David Beers Wins the 2026 Digital Publishing Leadership Award

Tyee founding editor and current editor-in-chief David Beers is this year’s recipient of the Digital Publishing Leadership Award, presented by the National Media Awards Foundation.

When The Tyee started in 2003, online-only journalism was in its infancy. Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and wireless devices had yet to exist. Just over two decades later, The Tyee is one of Canada’s most read independent news sites. Its main financial support comes from thousands of Builder members and its team consistently produces quality, high-impact journalism in the public interest.

“Dave Beers is an unsung hero of independent Canadian journalism,” says Peter Klein, Tyee board member and director of the University of British Columbia Global Reporting Centre. “It’s no overstatement that The Tyee helped open up the landscape for independent journalism in Canada.”

Writing to tell Beers of his prize, Barbara Gould, executive director of the National Media Awards Foundation, said, “Your vision, innovation and sustained impact over more than two decades have helped shape the country’s independent media landscape in profound ways.”

“The jury was particularly struck by the clarity and consistency of your leadership, your ability to build and sustain a strong independent model, and your commitment to mentoring and advancing others in the field,” she wrote.

“They also noted the tangible impact of your work in strengthening the reach and relevance of independent digital journalism at a critical time for the industry, and were unanimous in recognizing your exceptional leadership and lasting influence following a careful review of the nomination materials.”

Beers started The Tyee with then part-time business director Michelle Hoar to add a new voice to the B.C. news media landscape, at the time dominated by just a few media companies, most of them based back east. The Tyee quickly became a go-to source for fearless reporting on provincial politics, social and environmental issues and sharp culture coverage.

Beers and Hoar, who became The Tyee’s first full-time publisher, also created the Tyee Solutions Society, an organization that was early to advance the concept and practice of solutions journalism in Canada.

Along the way The Tyee has enlightened readers and held power to account while winning two Edward R. Murrow Awards for North America-wide excellence, two national General Excellence Digital Publishing Awards and, in B.C., the Jack Webster Foundation’s Bill Good Award for making “a significant contribution” to the community “via journalism.”

“I believe Dave is a huge reason why we have a thriving digital media sector in Canada,” says former Tyee editor-in-chief Robyn Smith.

“He saw the possibilities of online news so early on. Keying off early U.S. sites like Salon.com, he launched The Tyee and then spent more than two decades iterating, trying pretty much everything to test the model, strengthen and grow it sustainably. All along he’s shared his learnings with others, and since then we’ve seen many news sites built on similar business models.”

“I am humbled by this honour,” says Beers. “It’s recognition for all who have helped make The Tyee go from a quixotic experiment to the institution it’s become. That includes those journalists who bravely joined the effort in the very first months, among them Steve Burgess, Crawford Kilian and Dorothy Woodend, who are still writing for us.

“It includes our first investors, Working Enterprises, whose ties to B.C.’s labour movement spurred their desire to diversify our news media, and then, after they were done, Eric Peterson and Christina Munck, who came to our financial rescue eight years ago and then selflessly guided us to non-profit status.

“I have huge appreciation for Robyn Smith, who, with the aid of Paul Willcocks, steered the newsroom when I stepped away for several years. Also for our original publisher, Michelle Hoar, and current publisher Jeanette Ageson, both hard-working geniuses at crafting indie journalism business models where none really existed. It’s taken more than a village. It’s taken good-willed folks across the province and Canada to get us here and I am very grateful to each and every one of you.”

Beers, who taught at UBC’s graduate journalism program for 18 years, has long been a supporter of early-career writers and editors, offering them room to grow and develop their skills.

“Over my 10 years at The Tyee, particularly after I took on the editor-in-chief role, Dave offered me unwavering support,” Smith says. “He always picked up the phone to share guidance and wisdom. In a demanding and sometimes cutthroat industry, where your work certainly doesn’t make everyone happy with you, Dave’s steadfastness was priceless to me.”

From its inception, The Tyee has prioritized autonomy and work-life balance for its journalists, taking the approach that staff should support each other and celebrate each other’s wins. Reader supporters, too, get high fives.

“David's a fantastic editor, but he's also been incredibly innovative on the business and audience engagement side of The Tyee,” notes Ageson.

“He and some others here in the early days thought up and launched our first crowdfunding campaigns to support The Tyee, when ‘crowdfunding’ was barely a recognized term and at a time when people thought it was extremely odd for a news organization to do that. Now it's seen as the future of journalism.”

More recently, Beers co-edited, with Tyee senior editor andrea bennett, a Tyee essay anthology, Points of Interest, that spent 28 weeks on the BC Bestsellers list; established the What Works section of The Tyee that focuses on green businesses; helped The Tyee achieve Registered Journalism Organization status; which enables charitable tax receipts for financial supporters, and helped launch a series profiling cultural changemakers called Creative Forces.

Beers plans to wind up his role as editor-in-chief sometime in the next year. A search is underway to name a new leader on the news side. Beers says he feels comfortable passing the baton. And why not, given what he’s been instrumental in fostering? “In a very challenging media landscape,” says Ageson, “The Tyee has a great team culture with incredible talent.”