The Other Wave
My July 2021 newsletter was all about effective communication. So, I went to one of the best communicators I know, journalist and educator Anita Li. I asked her a few questions and she provided her trademark insight and expertise.
Open up a new tab right now (or multiple tabs) and find out more about Anita on her website, subscribe to her The Other Wave newsletter, and check out some of her media appearances on TVO and CBC.
What is your background in journalism?
I’m a longtime journalist who's known for my leadership in journalism innovation, as well as a media strategist, consultant and educator based in Toronto, Canada.
I have a decade of full-time experience as a multi-platform journalist in three major markets: Toronto, New York City and Ottawa. I started out my career as a reporter and editor at Canadian legacy outlets, including The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and CBC. After that, I served in management-level roles at American digital media outlets, such as Fusion, Complex and Mashable. Most recently, I was director of communities at The Discourse, a disruptive new player in the Canadian media scene that fills in gaps in coverage for news deserts and other underserved communities. In this hybrid editorial-business role, I oversaw consumer revenue growth, and led coverage for Scarborough Discourse.
Currently, I am a full-time consultant and educator who specializes in journalism entrepreneurship, audience engagement, media business models, community-driven journalism, editorial and technological innovation, journalism ethics, and diversity, equity and inclusion in media. I also occasionally freelance, with my op-eds and articles appearing in New York Magazine, Poynter, Policy Options and other publications across North America.
Over the course of my career, I’ve edited coverage and reported on a wide range of topics, from courts, crime and politics to entertainment, technology and science. Highlights include: elections at various levels in the U.S. and Canada, the Ukrainian crisis, the Academy Awards, the Superbowl, the Mars Curiosity rover landing, and social movement protests such as Black Lives Matter, Occupy, #MeToo and the climate crisis, among many others stories. I’ve also had the privilege of interviewing cultural and political leaders, such as Mike Myers, Michaëlle Jean, Miranda July, Michael Ignatieff, Jim Flaherty and Guillermo del Toro.
What is The Other Wave about?
The Other Wave is a journalism innovation newsletter I launched in September 2020 that will (1) give you an insider’s look at how I’m challenging the status quo in Canadian journalism and (2) document my outsider’s journey building a media product that will embody modern Canada — that is, younger generations of Canadians who share the same forward-thinking values.
I break down The Other Wave into two key sections:
1) My insider's approach: In late January 2020, the Canadian Association of Black Journalists (CABJ) and Canadian Journalists of Colour (CJOC), the grassroots organization I co-founded in 2018, released seven Calls to Action (CTAs) to strengthen newsroom diversity in Canada. They quickly spread across the industry, gaining traction among media outlets, journalists, newsroom managers, media unions, journalism educators and members of the news-consuming public. My goal with this section is to document CJOC and CABJ's meetings with executive management from legacy and emerging media outlets who contacted us and consulted our orgs on how to take action on the CTAs. Beyond equity, I've shared other ways I've been challenging status quo best practices in Canadian journalism within the industry, presenting original theories of change, as well as looking at emerging formats, new business models and more. My hope is to demystify the industry for both professionals and the public, and also inspire them to action.
2) My outsider's approach: It’s important for me to write about my journey building my own independent local news outlet (The Green Line) as someone doesn’t fit the profile of a typical entrepreneur. While being a woman and a person of colour are just two pillars of my identity, the stats don’t lie: Funding opportunities are scant for women of colour, especially when compared to their white, male counterparts. I don’t come from money nor did my family have wealthy connections — that means my access to funding is limited because I have fewer pathways to it. As I navigate this challenge, I’ve shared my ups and downs, as well as strategies that helped me along the way, so others can also benefit.
Why did you start The Other Wave and how is it going?
For much of my adult life and career, I’ve been a “bridge” person — someone who inhabits and can therefore understand two different and sometimes conflicting worlds, but who’s also capable of creating understanding between them.
Cases in point: I grew up in a working-class part of Scarborough, a Toronto suburb full of new immigrants and people of colour, and then attended University of Toronto’s Trinity College, an Anglican institution that’s known for its uncritical embrace of elite Oxbridge traditions. Later on, I embarked on what would be the first of several jobs at American digital media outlets, after working for legacy publications in Canada. And now, as embattled journalism industries around the world try to diversify their revenue streams in light of diminishing advertising returns, my consulting work largely focuses on the intersection of editorial and business — namely, how authentic engagement with communities can lead to financial sustainability for media outlets. All of these experiences have informed my approach to modernizing Canada’s journalism industry, which is two-pronged. Challenging the status quo by moving Canadian media towards a more self-aware, inclusive, equitable, community-driven and audience-first future requires action from the inside out. I believe change will only happen if there’s internal and external pressure.
That's why I launched The Other Wave, my newsletter about challenging the status quo in Canadian media. As someone with a unique vantage point as both an insider and outsider in the Canadian journalism ecosystem since entering it 20 years ago, TOW is my way of filling in gaps in industry and public discourse about Canadian journalism.
Because of my unorthodox professional background (especially for a Canadian journalist), my grassroots media advocacy work and my independence as a consultant, I’m in regular contact with leaders from both establishment and emerging media ecosystems in Canada, as well as from journalism schools, unions, foundations and other stakeholder groups. My bird’s-eye view of the industry means I can see that these groups' disparate conversations about how to save Canadian media are happening in silos.
You can see The Other Wave's impact based on the shift in conversation in Canadian journalism it helped usher in after our September 2020 launch (it's a small industry), especially around the way equity in media is discussed, the emphasis on audience-first and community-driven journalism, and a greater interest in the business of media among entry-level journalists. New industry projects from both emerging and establishment outlets (e.g. Journalists for Human Rights' BIPOC in the Media Project, the proliferation of newsroom demographic reports) also cite The Other Wave's influence. Although it's hard to measure its precise impact, the majority of Canadian media leaders, including CBC's editor-in-chief Brodie Fenlon, as well as many global media leaders, subscribe to and regularly read the newsletter.
In your opinion, where is journalism heading?
This is a big question, but I'll try my best to answer! On the editorial side, community-driven journalism, solutions journalism and audience engagement will play a bigger role in Canadian media. On the business side, many outlets are increasingly diversifying their revenue streams so as not to rely so heavily on the embattled ad model.
Since the media is a pillar of democracy, my ultimate goal in encouraging Canadian journalism to embrace more progressive editorial and business models is to reinforce Canada's democratic institutions and processes. Given the current threat to democracies worldwide, my mission feels particularly urgent. As a journalist who worked in U.S. media for a portion of my career, and who also covered the 2016 presidential election, I saw firsthand how the lack of shared truth has inflamed misinformation and polarization among the American public — two negative consequences I want to help combat in Canada.
Power is centralized in a journalism industry as small as Canada’s, so failure to consult a diverse array of stakeholders when revitalizing old structures or building new ones during a time of disruption will only reinforce antiquated systems that perpetuate inequality and support regressive models. That’s why it’s important for me to challenge existing paradigms about not only what and who we cover, but also how we cover them.
One thing I’m certain of after two decades of working in journalism is this: We can’t positively impact the world with ideas alone — they must be combined with genuine humanity to be effective. As philosopher John O’Donohue writes, “Most fundamentalism, greed, violence and oppression can be traced back to the separation of idea and affection.”