Lightning round with Jeanette Ageson

After talking with Newsjunkie managing editor Peter Landau at length about The Tyee’s business model and the future of independent journalism, he asked publisher Jeanette Ageson to stick around for a few quicker questions. She weighs in on the quality she values in reporters, what publishers misunderstand about readers, independent news organizations she admires and the one word she uses to describe the future of local journalism in Canada.

What’s the most important quality you look for in a local reporter?

I would probably kick this over to my editor-in-chief. I am present when we’re thinking about hiring someone, and I sit in on those interviews, but I’m not usually the ultimate decision-maker for those roles.

Definitely curiosity. Someone who is relentlessly curious, who is willing to come to an issue prepared to be proven wrong about anything they might already think about, and someone who isn’t intimidated by going out and seeking comment, even if they get stymied.

As a publisher, what’s one thing publishers in general misunderstand about readers?

That readers are as complex as anybody. You have to connect with where they see journalism being important in the world overall, not just, “This content is super interesting to you and you can have some fun with it for 30 seconds.”

Being too driven by page views, if you want to do a membership model, will lead you down the wrong path.

You have to understand the world of your readers. What worries them? What keeps them up at night? Where do they see the world going wrong? And how do they think journalism can help?

On the other side, what do readers misunderstand about what it takes to run a newsroom?

I’m gratified that a lot of our readers are responsive when I talk about the business model.

I don’t expect readers necessarily to be conversant about how the business model has changed. It’s largely not a broadly known thing.

People who are older and remember an earlier era when newspapers were in full swing in their towns have really noticed the decline in their local newspaper. They don’t necessarily know why.

I actually have a whole presentation I give to groups sometimes called What Happened to My Newspaper?

How about a local or independent news organization you admire outside The Tyee?

We have a couple of news organizations that rent space in our office, so we actually have a growing, unintentional independent news hub.

I’m a big fan of, and we collaborate regularly with, these three news organizations. They all have slightly different focuses.

One is Vancity Lookout, which is a hyperlocal Vancouver newsletter. They’re doing really great work with a similar membership model, and they’re slowly growing every year.

There’s IndigiNews, which is an Indigenous-led news organization and also nonprofit.

And then the Investigative Journalism Foundation, which is doing amazing data journalism. They are all about collaboration, and we publish with them regularly.

Is there one journalist you always take time to read?

I’m not going to say favorite, so I’ll say everyone at The Tyee.

Can you give me one word to describe the future of local journalism in Canada?

Engaged.

Showing up in the lives of readers, not just with publishing, but with local events and being in conversation with your readers.

I would say engaged.

Final one: What keeps you working in this field?

I’ve always just wanted to be interested, so that’s a blessing and a curse.

This job has changed around me about every two years. We have a good model that’s working and we’re replicating it, but it’s always a new puzzle to figure out in every different phase we’re in.

There’s no exact playbook for where we go from here. It’s highly interesting.

I love looking at fields outside journalism to see what’s working in other places and then trying those approaches within the organization.

It’s intellectually stimulating, and the people I get to work with are great.