There’s something unsettling about walking into a community centre as a group of industry professionals. People are living their lives here, picking up kids from classes, attending programmes, using the gaming lounge. And here we are, talking about journalism strategy in the middle of their space.

But Anita Li, publisher and CEO, chose this location deliberately. The Green Line doesn’t have a traditional office (they are a virtual newsroom), as we learned during a study tour stop as part of last week’s INMA Media Subscriptions Summit. They use this community center in Alexandra Park — a neighbourhood with high proportions of ESL speakers, immigrants, and renters — as an engagement outpost. She knows that too often, journalism happens like satellite coverage: journalists parachute into neighborhoods, extract what they need, and disappear.

The Green Line operates differently. Their tagline: “Redefining Toronto through the way we live.”

Previously, they worked out of a shipping container that’s part of a market the center offers to local entrepreneurs. Li and her team spent a summer working from this container, stopping people who were passing and asking them: What currently bothers you in your life? What are your struggles, your hopes? What actually matters in your neighbourhood?

They also ran a youth journalism programme with 10 local teenagers. The youth researched stories about their neighbourhood, not the usual crime coverage but crossing guards, youth workers, important local businesses. They launched Canada’s first Documenters programme, training and paying non-journalists to attend city council meetings and turn seven-hour sessions into TikToks.

They produce texts, videos, newsletters, and engage with a very engaged audience of Millennials and Gen Z.

The goal, according to Li: “A lot of younger audiences are turning away from the news because it’s depressing, it’s anxiety-inducing. We focus on caring about communities, it’s not passive consumption of the news, which can be very stressful.”

Getting people to see journalism as a resource to help them live their lives — a strategy that clearly resonates with their audience.

The result? 

Profitable within four years. Recognition from the industry. Li herself admitted she thought for a long time she would end up as a foreign correspondent, dreaming about doing journalism in a different country, maybe even winning prizes for it. 

The Green Line shifted not only her career but also her purpose in journalism. “I doubt we will win a Pulitzer with our work,” she said. But this isn’t important because her mission is a different one: not to win prizes but to serve the community.

One colleague leaned over to me afterward: “Refreshing that we’re not talking about KPIs and North Star goals for once.” I could not agree more.

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