How can we better serve our newsletter subscribers and website visitors of today — and tomorrow?

That question was the driving force behind a slew of major updates you’ll start to see this week at The Narwhal. Across the board, we’ve sought to better respond to the news of the day, highlight our deep-dive reporting and stellar journalists — and bring some joy and laughs along the way. 

First, our homepage: we’re now curating a broader variety of stories, including bite-sized news chunks and topic-based sections, such as a collection of our features on spooky cuties for the Halloween season.

It’s no secret The Narwhal loves beautiful photographs — and a new game and photo of the week, now featured on our homepage, aim to showcase some of our favourite work through the years.

Macro Micro is our weekly nature-forward quiz that allows you to test your knowledge of Canada’s places and wildlife. The less hints and guesses you need, the higher your score. My favourite part? All of the Macro Micro images come from The Narwhal’s roster of incredibly talented freelance photojournalists — and you’ll get directed to the story behind the clue when you complete that week’s game.

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Photo: Gavin John / The Narwhal. From ‘We’re just getting started’: from Alberta to Montana, Blackfeet guardians hope to bring back the buffalo jump

This project, conceived of and designed by our web developer Andrew Munroe, grew from the strong response we received when we first waded into the games space earlier this year, with our Lovebirds of Canada Valentine’s Day quiz. (If you missed that, go here to find your feathered soulmate. I promise it’s a hoot!)

At the heart of this work is a desire to strengthen our relationships with readers. And we want the experience to feel distinctly Narwhal — thoughtful, beautiful and joyful. All these elements also carry through to the big changes we’ve made to our newsletter, which is now being delivered twice weekly.

Temperature Check is our new Wednesday snapshot of everything important happening — right now — with the natural world in Canada. Its intro will be regularly penned by Denise Balkissoon, The Narwhal’s executive editor, and reporters will contribute insight from their beats. We’ve also created the Sizzle Scale, a space where editors will share links to hot and cold news and environment stories from across the web, while adding some levity along the way. 

Meanwhile, the newsletter you know and love is staying (mostly) the same — but you’ll get it on Saturday instead of Thursday. Audience editors Jacqueline Ronson and Karan Saxena have been the driving forces behind these refreshed newsletter efforts, with creative director Shawn Parkinson contributing visuals.

As for our website, these are just the latest changes. You may have also noticed that all our staff-written stories now show a short bio adjacent to the byline credit. That’s part of an effort to introduce our team, and their impressive resumes, to readers, especially those visiting our site for the first time.

And we continue to include human-written summaries on many stories. After a trial run in the spring, the vast majority of you told us you found value in overviews that compliment our longer-form stories.

We always want to hear how our readers feel about The Narwhal’s digital experiences. Feel free to reach out via email with feedback about these latest updates — or anything else.

The Narwhal’s reporters are telling environment stories you won’t read about anywhere else. Stay in the loop by signing up for our free weekly dose of independent journalism.