Our Upcoming 2025 List of Important & Influential Canadian New Media Outlets
Our 2025 compilation will be published on December 27th. While hard to find on most Google searches, these independent outlets are essential sources for critical thinkers.
Freedom Forum has been posting stories since October 2023 and our biggest initial success was the December 27th, 2023 post, “The 2024 Freedom Forum Listing of Important and Influential Canadian "NEW" Media.”
It contained over 50 examples of Canadian new media outlets which covered news better than most traditional legacy outlets.
At the time, we noted that, “while the legacy media is well represented in marketing databases, there’s not a lot of places to go for lists of alternative “new media” publications.”
We felt that the absence of independent media contacts in marketing databases put new media outlets at a competitive disadvantage when compared to traditional media outlets like Global, CTV and the Globe and Mail which were set up specifically to solicit retail advertising as part of their core business model.
Evidently, others have noted this as well.
Over the last year, a number of mostly legitimate but sometimes harshly criticized advertising and fund raising mechanisms aimed at supporting alternative media outlets, have rolled out.
They include:
The Wellness Company (TWC), begun as a way for independent medical professionals to promote alternative medicine, which has been modestly successful in providing profitable advertising copy to large scale new media outlet, even as it has been harshly criticized by commentators like the “Amazing” Polly St. George, in stories like her March 5th, 2024 post, “TWC Red Flags - The Expanding Narrative Network.”
Tenent Media, a US based company controlled by Canadian podcaster Lauren Chen and her husband, accused of being funded by two Russian media executives, ostensibly to promote “Russian propaganda” by supporting new media podcasters and eventually shut down.
Fortunately, the podcasters funded by Tenent, including Matt Christiansen, Tayler Hansen, Benny Johnson, Tim Pool, Dave Rubin, and Lauren Southern seem to have carried on regardless, without Tenent or the need to alter their editorial perspective.
The discussions surrounding the legitimacy of these new media funding mechanisms, while important, are often promoted by Canadian and international legacy media outlets as a way to demonize legitimate opposition to government policies and avoid discussions about legacy media’s overreliance on large corporate donations and national government funding.
As outlined in the October 18th, 2024 Freedom Forum post, “Canada's Government Media Funding Strategy is a Total Failure,” government funding biases media coverage, mostly to favor government perspectives.
A focus on alternative media funding, while excluding similar discussions of legacy media funding, allows governments to demonize and censor their opposition.
They allow people like current Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to claim, as outlined in the October 18th, 2024 Newsweek post, “Tucker Carlson Funded by Russia's RT, Justin Trudeau Says,“ that legitimate independent, new media commentators are essentially “enemies of the state,” who should be banned.
Canadian opposition politicians understand this and, as outlined in posts like the February 13th, 2024 Toronto Sun on YouTube post, “CAUGHT ON CAMERA: Poilievre wants a free press not a Trudeau funded media,“ have begun saying this out loud.
Given that there is currently no listing of the most important members of Canada’s independent media, Freedom Forum thought we should update our list.
After all, someone needs to track upcoming opportunities.
The list was inspired by an earlier online publication focused around the aerospace industry, which was compiled and edited by current Freedom Forum editor Chuck Black.
The “Commercial Space Blog” ran from 2009 until 2020 and was well known for it’s annual “This Year in Space for Canada” compilations, plus its annual compilation of useful space industry news feeds.
The 2025 Freedom Forum List of Important & Influential Canadian New Media Outlets is scheduled to come out on December 27th, 2024.
If you know a media outlet which deserves to be on the list, please sent an email outlining your choice to chuck.black@protonmail.com.
We look forward to your contributions.
Regarding controversial funding initiatives, do you think there are better ways to promote direct funding of alternative media in Canada?
I ask specifically because that is one way that could almost eliminate these kinds of questions over sketchy funding sources.
I'm overall pessimistic in the idea however, because I don't think there are that many of us who would be willing to fund a broad range of independent voices, and many of us who are just took a significant career hit by being ejected from the workforce over mandates. Not exactly a "marketable demographic". Which is a problem because that extends to advertisement quality.
Looking forward to the compilation!