The first thing we published at The Local was a map.
In early 2019, as we planned our first issue as an independent online magazine, we wanted to take a panoramic view of this city’s health and social issues. The interactive data story, “Mapping our Divisions,” traced connections between wealth and mortality, diabetes and walkability. It zoomed into neighbourhoods far from the wealthy downtown core before pulling back to reveal a birds-eye view of Toronto, a city where “a person’s postal code can be as telling as their medical chart.”
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In the years since, The Local tried to follow that same vision—diving into specific corners of the city while always keeping our eyes on the bigger picture. When COVID hit, we watched as our formerly quiet beat covering public health became the only story in the world. We quickly transformed ourselves from an online magazine with a stately quarterly publication schedule into something entirely different, jumping into breaking news, creating data blogs, and trying any other experiment we could think of to tell the story of the day.
What hasn’t changed is our commitment to providing high-quality, data-driven journalism for absolutely free—no pay wall, no ads, just Local stories delivered directly to your inbox. As a not-for-profit magazine, The Local isn’t driven by a bottom line. We’re driven by our desire to illuminate corners of Toronto that others couldn’t see, or chose to ignore. We’re able to maintain this commitment thanks to the generous financial support of our readers.
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