On April 22, 2015 National Observer officially launched. It all started with the idea of producing a national publication from the West Coast. A successful Kickstarter campaign helped turn that initial thought into something tangible.
With the help of 574 backers, National Observer’s crowd-funding efforts gathered $80,939 in just 30 days, surpassing the initial goal of $50,000.
That money made possible the building of a cutting edge news website, founded on well-researched journalistic stories with a focus in the intersection between energy, politics and the environment.
When National Observer was no more than a logo and a “coming up soon” sign, some 300 curious people visited the site daily. Then, a soft-launch took place, a story about Senator Mike Duffy’s redacted diaries and oil’s hidden route to former Prime Minister Stephen Harper was published and... bang! we hit the first landmark of 24,000 page views in a day.
As great pieces kept coming, the numbers kept growing. In less than a year since its inception, National Observer can pride itself on hosting stories that have gathered almost 1 million page views. One single story!
From former Crown prosecutor Sandy Garossino’s sharp op-eds, to live coverage from the Paris Climate Summit by Mychaylo Prystupa to Bruce Livesey’s unprecedented analysis on the state of journalism in Canada, or Jenny Uechi’s quick grasp of issues that are ignored by old media, National Observer’s stories garnered big attention from audiences in Canada and around the globe. Politicians, journalists, commentators, academics, NGOs, and social media influencers became 'NO' fans and monthly subscribers.
Readers have also taken a keen interest in the site's reporters' takes on topics such as the Conservatives' mismanagement of environmental and research policies, largely covered by Charles Mandel; the violations of animal rights taking place in British Columbia, which were investigated by Elizabeth McSheffrey; and the connections between climate change and mass migration, covered by Fram Dinshaw. The guidance of National Observer's award-winning Editor-in-Chief Linda Solomon Wood was key to ensure that these pieces met a high bar of journalistic standards and her input helped make them exceptional. Tyee Bridge's line edits and fact-checking contributed greatly, too.
Bruno De Bondt and Marc Baumgartner have been in charge of creating and maintaining an attractive interface that allows readers to effortlessly go through the stories, while Janel Johnson connects all the aforementioned developments with relevant advertisers.
Op-eds by well-known environmentalists and activists such as Warren Bell, Tzeporah Berman, Hamish Stewart, Zool Suleman, Karen Mahon, Barry Saxifrage, and Carrie Saxifrage have sparked heated conversations, especially on social media. Even though they didn't make the top ten in traffic, they gave NO's pages much more depth and relevance.
Ready to find out which stories grabbed the most eyeballs in 2015? Read on.
Number 10. How to vote Harper out
Apparently, people needed some guidance.
Number 9. My letter from CSIS and why Bill C-51 must be stopped
Government surveillance on citizens was not well received. People stayed on the page an average of 19 minutes to read Darren Fleet's story.
Number 8. Why was Evan Solomon fired and not Amanda Lang?
Many were asking this question. Bruce Livesey found some answers. People couldn't stop reading this one either. Livesey's articles in general kept readers on the page for an average of 15 minutes.
Number 7. Blue Rodeo releases song slamming Stephen Harper [VIDEO]
This was just a pretty cool story.
Number 6. Canada shocks COP21 with big new climate goal
Who doesn't love the unexpected?
Number 5. How Harper will win the election
Some people got really scared by this piece.
Number 4. Federal government unmuzzles scientists
Everyone wanted to read about the first electoral promise that came to fruition.
Number 3. YELLOW STAIN: The bystander bigotry of newspaper endorsements
Readers were not happy with the Conservative ads that covered the entire front pages of most of the Postmedia’s major daily newspapers.
Number 2. Is Harper the worst prime minister in history?
During the 2015 electoral campaign, this was the most thorough analysis of Stephen Harper's democratic, economic, and environmental record.
Number 1. You have no idea how badass Trudeau's Defence Minister really is
Who could see this one coming? Nine hundred thousand people read it.
Comments