The Local (magazine)

The Local is a Toronto-based general interest online magazine covering urban health and social issues. It was founded in 2019 as a not-for-profit organization, with Tai Huynh, Nicholas Hune-Brown, Jen Recknagel and Craig Madho as its founding editorial team.[1] The Local publishes mostly long-form features, investigations and essays on a quarterly basis. From 2017 to 2019, The Local was a hyper-local storytelling project incubated at UHN OpenLab, a design and innovation studio at the University Health Network.[2][3]

The Local
TypeNews Website
FormatOnline Newspaper
Founded2019 (2019)
HeadquartersToronto, Ontario, Canada
Websitethelocal.to

The Local is known for blending human-interest stories with data journalism, most notably during the COVID-19 pandemic when it published five issues dedicated to exploring the pandemic's impact on Toronto communities.[4]

In 2021, The Local began tracking and reporting COVID-19 outbreaks in schools. They maintained a regularly updated data blog called the School Tracker to inform parents of the relative COVID risk in various schools throughout the GTA.[5][6] On January 1, 2022, in response to this emerging data gap, The Local launched the RAT Tracker, a portal where parents could report the results of their children's rapid antigen tests (RAT).[7] Using this data, they would compile COVID cases on a school level in Toronto in order to equip parents, students, and education staff with the information they need to be safe when returning to school.[8][9][10][11]

The Local is a member of Press Forward, a collection of independent Canadian publications dedicated to unifying, elevating, and advocating for independent media organizations and working towards strengthening innovation, inclusivity and diversity in media across Canada.[12]

Awards

On May 3, 2022, The Local's pandemic coverage of Ontario's Peel region was won the 2022 World Press Freedom Award.[13] The award recognizes Fatima Syed's groundbreaking reporting in her three feature articles, “You Can’t Stop the Spread of the Virus if You Don’t Stop it in Peel,” “The Chaotic Race to Vaccinate Peel,” and “We Had to Save Ourselves.” The award was presented to both Fatima Syed and The Local's Editor-in-Chief, Tai Huynh.[13]

Award Date Category Result Ref.
Digital Publishing Award 2020 Best Feature Article: Short gold [14]
2020 Best Online Video: Short silver
2020 General Excellence in Digital Publishing Nominated
2020 Best Feature Article Nominated
2021 Best News Coverage (Community Publication) silver [15]
2021 Best Feature Article (Short) silver
2021 Best Feature Article (Long) gold
2021 General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Small gold
2022 Best News Coverage (Community Publication) gold [16]
2022 Best Feature Article Nominated
2022 Best Feature Article (Short) Nominated
2022 Innovation in Digital Storytelling Nominated
2022 Emerging Excellence Award (Inori Roy) Nominated
2022 General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Small gold
National Magazine Awards 2021 Long-Form Feature Writing Nominated [17]
2021 Portrait Photography Nominated
2022 Short Feature silver [18]
2022 Editor Grand Prix gold
2022 Issue Grand Prix Nominated

References
  1. Watson, H. G. (July 22, 2020). "The Local Was Born in a Hospital Network: The Web-Magazine is Bringing Longform Urban Health and Social Issues Journalism to Toronto". Indiegraf.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  2. "The Local: X-Lab — The Future of Healthcare is Local". OpenLab. University Health Network.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  3. Waldman, Benjamin (April 18, 2018). "Inside the Business: Covering Toronto's Health From a Local Perspective". Review of Journalism. Ryerson University.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. Johnson, Jessica (December 13, 2021). "Journalism's Wicked Problem: Save What's Lost or Invest in What's New? It Will Take Serious Policy Changes and Unprecedented Industry Collaboration to Turn Around the Story of the Media's Collapse". The Walrus. The Walrus Foundation.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. Alfa, Ismaila. "COVID-19 Cases Steadily Rise in Ontario Schools Just One Week Into the Academic Year: Tai Huynh, Editor-in-Chief of the Local, and Colin Furness, Infection Control Epidemiologist, Break Down What's Behind the Number of Cases in Schools Right Now". CBC Radio. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved December 3, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. Huynh, Tai; Roy, Inori (10 March 2022). "Tracking COVID-19 in Toronto Schools: A Data Blog About the Pandemic's Effects on the City's 800 Public Schools". The Local.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. Huynh, Tai; Madho, Craig (January 2022). "RAT Tracker: A Citizen-Powered Tool for Anonymous Reporting of Rapid Antigen Test Results in Toronto Public Schools". The Local.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  8. Burman, Dilshad (January 3, 2022). "Independent Group Tracking Rapid Test Results in Toronto Schools". CityNews. Rogers Sports & Media.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  9. Hiscox, Heather. "New Toronto Initiative Tries to Track Results of Students' Rapid Antigen Tests: A Toronto website has created a tool to collect results of COVID-19 rapid antigen tests (RAT) used by students to see if the data can be used to identify virus outbreaks". CBC.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Retrieved January 5, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  10. "Toronto Dad Creates Portal for Parents to Log Kids' Positive COVID Results". Global News. Corus Entertainment. January 5, 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. Lavoie, Joanna (January 8, 2022). "New 'Rat Tracker' Tool Aims to Help Parents Better Understand How COVID-19 is Impacting Toronto Schools: Some Ontario Health Units Collecting Rapid Antigen Test Results, but There is No Central Reporting System". The Toronto Star. Torstar. Retrieved January 8, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  12. "Member Highlights — From the Local: A Year in Toronto". Press Forward. March 22, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  13. Vongdouangchanh, Bea. "World Press Freedom Canada announces 2022 Press Freedom Award Winners – World Press Freedom Canada". Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  14. "Announcing the Digital Publishing Award Winners of 2020". Digital Publishing Awards. 21 May 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. "Presenting the Winners of the 2021 Digital Publishing Awards". Digital Publishing Awards. 10 June 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. "Digital Publishing Awards". Digital Publishing Awards. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
  17. "Presenting the Winners of the 2021 National Magazine Awards". National Magazine Awards. 12 June 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  18. "And the Winners Are…". National Magazine Awards. 2022-05-03. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
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