Lessons on growth from building The Green Line (and life) 🌱
Plus: A special announcement…
Hey y’all, Anita here. The Other Wave is going on hiatus for good reason, so this is the last newsletter I’ll be writing for at least until January 2026. Stick around and read on to find out why… 😊
For this month’s edition, I want to talk about growth both personally and professionally. But first, let’s start with The Green Line.
2025 has been all about building our audience, and by mid-year, we’ve made a lot of progress. The Green Line’s unique active users from January to June 2025 — just half of the calendar year — is up more than 24 per cent compared to all of 2024, and more than 100 per cent compared to all of 2023. In fact, The Green Line has already surpassed our combined unique active users across both prior years — with six months left to go.
What’s even more meaningful is that over 80 per cent of this traffic came through organic search and direct visits, which suggests there’s strong local awareness and trust in our journalism. This achievement is especially notable because we did it without paid campaigns (this past June, The Green Line launched our first month-long paid social campaign since 2022). Instead, our growth is powered by a strong audience-product alignment and loyal local partners, such as CityNews Toronto and Scadding Court Community Centre, who see value in what we do and help us reach not just more — but genuinely engaged — Torontonians.
The Green Line’s current trajectory is striking for a hyperlocal newsroom that just turned 3 years old because we’re not just growing quickly — we’re building an audience-focused foundation with staying power. Our approach is one that other publishers are only starting to embrace.
In his newsletter Rebooting, Brian Morrissey recently wrote that “the end of the pageview economy is unfolding slowly and then all at once.” Publishers who’ve historically used SEO hacks and social referrals to chase raw scale and attract ad impressions are now struggling. For example, Business Insider’s recent major cuts, which were tied to 70 per cent of its revenue being dependent on traffic, foreshadows a larger trend in the media industry.
That’s why The Green Line’s focus on direct relationships, brand clarity and local trust will help us move towards and maintain sustainability in the long term. As our industry braces for shifts like AI-native search and less reliable referral pipelines, our model based on deeply rooted hyperlocal journalism will be resilient. AI-native search tends to draw on widely available national and international datasets, whereas unique coverage at the neighbourhood level isn’t deeply indexed in training data, which means they’re less replaceable by AI summaries. What’s more, as pageviews decline across the board, advertisers and philanthropic funders will likely be reassessing metrics for success, looking more at engagement, loyalty and impact — all of which The Green Line optimizes for.
Other highlights from 2025 (so far)
Growing an engaged audience is our no. 1 goal for 2025 — and it’s paying off. We reallocated editorial resources from lower-return projects into high-impact work, sharpened our value proposition and launched “How to Toronto: Our no-BS guide to city living,” which doubled our newsletter subscribers in under a month. Spearheaded by our fabulous consultant Terra Gillespie, our modest $1,000 social campaign in June yielded an impressive $1.12 CPL (in this case, newsletter subscribers) with high open rates and low churn.
As of this month, The Green Line’s Action Journey model® is officially a registered trademark in Canada! This cements our position as leaders in solutions-focused, action-oriented journalism. We’re also seeing strong interest from funders and other media outlets in both Canada and the U.S. who want to explore how this model could work in their own communities.
I built a powerhouse — but even more importantly, supportive, values-aligned and fun! — advisory board to help guide The Green Line strategically:
Steve Pratt is the author of Earn It: Unconventional Strategies for Brave Marketers and the founder of The Creativity Business, which offers keynotes, workshops and consulting to help companies develop differentiated content, marketing and messaging that earns attention. Steve is also the co-founder of the world’s first branded podcast agency, Pacific Content, named one of Entrepreneur’s “100 Brilliant Companies.”
Cary Lavine is a CPA and entrepreneur from Toronto who built RL Solutions, a world-leading healthcare software firm from five employees to 220 without the aid of external equity, ultimately leading to a private equity sale in 2018. He stayed on through 10+ acquisitions as the company grew to 1,400 employees. Cary is now focused more on giving back to his community.
Ashley Woods Branch is a media executive, strategist and founder with more than 20 years of experience helping news organizations grow and thrive. Ashley is the vice-president of growth and publisher success at BlueLena. Previously, she served as executive director of the Fund for Equity in Local News, where she supported over 240 publishers through digital transformation, coaching and grantmaking. She lives outside of Detroit with her husband and three children.
Herman Ellis Jr. is executive director of Scadding Court Community Centre, leading the development and coordination of programs and services for a diverse community in downtown Toronto. Herman has dedicated over 35 years of service to the centre and the Alexandra Park community, working in community development, program design and coordination, project management, financial administration, and policy research and development.
Nicholas Hill is the Startup Legal Support (SLS) Lead at the DMZ, where he helps early-stage entrepreneurs navigate complex legal challenges through innovative, accessible solutions. A graduate of Toronto Metropolitan University’s Lincoln Alexander School of Law and former tech founder, Nic created the SLS and IP Clinic programs to deliver pro bono legal support, and empower Canadian startups to protect and scale their ventures.
Ornella Sinigaglia leads marketing at PressReader, where she connects global audiences with quality journalism through innovative campaigns and partnerships. Ornella has over a decade of experience spanning journalism, video production and brand storytelling. Formerly a journalist for Il Sole24ORE and co-producer of the award-winning documentary Shepherds in the Cave, she now channels her passion for media into empowering publishers and readers around the world.
Aaron Williamson is the CEO of Goal17, a data, strategy and design agency focused on tackling the world’s most challenging problems through collaborative, network-based approaches. With 15 years of experience in the delivery of business strategy and transformation processes for Fortune 500s, international NGOs and the United Nations, Aaron is passionate about creating solutions for clients with complex issues involving diverse stakeholders.
I (and by extension, The Green Line) have been experimenting with AI, especially in the context of community-driven journalism. This year, I started teaching AI for Audience Research and AI for Marketing & Business as part of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY’s AI Community Engagement Lab. I also worked with my advisory board member Aaron on developing secure, efficient workflows for capturing The Green Line’s community survey data (read Goal17’s guides on simple AI transcription workflow in NotebookLM and solving AI’s security and compliance problems for details). Finally, I’ve been co-developing a national “AI Ethics Guardrails” as part of the Canadian Association of Journalists’ Ethics Advisory Committee alongside fellow AI working group members Karen Unland and Nebal Snan.
The bottom line? 2025 has been The Green Line’s strongest year to date in terms of mission alignment, product focus, innovation, and audience and revenue growth. More than ever, with an incredible team and dedicated advisory board, we’re ready to deal with whatever pivot — policy, platform or otherwise — our industry throws at us.
So, why am I stepping away for the next little while? Personally, I’m welcoming the most important “growth milestone” of my life: My husband and I are expecting a baby due within days! 👶🏻❤️
I really can’t articulate how overjoyed we are for this next big chapter in our lives. It’s incredibly important for me to be a present mother for my child, so that is and always will be my no. 1 priority. My team will continue pushing ahead under the leadership of The Green Line’s fantastic managing editor Yara El Murr, so please reach out to her at editor (at) thegreenline.to for all things TGL.
The Green Line pocket guide
Summer in Toronto is short 🌞 So, how do we make the most out of it?
The Green Line’s got you 🫡 This month, we’re releasing our first-ever pocket guide — How to Toronto: Our no-BS guide to city living.
You’ll find videos to navigate the most confusing PATH routes, a playlist to introduce you to Toronto’s local music hits and maps to find the best third spaces and hiking trails — as well as bathrooms and Wi-Fi spots so you don’t have to cut your trip short.
Finally, want to keep things affordable? Check our food map, cost-of-living calculator and renting tips.
Grab your free copy today 👉🏽 https://thegreenline.to/tool/toronto-city-living-guide/
Quick and Clean
Listen to Samara Centre for Democracy’s Group Chat, which was just listed as one of Amazon Music’s Best Podcasts This Week. The new podcast, which interviews me in episode 5, features thought-provoking conversations with former Green Party of Canada leader Annamie Paul and Digital Public partner Bianca Wylie.
I highly recommend reading this post by the Institute for Nonprofit News’ Jonathan Kealing (via my advisory board member and friend Ashley) who answers this thorny but unavoidable question: Are we re-imagining local journalism for the people who need it — or the people who will fund it?
Many thanks to the Solutions Journalism Network for shouting out The Green Line and highlighting our journey in its Above the Fold newsletter (plus find out what my longtime party trick is)!
Calling all Canadian news entrepreneurs: You can connect with other indie publishers through LION’s peer learning groups. Apply to join a group by Friday, July 25 at 8 p.m. ET.
Finally, bookmark this handy database of up-to-date freelance rates for hundreds of publications worldwide — all curated by Tim Herrera who writes the Substack, Freelancing with Tim.
How you can support The Other Wave
My professional mission has always been to support the global movement towards more thoughtful, impactful news coverage, and all the ways that manifests. If The Other Wave gets you to think even a little differently about journalism, especially in Canada, then I will have accomplished what I set out to do. And if TOW gets you to take action and support Canadian media outlets — especially ones that strive to be innovative and inclusive — I will have exceeded my expectations.
If my values and goals resonate with you, please consider supporting fiercely independent media analysis that fills in gaps in coverage of the Canadian journalism landscape. How? Feel free to provide feedback, pass along resources, donate money or simply share this newsletter with your friends.
Congratulations!
Congratulations! I’m happy for you and your growing family.