The Spectator Tribune celebrates all that makes the Canadian Prairies extraordinary, recognizing the fact that our long winters and hot summers lead to a thriving, unique community of artists, entrepreneurs, athletes and innovators.
The Spectator Tribune is yours, and if the Prairies decide to support this already popular project, it will be here for a long time.
I am the owner/editor, and, while I hope to be able to pay myself through this business, full disclosure, the money raised here will first and foremost go towards compensating all Spectator Tribune’s talented writers.
We launched in October of 2012. Our readership is large and growing. And the Spectator Tribune has already sold some lucrative ad campaigns, but, to be honest, the publication will not see those dollars for many months.
Your money will pay for writers, yes, but it will also pay for the development of a publication you’ll have the ability to steer. I respond to every email sent my way. And the direction of this publication as a means to tie the Prairies together is, in part, dependant on what you, the reader, want to see.
Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta have a lot of writing talent and they have been completely forgotten by Canada’s national media. The print publications we pay for and hold so dear have little interest in what goes on in the Prairies, an opinion uncomfortably close to fact.
The bulk of news consumers have already committed to online consumption; what lags is the organizations themselves, unable to transform bloated, top-heavy newsrooms into media outlets focused on delivering content readers want, in the style they want, using mediums they have access to and use.
We in the Prairies have opinions about our politics, our culture and a unique perspective of what it means to be Canadian. We love our festivals, our sports teams, our burgeoning food culture and our hole-in-the-wall galleries. If it’s interesting, pressing, thought-provoking, divisive, you can be sure the Spectator Tribune will cover it.
Journalism is not dying. And, no, the media landscape is not changing. It has fully changed.
The hope for the Spectator Tribune, and all who want this great online-only publication to stick around should agree, is to find a balance between profitability, staying lean and sustainable, and remaining fair to the talent that makes it all possible.
Thanks for your support!
Toban Dyck
