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The Narwhal wins four Canadian Online Publishing Awards

Six months after launching, our ad-free investigative journalism has earned national kudos

By Emma Gilchrist

Nov. 14, 2018 2 min. read

This article is more than 6 years old

Six months after launching, The Narwhal won four Canadian Online Publishing Awards at a ceremony on Wednesday night in Toronto, including silver for best publication.

In the best news website category, The Narwhal also won silver, while Maclean’s won gold. The Narwhal’s website and brand was developed by Ictinus in Ottawa. HuffPost took the gold in the best publication category.

In the photo essay category, The Narwhal won gold for Garth Lenz’s work documenting B.C.’s mining boom along the Alaska border — which was made possible by donations from more than 100 readers.

The Narwhal also picked up silver in the photo essay category for an in-depth look at Giant Mine in the Northwest Territories by deputy editor Jimmy Thomson and photographer Matt Jacques.

Congratulations to all of the winners, but we’re saving the biggest applause of all for our readers and members who make our independent journalism possible. Thank you for reading, sharing and donating to support independent, investigative journalism.

Now more than ever we believe in the power of stories to inspire, educate and motivate us.

As traditional business models for news falter, The Narwhal is pioneering a non-profit model that puts the public interest first and relies on reader support. The Narwhal is an ad-free online news magazine with just three full-time staff.

More than 1,000 readers have donated to support The Narwhal’s independent journalism and 440 readers have become monthly members.

If you support independent, ad-free journalism please become a founding member of The Narwhal today.

Another year of keeping a close watch

Here at The Narwhal, we don’t use profit, awards or pageviews to measure success. The thing that matters most is real-world impact — evidence that our reporting influenced citizens to hold power to account and pushed policymakers to do better.

And in 2024, our stories were raised in parliaments across the country and cited by citizens in their petitions and letters to politicians.

In Alberta, our reporting revealed Premier Danielle Smith made false statements about the controversial renewables pause. In Manitoba, we proved that officials failed to formally inspect a leaky pipeline for years. And our investigations on a leaked recording of TC Energy executives were called “the most important Canadian political story of the year.”

As the year draws to a close, we’d like to thank you for paying attention. And if you’re able to donate anything at all to help us keep doing this work in 2025 — which will bring a whole lot we can’t predict — thank you so very much.

Will you help us hold the powerful accountable in the year to come by giving what you can today?

Yes, I’ll support independent journalism

Another year of keeping a close watch

I’ll support independent journalism

Published By

Emma Gilchrist

Emma Gilchrist is a reporter, editor, public speaker and spreadsheet-keeper. She started her journalism career more than 15 years ...

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