I’m so glad you got the postcard I sent you. Thanks for your interest in The Discourse. Here’s where you can sign up for our free email newsletters. Our Cowichan This Week emails quickly keep you in the loop on what’s up in the Cowichan region.
On Tuesdays, we share local news highlights, upcoming community events and more. On Thursdays, you’ll be the first to read The Discourse’s in-depth reporting and investigations, and invite you to help shape our community-led journalism. You can unsubscribe any time.
Want to check it out, first? Here’s an example of a recent newsletter.
Have questions? Check out the FAQ below, or shoot me an email at shalu@thediscourse.ca. I’d also love to hear your local story tips. What’s happening in your neighbourhood that more people should know about?
Why should I read Cowichan This Week?
Our readers tell us that our email newsletters are the best way to stay informed and connected in the Cowichan Valley region.
“As a busy mom of young children, it seems I have less time to stay current and up to date on what’s going on around me,” said Kate Hutchins, a resident of Duncan. “And yet, I need and crave this information to connect with local happenings and people in meaningful ways as a family. The Discourse keeps me alive in this way, and involved in the events, issues and rich conversations that matter most to the people in our community. I am so grateful The Discourse exists.”
We hear that people trust and value our work because we are independent, we hold power to account and we take the time to get to the bottom of a story. Maybe you’ve heard about how, in 2018, The Discourse exposed how the Cowichan Valley Citizen refused to report critically on the Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit, apparently to avoid upsetting a major advertiser. More recently, we’ve been investigating the developers and engineers responsible for the debacle at the Magdalena apartment complex in North Cowichan, where tenants face evictions because of dangerous structural issues in the three-year-old building.
“I appreciate the local reporting and especially the in-depth dive into the stories of importance to everyone. Thank you,” said Barbara Simkins.
We also recognize that there’s a lot of good happening in our communities, and we strive to tell those stories, too. Like this story, about grassroots organizers using social media to help local women in need, or this one, about an annual community effort to remove garbage from the Cowichan River and its shores. Our readers tell us that our journalism helps them feel more connected and even hopeful about the future we’ll build together.
“The high quality writing and community engagement that you do is amazing and cultivates civic engagement. I love learning about the history of this place. The articles on the train and First Nations history have been helpful for me to develop a meaningful connection to this place,” said Shiyu Huang of Cowichan Bay.
What is The Discourse, anyway?
The Discourse is a media company dedicated to building the future of sustainable journalism in the digital age. Our focus is on bringing in-depth, community-powered journalism to the places that need it most. Everything we do starts with listening to our readers, because we know that together we are strong.
Jacqueline Ronson became the founding reporter for The Discourse in the Cowichan Valley in 2018. She proved her value to the community through her investigation into the Vancouver Island Motorsport Circuit. It’s the community’s support that has kept her around, and allowed The Discourse to grow.
I joined the team in 2020, and became the lead reporter for the Cowichan region in 2022. I’m passionate about food security, water issues and lifting up the voices of community members that aren’t often heard.
In early 2022, The Discourse took home six Canadian Online Publishing Awards — more than any other news outlet — including gold for Best Community News Website. Deeply serving our communities is always our first goal, and it means a lot to our team to have that effort recognized on the national stage.
The Discourse has a very small team, and we make it work through partnership and collaboration. In late 2020 we launched The Discourse Nanaimo, after hearing from many residents about the need for community-powered journalism there.
And in 2022 we joined forces with Sun Peaks Independent News to form Discourse Community Publishing, a network of independent publishers who make it work through mutual support.
How are you funded?
The Discourse wants to make sure that our community journalism is accessible to everyone, regardless of their ability to pay. That’s why we hope to never charge a subscription fee to receive our newsletters or put the stories on our website behind a paywall.
But to make that happen, we need the people who value the work and can afford it to help pay for it. That’s why we ask our readers to contribute voluntarily. A monthly contribution is the best way to help ensure the sustainability of our work.
Our goal is to be funded primarily through reader support. That’s because we want to be accountable to our communities first — not to advertisers or any other interest group.
We also partner with value-aligned sponsors. What that means is you’ll see advertising in our email newsletters, but we work to ensure that we work with sponsors that we’re proud to partner with and have messages to share that we think you’ll find valuable, too.
This work is not yet financially sustainable. As we grow towards that goal, we still rely on funding from foundations and other sources to fill the gaps. We know that this work is important to our community members, and are committed to figuring out a sustainable way to pay for it into the future.
