digital Publishing Awards nominations for Best Newsletter, Innovation in Digital Storytelling and Best Digital Editorial Package).

First of all, I’m excited to share that I’m hiring for my third full-time contract role. We’re specifically looking for an Engagement Reporter and Producer who’d start very soon with us as of mid-June. If you’re interested, check out the job description and apply by Friday, May 23. Feel free to send any questions to hello@thegreenline.to. I’d also really appreciate it if you shared this posting widely with your Toronto networks.

As for other updates, I want to belatedly share The Green Line’s 2024 Impact Report, which we released in March. Only our second-ever impact report after releasing one for 2023, it provides an in-depth overview of the company’s progress. Here’s an excerpt:

The Green Line’s focus is simple: provide Torontonians with useful information they actually need to deal with challenges they face while living in our city. We know how it feels to be overwhelmed by an endless stream of content from the internet and social media — so much so that it’s hard to find concrete resources that help you solve everyday problems happening in your neighbourhood.

That’s why we’re building a new kind of media organization for the future that doesn’t just force audiences to passively consume stressful content, but rather encourages them to actively participate in creating a better Toronto.

The Green Line produces handy tools and guides that highlight community-driven solutions, co-creates events with hyperlocal organizations to provide a space for residents to connect and share resources with each other, and equips our audience with the skills they need to advocate for themselves and fight for change in their communities.

Our unique theory-of-change model, called the Action Journey™ is designed so that our team can continue covering problems and solutions that community members have identified as being important to them. This process is important to us because we want to make real, long-term change in Toronto, as opposed to bandwagoning on trending topics that only hold the public’s attention until they’re replaced by the next big thing.

While traditional journalism admirably holds decision-makers to account by creating policy change through in-depth reporting, this kind of change doesn’t often last. Someone new takes office, and suddenly we’re back to square one. By reporting on solutions, we equip Torontonians with concrete tools to take action and create long-lasting change in their communities. We believe in transforming people because that’s a forever change.

Our team is also frustrated with the rising number of biased news sources, and how easy it is for misinformation to divide our communities. In its 2024 Digital News Report, the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism reported that only 39% of Canadians trusted news sources. When it comes to solving a problem in your neighbourhood, it’s a lot easier to trust the opinion of your neighbour rather than a faceless journalism outlet.

We don’t see Torontonians as readers, viewers or followers — we see them as co-conspirators in shaping meaningful change and building stronger communities together. Our relationship with community members doesn’t end after publishing an article about them. We want to know how they’re doing in months — and even years — from when we first connected with them.

The Green Line opportunities: text/video pitches

The Green Line is looking for freelancers interested in short-form and long-form pitches for text-based articles, as well as videos and photography, from experienced reporters based in Toronto that tackle systemic issues in the city through a solutions lens. We offer highly competitive freelance rates. If you’re interested in pitching, please email your pitch, resume and links to three clips to hello@thegreenline.to.

Quick and Clean

• Early bird tickets are on sale now for Local Independent Online News Publishers' 2025 Independent News Sustainability Summit in St. Louis from Sept. 3 to 5. Register here to join us for two full days of idea-sharing and community-building.

• In more LION news, a dozen other news leaders and I have been selected for the Canada Coaches program. We’ve been added to LION’s Expert Network so members can get free Canada-specific coaching on funding, audience growth, and more, so sign up here.

• Our schedule for the Engaged Journalism Conference I’m co-hosting on June 1 is finally available, so check it out here. In related (and exciting) news, Concordia University prof Magda Konieczna and I just received a $200,000 Partnership Development Grant from SSHRC for our Documenters Canada project!

• Many thanks to Tara Henley for giving me a “bouquet” on this March 13 episode of The Hub podcast Full Press co-hosted with Harrison Lowman and Peter Menzies. Tara was shouting out the latest edition of this newsletter, which focused on my interview with Columbia Journalism Review for its "Bracing for Poilievre” article.

How you can support The Other Wave

My professional mission has always been to support the global movement towards more thoughtful, impactful news coverage, and all the ways that manifests. If The Other Wave gets you to think even a little differently about journalism, especially in Canada, then I will have accomplished what I set out to do. And if TOW gets you to take action and support Canadian media outlets — especially ones that strive to be innovative and inclusive — I will have exceeded my expectations.

If my values and goals resonate with you, please consider supporting fiercely independent media analysis that fills in gaps in coverage of the Canadian journalism landscape. How? Feel free to provide feedback, pass along resources, donate money or simply share this newsletter with your friends.