Tyee Nets Seasoned Community Builder

You may have noticed The Tyee's been growing lately. While other Canadian and international media downsize -- the New York Times was the latest to announce mass layoffs -- our readers have supported some major improvements.

First we sent reader-funded reporter Jeremy Nuttall to Ottawa to cover national stories from a B.C. perspective. Then we hired Canadian media heavyweight Jane Armstrong to lead as editor-in-chief beginning Oct. 20. To round out our stellar new roster, The Tyee has brought seasoned community architect Jeanette Ageson onboard as director of community development, to bring the national Tyee community together like never before.

Jeanette has spent the last four years raising funds and coordinating events for West Coast Environmental Law. She joins us to forge relationships with new supporters (our Tyee Builders), continue a lively dialogue with our existing sustainers, and oversee The Tyee's seasonal Master Classes.

When asked what excites her about the Tyee Builder program, Jeanette points to the overwhelming commitment shown by Tyee readers. "The Tyee raised over $100,000 already -- to see that kind of response shows people want to get behind us."

Of hunger for independent news across the country, she says: "My biggest hope for the Tyee Builder community is that it will be an active community of people that feel like they are a part of The Tyee -- because they are."

As Tyee Builder contributions become increasingly important to the vitality of the newsroom, Jeanette sat down to chat about her plans for the integral community engagement role.

What drew you to The Tyee?

"I've been a reader for years and I've long recognized that The Tyee is pretty special -- smart, progressive, creative, independent.

"Coming from an environmental law organization working on energy issues in B.C., I've followed Andrew Nikiforuk's work for a while with interest. His reporting goes a lot more in-depth, looking at the big picture of what's going on with energy in Canada rather than piecemeal little stories. Whenever there's an announcement by the government or a project is going through an approval process, you'll likely see quick hits in all media, but not necessarily the big picture."

What do you see as the major challenges of independent media?

"Money's always an issue for everybody and every organization -- how to raise it, use it well, keep it coming, and have a bit of security.

"With independent media, there seem to be so many opposing forces that have to be managed. How do we compete with the huge media organizations while not playing by their rules? How do we go beyond the support of a few major contributors and widen our reach?"

How do you plan to address those challenges in your new role?

"The Tyee is in a unique position in that readers are now contributing a growing portion of The Tyee's budget. Growing a base of many people contributing relatively small amounts is a great opportunity to get around some of these problems and grow something new and exciting in the Canadian media landscape -- a strong independent news source backed by an engaged community of readers who support The Tyee because they like what it is all about and want it to remain independent.

"My job will be to grow The Tyee's base of support and also keep people informed on how their contributions are making a difference. Part of this will include a continuing dialogue to find out what is important about The Tyee to Builders. I'd like to foster a kind of Tyee-Builder relationship in which all participants feel like we are working together."

What would you like to bring over from your time with West Coast Environmental Law?

"My job at West Coast was to gather support for critically important work, and I gained some good experience in how to reach people and make a case. There was lots of room to think of new ideas and strategies, learn new tools, and try things out.

"At my old job, one of the programs the organization has is a legal aid fund that people can apply for to hire a lawyer at a pro-bono rate to take on an environmental legal case. It's such an amazing tool to allow regular people to harness the law to protect the environment. That's something I think more people need to know about, so I would love to get one of the lawyers from my old organization to do a Master Class on how to use the law to protect the environment."