A word from Candice Malcolm on True North, Juno News and why we’re making these changes

It’s been nine years since I started True North in my living room after publishing my best selling book, Losing True North: Justin Trudeau’s Assault on Canadian Citizenship.

True North has pivoted and grown over the years, and it’s undoubtedly changed the media landscape in Canada in ways I never imagined. Seeing our team of young, dedicated journalists break important news stories across Canada gives me a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

I’m so pleased with the team we’ve assembled and the company we’ve built.

My goal for True North has always been to create an alternative to the Canadian Press – as you may know, the Canadian Press (or CP) is a news wire service that writes many of the biased stories published by the big newspapers and broadcasters.

I want to create an alternative wire service for the independent media.

I’m excited to announce that True North’s news team (legally known as True North Wire) has been approved to become a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO). This is a legal designation that recognizes media companies and gives them equal footing.

This designation doesn’t change our core values. True North will never, ever, ever take a government handout or subsidy. We don’t believe that the government should fund journalism.

So, why did we apply?

The qualification is the first step in becoming what the government calls a Registered Journalism Organization (RJO), and that is our ultimate goal. RJOs are essentially registered charities that conduct journalism.

True North Centre for Public Policy is a registered charity, and part of what we do is journalism.

But an RJO can dedicate all of its resources towards journalism while still enjoying many of the benefits of being a charity.

We were ahead of the curve in recognizing that journalism is a public good, and that Canadians are willing to donate money for high quality, fact-based journalism. True North has been able to prove that it’s possible to build a sustainable media business model in Canada.

When we launched True North, there was no such thing as a journalism charity (now known as an RJO), so our charitable structure became outdated when the Trudeau Government introduced this new type of charity.

Unfortunately, there is no easy process for becoming an RJO. We cannot simply file paperwork to change our legal designation. We’ve had to start from scratch, and jump through all of the Trudeau government’s hoops.

While True North does that, I’ve personally decided to step aside and leave my leadership role with True North.

I want to continue hosting a daily news broadcast, to inform Canadians and bring hard-hitting facts, while building out our podcast and video platform.

That is why I’ve teamed up with Keean Bexte, founder of The Counter Signal, to launch Juno News – a one-stop hub for trusted and fact-based news, honest and hard-hitting opinion, provocative and compelling videos and podcasts, and urgent need-to-know scoops exclusive to our subscribers.

Juno News is a subscription-based platform and media company, co-founded by myself and Keean.

True North has become a news wire service, and Juno will be one of the media companies that publishes its work – similar to the relationship between CP and CTV. CP writes the news, CTV publishes it.

Since True North is becoming a pure wire service, it no longer needs its social media properties. True North engaged an accounting firm to evaluate and place a price on True North’s social media properties and I am buying those at fair market value. True North’s social accounts will soon become Juno News accounts, which Juno will use to promote and distribute True North news stories. True North’s work will be available at www.truenorthwire.com in addition to Juno and the various other news sites that will publish their work. I hope True North will soon replace CP across the board so that the news goes back to being factual rather than tinted with woke coloured glasses.

My aim is to be as transparent as possible, which is why subscribers get access to a monthly Fireside chat where they can ask any questions and I will always do my best to answer.

Thank you for your loyalty and commitment to independent journalism. We couldn’t have done this without you, and we’re so excited to embark on this new journey together.

Thank you, and God bless.