We’re honoured to be among the independent news organizations nominated for this year’s LION Local Journalism Awards!
Taproot Edmonton finds itself in the excellent company of The Appeal, Dallas Free Press, and Santa Cruz Local in the operational resilience category, which recognizes outlets for “establishing processes, policies, and a company culture designed to support staff and manage growth in order to prevent burnout among the very people whose talent and buy-in are critical to their success.”
We’ve done a ton of work over the past year to make Taproot a healthy and supportive workplace. It’s hard to do that while you’re building a business and publishing daily, but it’s absolutely vital to look after the people who do the work. We’ve learned some hard lessons on the way to that realization, and we’re still learning. But we’ve made progress, thanks to excellent coaching from Bene Cipolla via the GNI Startups Lab on building and managing a team as well as wise counsel from our mentors at the ThresholdImpact Venture Mentoring Service. This has led to solid practices to help everyone on our team uphold our core values: curiosity, courage, and care. When people are struggling, we lift them up. When they’re excelling, we cheer them on.
It feels great to be recognized for what we’ve developed, but honestly, the best reward is when we have our weekly team meeting and everyone enthusiastically participates in our wellness check. The practices we’ve adopted helped us onboard two interns and a Canada Summer Jobs hire, integrating them with our regular staff to form a cohesive team. A shared vocabulary for meaningfully answering the question “How are you?” and a concerted effort to listen have helped us knit people together, even though we are rarely if ever in the same room.
(By the way, we’re planning to hire soon. If you’re an experienced journalist based in Edmonton or willing to move here, and you’re looking to work for an organization that genuinely cares how you’re doing, keep an eye out for our posting.)
As is our custom, Taproot Edmonton is about to take a two-week publishing break so we can catch our breath and be strong for the rest of the year. We’ll publish The Pulse and our roundups until Aug. 18, then we’ll be off until Sept. 5. You can expect a couple of episodes of Speaking Municipally during the break, however, as city council will be back in session and our civic affairs podcast will have things to say.
If you like what Taproot is doing and would like to help us go further faster, become a member or a sponsor. And if you know someone who wants to better understand what’s going on in Edmonton, tell them about us. (It looks like we won’t be able to rely on Meta for that.) We’re building what comes next in local media, and we’re working hard to make sure it’s better and healthier than what we’re replacing.
Taproot Publishing 