Are you part of The Tyee's critical 1%?

Thanks for reading The Tyee today — we hope this article added to your day in some way. Our team of independent journalists takes pride in doing in-depth reporting and taking time to get it right.

We're able to focus our attention on publishing impactful journalism in the public interest, and publish it for free for all to read, because we have the support of Tyee Builders. Tyee Builders are readers who contribute a bit of money — at a level and frequency of their choice — to support our editorial budget.

This core of supporters — making up about 1 to 2 per cent of our daily readership — enables us to pay our writers, keep our articles free and open to all, and not bombard our readers with annoying ads while you try to read.

Instead of focusing on what kind of articles will attract the most advertising dollars, we can spend time devoted to researching and writing stories that our readers find most valuable and make the most positive impact in our region.

If you'd like to join thousands of readers who help make independent journalism possible, consider joining Tyee Builders. Thank you.

— Jeanette Ageson, Publisher

Click here to Join Tyee Builders

Help us un-break journalism in Canada

You made it all the way through the article – I hope that means you liked it (or if not ‘liked’ it, gleaned some useful information from it). Tyee articles are known for being quite lengthy, so we appreciate when people spend some quality time with our work.

Listen, I’ll get to the point – the article you just read was made possible because our non-profit newsroom was able to pay a talented journalist to research and write it. And we can only afford to do that because of our business model, which relies on a certain percentage of our readers signing up for our paid membership program called Tyee Builders.

The traditional business model for journalism in Canada has been completely disrupted, and we’re witnessing a slow collapse as corporate newsrooms buy up distressed publications, lay people off, and suck the value out of them before declaring bankruptcy. And it doesn’t help that tech giant Meta has blocked Canadian news on their Facebook and Instagram platforms.

There is another way and we are carving the path.

Between 1 to 2 per cent of people who visit The Tyee contribute financially, but amazingly, that small percentage is enough to fund half of our overall budget. And it means we can operate without a paywall, too. 1 per cent of people giving means 99 per cent of people get access to quality, fact-based journalism from a talented team of journalists who live and work in B.C., Alberta, and across Canada. We think that’s pretty remarkable.

If you’re concerned about the way journalism is heading in Canada and you’d like to do something about it, consider joining Tyee Builders and contributing an amount that works for you.

— Jeanette Ageson, Publisher

Click here to Join Tyee Builders
Marking 20 years
of bold journalism,
reader supported.
support us subscribe free
Tyee News

Ahhh, Tweet Success

Notes on our election night Twitter experiment. What's next?

Kaitlyn Braybrooke 20 May 2009TheTyee.ca

Kaitlyn Braybrooke is The Tyee's social media whiz. You can reach her at kbraybrooke[AT]thetyee.ca
image atom
Kaitlyn Braybrooke, Tyee's 2.0 wrangler.

For a while now, The Tyee and The Hook have used Twitter to update followers about upcoming stories. For last week's election night coverage, however, we wanted to try something a little different -- a social media experiment. Because we know how excited we are when we get live election results as they come in, we wanted to find an efficient and discussion-based way to share those results with our readers as well. We chose Twitter as our outlet, due to its social media-based, easy to follow format.

It was a great success. Our Election Night tweets promoted robust discussions and inspired over 250 new users to follow further Tyee and Hook updates through Twitter.

The power of Twitter

For those unacquainted with the elusive 'Twitter' idea, here's a short explanation of what it does. Twitter aims to keep individuals connected through the dissemination and sharing of short updates in the form of 'tweets.' Twitter users 'follow' the accounts of friends and groups they respect, receiving updates from those they follow as they appear, and either 're-tweeting' or engaging in discussion with tweets they want to say something about.

The only parameter existing for tweets is that they are under 140 characters in length, allowing a Twitter user to quickly read the updates of their contacts at a glance.

In the past few years, Twitter has really started to gain momentum. Everyone from the guy in the local grocery store to President Obama seems to have a Twitter account these days. Even inanimate objects have been given a voice (we're serious! Look up the twitter account 'towerbridge' to witness a group of bridges -- yes, bridges -- update one another on weather and traffic conditions.) We believe that Twitter may be a key component in the next generation of online media. It promotes social democracy due to its inclusive, citizen-fueled interface, and allows information and news to be shared faster than ever before.

Tyee twittering on election night

For our Election Night twitter coverage, we set up camp in our office at around 6 p.m., watched as the polls closed around B.C., and tweeted results and observations as we got them through our two twitter accounts for The Tyee and The Hook -- "TheTyee" and "TheHookBlog." Both accounts' tweets generated a healthy amount of commenting, discussion and re-tweeting (wherein a Twitter follower quotes our original tweet, sharing it to their friends in their own way.) As a result of our Election Night tweeting, The Tyee's Twitter account garnered over 150 new followers in a day while The Hook got 100 new followers.

Here are a few excerpts of some of the Election Night discussion generated from our Tyee tweets:

Twitter user "davecournoyer" shared the Hook's tweets simply by writing, "Follow @thehookblog for great up to the minute #bcelection coverage. Exciting as the results come in." User "fiver303" re-tweeted his own election-day opinions back at our Hook twitter account, telling us that he believed "...nobody expected NDP to do this well" in this election. User "celebritygo" re-tweeted at another user called 'chrisboutet' and referenced us by saying that she liked "INDEPENDENT ONLINE MAG @THETYEE & ITS POLITICS BLOG @THEHOOKBLOG TONIGHT. THANKS, #BCELECTION!" She also added a link to the Tyee's homepage in her tweet. User "chrisboutet" generated a lot of re-tweets himself at The Tyee on Election Night, writing that he "learned about independent daily online mag @thetyee...tonight."

Overall, we were quite enthused by the lively discussion and response received from our Election Night tweeting and would like to humbly thank all of the Twitter users who followed us and encouraged us in our tweeting experiment! In addition to our regular tweets which update followers on new stories, we will engage in tweeting for specific events of interest to our readers in the future. If you are interested in getting live updates from us please add us at our "TheTyee" and "TheHookBlog" twitter accounts and be sure to say hi when you do so!

What do you think?

Have any ideas of events we should tweet about in the future? Have an opinion about The Tyee being on Twitter? Let us know in the comment section below, or by re-tweeting us on Twitter. We'd love to hear your input.

Related Tyee stories:

[Tyee]

  • Share:

Facts matter. Get The Tyee's in-depth journalism delivered to your inbox for free

Tyee Commenting Guidelines

Comments that violate guidelines risk being deleted, and violations may result in a temporary or permanent user ban. Maintain the spirit of good conversation to stay in the discussion.
*Please note The Tyee is not a forum for spreading misinformation about COVID-19, denying its existence or minimizing its risk to public health.

Do:

  • Be thoughtful about how your words may affect the communities you are addressing. Language matters
  • Challenge arguments, not commenters
  • Flag trolls and guideline violations
  • Treat all with respect and curiosity, learn from differences of opinion
  • Verify facts, debunk rumours, point out logical fallacies
  • Add context and background
  • Note typos and reporting blind spots
  • Stay on topic

Do not:

  • Use sexist, classist, racist, homophobic or transphobic language
  • Ridicule, misgender, bully, threaten, name call, troll or wish harm on others
  • Personally attack authors or contributors
  • Spread misinformation or perpetuate conspiracies
  • Libel, defame or publish falsehoods
  • Attempt to guess other commenters’ real-life identities
  • Post links without providing context

LATEST STORIES

The Barometer

Are You Concerned about AI?

Take this week's poll