Canada's National Observer (CNO) is a media company that produces daily news, analysis and opinion on energy, climate, politics, and social issues.[1] They focus especially on climate issues from a left-wing perspective.[1]
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| Type | Daily news website |
|---|---|
| Format | Online newspaper |
| Owner(s) | Observer Media Group |
| Publisher | Linda Solomon Wood |
| Editor-in-chief | Adrienne Tanner |
| Founded | 2015 |
| Headquarters | Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada |
| Website | www |
By January 2018, CNO had an office in Vancouver and Ottawa. Linda Solomon Wood is the founder, sole director and officer of the Observer Media Group.[2][1]
History
editNational Observer was founded by Wood in 2015, with the help of $80,000 (CAD) raised in a Kickstarter campaign.[1][3] Wood, who in 2009 founded the more locally-focused publication The Vancouver Observer, noted a desire to build a national publication. CNO would focus on "environmental reporting from a clearly pro-environment angle."[1] Wood described the investigative reporting CNO does as solutions-oriented; “The whole point of an investigative series is to bring further attention to a problem so that there can be policy change for the better.”[1]
The original team included Charles Mandel, Elizabeth McSheffrey, Bruce Livesey, Sandy Garossino, Jenny Uechi, Mike De Souza, Valentina Ruiz Leotaud, and Bruno De Bondt, with Linda Solomon Wood as editor-in-chief."[4][self-published source]
In a 2016 article, National Post columnist Terence Corcoran described a "newspaper war" between the Postmedia Network and the Toronto Star (TorStar).[5] He criticized Torstar's "series of personal and corporate attacks" against Postmedia, in particular CNO reporter Bruce Livesey's massive "5,000-word take down" of Postmedia, published in both CNO and the Star.[5] Corcoran said Livesey was "a master of the inappropriate juxtaposition of fact and conclusion" and described CNO as "the left-wing Vancouver online magazine" and "leftist".[5][6]
In 2017, CNO collaborated with The Toronto Star, Global News, the Michener Awards Foundation, the Corporate Mapping Project and four journalism schools, resulting in The "Price of Oil" project, which looked at the health impacts of oil and gas development on Canadian communities.[1][7][8]
Funding
editAn article by David Beers wrote that CNO "mixes revenues from paywall subscribers, philanthropies and other sources".[9] CNO's 2015 Kickstarter campaign raised $80,000 (CAD).[3]
CNO has received funding from the progressive U.S. advocacy group Tides Foundation.[2] Harvard's report states CNO's editor-in-chief is the sister of Tides Canada Foundation's co-founder and former Chairman of the Board for the Tides Foundation.[2]
CNO has received funding from Canadian federal government grants, and The Facebook Journalism Project.[2]
Reception
editHarvard University's "Canadian Media Ownership Index" mentions "National Observer represents a new digital journalism trend: mission driven journalism and in tandem, a lack of transparency of private ownership of media." The same report contrasted this trend to publicly traded companies and nonprofits who have strict transparency protocols.[2]
The report notes CNO is an example of "solutions journalism", which it describes as a "trend in the US where foundations and corporations can pay to fund a story topic to be developed around a societal issue."[2]
Observer Media Group was named in a Supreme Court Case registered with the province of BC in 2017. The court case alleges the improper use of charity status by a U.S. funder of CNO, the Tides Foundation, in order to campaign against the Canadian oil sands.[2]
David Beers, founder of The Tyee, which has also received Tides Foundation funding,[2] noted CNO's "energy sector investigations have rocked Ottawa and forced resignations".[9]
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ a b c d e f g Owen, Laura Hazard (January 2018). "We stepped in and started doing it". Nieman Foundation for Journalism. Retrieved October 23, 2020.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Legg, Heidi (February 12, 2022). "Canadian Media Ownership Index". projects.iq.harvard.edu. Harvard University (The Future of Media Project is hosted at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University.). Retrieved April 8, 2025.
- ^ a b Jesse Brown, Linda Solomon Wood (April 26, 2015). Our Oily Media. Canadaland. Retrieved January 3, 2016.
- ^ "Reports from the Race Against Climate Change", Kickstarter, 2016
- ^ a b c Corcoran, Terence (February 20, 2016). "A falling Star: No cash in its dowry, declining revenues and no obvious marriage prospects". National Post. Retrieved August 28, 2019.
- ^ "Terence Corcoran: A new energy model is here — 'carbonizing'". financialpost. Archived from the original on March 12, 2025. Retrieved April 8, 2025.
- ^ Mosleh, Omar (July 3, 2019). "Research project maps most powerful players in the fossil fuel industry and examines 'pervasive' reach into Canadian society". Toronto Star. Retrieved April 8, 2025.
- ^ Inniss, Sandra (November 10, 2017). "Ces petites salles de nouvelles qui enquêtent - J-Source". Retrieved April 8, 2025.
- ^ a b Beers, David (November 8, 2017). "A good news story about the news in British Columbia". The Conversation. Retrieved October 24, 2020.