About The Discourse

The Discourse

Overview

The Discourse is a community-powered digital news organization based in British Columbia, Canada, that publishes in-depth, solutions-focused local journalism through a network of community newsrooms. Its best-known editions serve Vancouver Island communities — The Discourse Cowichan in the Cowichan Valley, The Discourse Nanaimo in Nanaimo, and The Discourse Comox in the Comox Valley — all published through its website, thediscourse.ca. Rather than chasing breaking-news volume, The Discourse built its reputation on a simple premise: reporters should listen to the communities they cover, let residents help set the coverage agenda, and then do the slow, deep reporting that shrinking legacy newsrooms no longer have the staff to produce.

The Discourse began in 2014 as Discourse Media, founded in Vancouver by journalist Erin Millar. Since 2022 its local outlets have operated through Discourse Community Publishing (DCP), a growing network of independent community news outlets in British Columbia's Interior and on Vancouver Island that also includes IndigiNews, The Wren in Kamloops, Sun Peaks Independent News and the Revelstoke Mountaineer. The network's outlets share a digital newsroom, common technology and a set of guiding principles, and they are supported primarily by reader memberships. DCP is led by chief executive officer Brandi Schier. The Discourse remains actively publishing: in October 2026 its reporters were producing detailed voter guides and candidate surveys for British Columbia's municipal elections, held on October 17, 2026.

History

Erin Millar founded The Discourse in 2014 after a career that included work at the Globe and Mail. In interviews about the company's founding, Millar has described growing frustrated with the economics of digital media — pressure to produce large volumes of shallow content to chase advertising revenue, alongside constant fear of layoffs — and wanting instead to report stories that had a positive impact. She and two writer friends developed the idea together, and The Discourse was selected for the Canadian Film Centre's IDEABOOST program for media startups.

In its first years, Discourse Media worked as an independent journalism company producing in-depth reporting on complex issues, often in collaboration with other organizations. A documented early example is its Pacific Northwest LNG project, in which a reporter spent weeks in northern British Columbia reporting on the proposed liquefied natural gas development and Indigenous land rights; the reporting was supported by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation and won the trust of community members it covered. Foundation funding and community partnerships underpinned much of this early work.

The organization's defining shift came in 2018, when it turned toward community-powered local news in the Cowichan Valley on Vancouver Island, a region where the legacy newspaper chain Black Press dominated coverage. In July 2018, Discourse reporter Jacqueline Ronson published an investigation into a racetrack controversy in the valley that presented evidence the local Black Press paper had barred its editorial team from covering the issue after car dealership advertising was pulled — reporting that media analyst Simon Owens later described as a blockbuster that encapsulated The Discourse's model. That model relied on paid memberships from the community being covered, and on readers collaborating with journalists to decide what deserved scrutiny.

In November 2018, The Discourse convened nine other digital news outlets — including The Narwhal, Taproot Edmonton and The Pointer — in a gathering that led to the formation of the Canadian Journalism Innovators network, aimed at mobilizing funding and accelerating innovation in independent digital news. The Discourse then expanded its local model to Nanaimo: as documented in a case study by its sister company Indiegraf, the team tested interest with pop-up coverage and community surveys, built an initial audience of roughly 1,300 people, and ran a petition campaign asking 5,000 residents to sign up in support of in-depth journalism in the city before launching The Discourse Nanaimo. A Comox Valley edition followed, and the company has described expanding across multiple Canadian regions.

In May 2020, Millar and co-founder Caitlin Havlak launched Indiegraf, a separate company spun out of The Discourse's experience, which provides publishing technology, audience and revenue support to independent news startups across North America; Indiegraf won the inaugural Canadian Journalism Foundation–Facebook Journalism Project Digital News Innovation Award. Millar moved on to lead Indiegraf as its chief executive. In 2022, the local publishing network was reorganized as Discourse Community Publishing, and Brandi Schier — previously associated with Sun Peaks Independent News — became DCP's chief executive. Under DCP, the network has continued to grow, welcoming the Revelstoke Mountaineer into what Schier called its "family [of] B.C.-based local news outlets."

Programming and Content

The Discourse publishes reported features, investigations and practical civic information rather than commodity breaking news. Its newsrooms describe their focus as in-depth, community-driven solutions stories. Coverage areas include municipal government and elections, housing and homelessness, the environment and climate change, reconciliation and Indigenous issues, health care and community life in the Cowichan Valley, Nanaimo and the Comox Valley.

Community input is built into the editorial method. Ahead of British Columbia's October 2026 local elections, for example, The Discourse surveyed readers in the Cowichan Valley and Nanaimo to learn what they wanted to know from candidates, then put those questions to candidates for mayor and council. Readers identified homelessness and social supports, the environment, reconciliation and local infrastructure as their top concerns in the Cowichan Valley, and the resulting coverage included a step-by-step voting guide for the October 17, 2026 general local elections, candidate positions on protecting the community from climate change, candidates' responses on homelessness and mental health crises, and, in Nanaimo, candidates' views on a proposed data centre that could use up to 25 million litres of water a year. The three Island editions have also collaborated on shared products such as a joint Pride guide for central Vancouver Island. Contributing writers — including local historians and subject specialists — supplement the staff reporting.

Audience and Reach

The Discourse's audience is rooted in the communities its newsrooms serve: residents of the Cowichan Valley (including North Cowichan, Duncan, Ladysmith and Lake Cowichan), Nanaimo and the Comox Valley, together with readers of its sister DCP outlets in Kamloops, Sun Peaks and Revelstoke. Its membership model is designed around loyalty and local engagement rather than raw traffic: readers are asked to join as paying members to sustain reporting for their own community, a model the company developed after concluding that advertising economics could not support in-depth local journalism. The Discourse does not publish audited circulation or traffic figures, and no independent audience measurement is publicly available; its reach claims should be read as the organization's own descriptions of its model rather than verified metrics.

Digital Presence

The Discourse publishes at thediscourse.ca, where the Cowichan, Nanaimo and Comox Valley editions are presented under one brand, alongside email newsletters that deliver reporting directly to subscribers. Its newsrooms maintain an active presence on social media, and Muck Rack's journalist index continues to catalogue new Discourse stories as they appear, including its October 2026 election coverage by reporter Shalu Mehta with photography by Jacqueline Ronson, Eric Richards and Mick Sweetman. The DCP network operates a shared digital newsroom, meaning its outlets pool editing, technology and audience resources; the organization works a four-day week (32 hours, Monday to Thursday) and supplements staff positions with Local Journalism Initiative–funded reporting roles in underserved communities, such as a community journalist position serving Secwépemc communities through The Wren.

Ownership and Organisation

The Discourse was founded by Erin Millar, who served as its chief executive before moving to lead Indiegraf; she remains one of the best-known figures in Canadian independent media and co-founded Press Forward, an association of independent Canadian publishers. Since 2022 the outlets have been operated by Discourse Community Publishing (DCP), whose chief executive is Brandi Schier. Backers describe DCP's outlets as independent and community-owned: Thrive Impact Fund, a British Columbia impact investor that provides financing to social enterprises, lists Discourse Community Publishing in its portfolio (launched in 2022) and describes it as "a network of independent community news outlets in Interior B.C. and Vancouver Island building sustainable news models while serving communities with impactful local news." Job postings for the network give the employer as Discourse Media Inc. and describe a workplace guided by ten principles, committed to building a more sustainable and equitable news ecosystem, with extended health and dental benefits for staff. Revenue comes principally from reader memberships, supplemented historically by foundation grants, partnerships and federal Local Journalism Initiative funding for specific reporting positions.

Contact and Availability

The Discourse can be read free online at thediscourse.ca, where readers can subscribe to its newsletters and become members. The organization was founded in Vancouver and its newsrooms are now based in the communities they cover on Vancouver Island and in the B.C. Interior. Its Cowichan newsroom invites story ideas and community submissions directly from readers — its 2026 Pride guide, for instance, invited additions and story suggestions by email to reporter Shalu Mehta at shalu@thediscourse.ca. Enquiries about the wider Discourse Community Publishing network, including The Wren, Sun Peaks Independent News and the Revelstoke Mountaineer, are handled through the same website.