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Views

New Look. New Book. And More Spring Growth at The Tyee.

Encouraged by your interest and support, we’ve redesigned and launched new initiatives.

David Beers 22 Mar 2005TheTyee.ca

David Beers is the founding editor of The Tyee and serves as current editor-in-chief.

He started the publication in 2003 as an experiment in new ways of doing online journalism in the public interest, including solutions-focused reporting, crowd-funded support and a humane work culture. He loves what The Tyee has become thanks to amazing colleagues and readers.

He has lived in Vancouver since 1991. Before The Tyee he was a senior editor at Mother Jones Magazine and the Vancouver Sun, and his writing has appeared in many U.S. and Canadian outlets. He is an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia's graduate school of journalism.
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Welcome to the redesigned pages of The Tyee. Fifteen months ago we launched this site as an experiment. We did so with great hopes but no guarantee that you, our audience, would find us, engage and multiply. Today we have our answer. Some 60,000 people will visit the site this month, many of you every day. We are fast approaching half a million page views per month, and The Tyee is read closely by the media, officials and citizens across the province and beyond. The fact that The Tyee’s readership has grown steadily since the day we launched proves that British Columbians are hungry for a fresh, feisty, independent source of news and views.

Knowing this has spurred us to take The Tyee to the next level. Let me tell you some ways in which we are doing that.

The redesign

In return for your vote of confidence, we have invested a lot of thought and effort in the new look and organization of The Tyee. We did so in response to many helpful comments from readers. You told us you wanted to know at a glance which stories were most recent. You will find the day’s latest stories in the top panel, and all other recent stories in chronological order just below. You will also find tabs that allow you to go back and see our ‘cover headlines’ just as they appeared on previous days of the week. And the navigation bar on the left allows you to visit stories organized by department: News, Views, Life, etc.

Not every feature in the new design is working just yet, and we’ll be dealing with the usual bugs in the next few days, no doubt. Thanks for your patience.

We have also changed the way readers post comments, and how those comments are formatted. You are now asked to register if you wish to post comments. The information you share is kept strictly confidential by The Tyee, never sold or shared with any other organization. Having this information will allow us to contact and, if need be, ban any posters who are defamatory or otherwise sabotaging the conversation on the site. Our experience of the past year has shown this is necessary, and I’ll be writing a longer article about this in the future.

New funds to support cutting edge journalism

The Tyee will soon be unveiling two new charitable funds providing fellowships to journalists pursuing the kinds of investigative and solutions-oriented stories that can make a positive difference for people of British Columbia. More about this in a future article as well.

‘Election Central’ – a new section coming

Within days we will launch Election Central, a section of The Tyee worth visiting at least once a day throughout the provincial election. At Election Central you’ll find everything you need to know to keep on top of the campaigns. Cover stories on the issues and the power players. Riding by riding analysis and predictions by Will McMartin. An election blog where Tyee contributors and other experts post regular insights and scuttlebutt. Brand new political cartoons and more.

‘Liberalized’ – the first of many Tyee books

It’s hot off the presses. Liberalized: The Tyee Report on B.C. under Gordon Campbell’s Liberals includes new chapters by top Tyee contributors including Barbara McLintock, Chris Tenove, Russ Francis, Alisa Smith, Will McMartin and myself. The uniting thread to the book is a question much of the media has failed to report in depth: How did the B.C. Liberals lose the huge mandate they were given four years ago, finding themselves just a few percentage points ahead of the party they left for dead late time around? Tyee reporters sought answers by traveling to rural town halls and ranchlands, parsing government briefing books and poring over promises made and kept, or not. A must read for everyone who intends to vote on May 17.

That’s a lot of growth to announce on a single day, but then it is the first week of spring. We hope you enjoy the fruits of all the thought, care and very hard work that Site Manager Dawn Buie and all our staff have put into bringing you The Tyee’s new look. And if the past is any guide, we know you won’t be shy in sharing your opinions, no matter how feisty. We do appreciate that about you!

David Beers is founding editor of The Tyee. He can be contacted at [email protected]. [Tyee]

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