The Narwhal
Newsletter growth in the wake of Canada’s Online News Act
The Narwhal is an online magazine that publishes in-depth and investigative journalism about Canada’s natural world. In the summer of 2023, after the Canadian government passed Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which aimed to make tech giants compensate news organizations. Both Meta and Google threatened to block all news content for users in Canada — a move that, for The Narwhal, could have meant devastating traffic loss for the outlet’s flagship newsletter, The Narwhal This Week. Instead of panicking, the team at The Narwhal seized what they saw as an opportunity to build more direct relationships with their audience and revamped their newsletter strategy, Director of Audience Arik Ligeti said in the nomination letter. Those changes included using prominent full-screen popups to communicate to readers about the impact of the Online News Act and advise them to sign up for the newsletter to continue getting the facts from The Narwhal’s investigative reporting.
The newsletter list grew last year by 40%, adding 16,000 subscribers. The Narwhal team also learned a valuable, replicable lesson: a commitment to fostering direct relationships with the audience is critical to surviving and thriving as a sustainable news organization.
Read the Winning Work
The Narwhal This Week newsletter
Finalists
Documented NY
Launching Language-specific Mini Newsrooms as a Response to Community Needs