The Local (magazine)

Digital Magazine

The Local

Type| News Website
Format| Online Newspaper
Founded| 2019 (2019)
Headquarters| Toronto, Ontario, Canada
ISSN| 2817-4720
Website| thelocal.to

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 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][5]

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.[6][7] 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).[8] 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.[9][10][11][12]

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.[13]

## Awards

[edit]

On May 3, 2022, The Local's pandemic coverage of Ontario's Peel region was won the 2022 World Press Freedom Award.[14] 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.[14]

On June 12, 2025, The Local received the CJF Jackman Award for Excellence in Journalism (small) for its groundbreaking neighbourhood-level analysis of life expectancy in Toronto published in their issue "Divided City".[15] The award is named after Dr. Eric Jackman and honours news organizations that embrace journalistic excellence — originality, courage, independence, accuracy, social responsibility, accountability and diversity — resulting in a positive impact on the communities they serve.[16]

Award  | Date  | Category  | Result  | Ref.

|
|
|
|

Digital Publishing Award  | 2020  | Best Feature Article: Short  | gold  | [17]
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  | [18]
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  | [19]
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
2023  | Best News Coverage (Community Publication)  | silver  | [20]
2023  | General Excellence in Digital Publishing: Small  | gold
2024  | Best Digital Editorial Package (Small)  | silver  | [21]
2024  | Best Data Journalism  | Nominated
2024  | Best News Coverage (Community Publication)  | gold
2024  | Best Digital Design  | Nominated
2024  | General Excellence in Digital Publishing (Small Publication)  | Nominated
2025  | Best Data Journalism  | Nominated  | [22]
2025  | Best News Coverage  | silver
2025  | Best Feature (Long)  | gold
2025  | Best Photo Storytelling  | Nominated
2025  | Best Arts & Culture Storytelling  | Nominated
2025  | General Excellence in Digital Publishing (Small Publication)  | gold
National Magazine Awards  | 2021  | Long-Form Feature Writing  | Nominated  | [23]
2021  | Portrait Photography  | Nominated
2022  | Short Feature  | silver  | [24]
2022  | Editor Grand Prix  | gold
2022  | Issue Grand Prix  | Nominated
2023  | Best Feature  | Nominated  | [25]
2023  | Long-Form Feature Writing  | Nominated
2023  | Best Editorial Package  | Nominated
2024  | Feature Writing  | Nominated  | [26]
2024  | Profile  | Nominated
2024  | Photo Essay & Photojournalism  | gold
2024  | Editorial Package  | Nominated
2024  | Best Emerging Writer  | Nominated
2025  | Long-Form Feature Writing: 6000+  | Nominated  | [27]
2025  | Long-Form Feature Writing  | Nominated
2025  | Feature Writing  | gold
2025  | Investigative Reporting  | Nominated
2025  | Illustrations  | silver
2025  | Photo Essay & Photojournalism  | gold
2025  | Editorial Package  | Nominated
2025  | Editor Grand Prix  | gold
Canadian Association of Journalists Awards  | 2024  | Community Written  | gold  | [28]
2021  | Portrait Photography  | gold

## References

[edit]

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.
2. ^ "The Local: X-Lab — The Future of Healthcare is Local". OpenLab. University Health Network.
3. ^ Waldman, Benjamin (April 18, 2018). "Inside the Business: Covering Toronto's Health From a Local Perspective". Review of Journalism. Ryerson University.
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.
5. ^ Chen, Sibo; Roburn, Shirley (4 March 2025). "When Pandemic Stories Become Personal Stories: Community Journalism and the Coverage of Health Inequalities". Journalism Practice. doi:10.1080/17512786.2023.2197420. ISSN 1751-2786.
6. ^ 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.
7. ^ 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.
8. ^ 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.
9. ^ Burman, Dilshad (January 3, 2022). "Independent Group Tracking Rapid Test Results in Toronto Schools". CityNews. Rogers Sports & Media.
10. ^ 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.
11. ^ "Toronto Dad Creates Portal for Parents to Log Kids' Positive COVID Results". Global News. Corus Entertainment. January 5, 2022. Retrieved 6 January 2022.
12. ^ 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.
13. ^ "Member Highlights — From the Local: A Year in Toronto". Press Forward. March 22, 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
14. ^ a b Vongdouangchanh, Bea. "World Press Freedom Canada announces 2022 Press Freedom Award Winners – World Press Freedom Canada". Retrieved 2022-05-05.
15. ^ Foundation, The Canadian Journalism. "Global News and The Local Win CJF Excellence Awards". www.newswire.ca.
16. ^ Foundation, The Canadian Journalism. "Global News and The Local Win CJF Excellence Awards". www.newswire.ca.
17. ^ "Announcing the Digital Publishing Award Winners of 2020". Digital Publishing Awards. 21 May 2020. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
18. ^ "Presenting the Winners of the 2021 Digital Publishing Awards". Digital Publishing Awards. 10 June 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
19. ^ "Digital Publishing Awards". Digital Publishing Awards. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
20. ^ "Digital Publishing Awards". Digital Publishing Awards. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
21. ^ "Digital Publishing Awards". Digital Publishing Awards. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
22. ^ "Digital Publishing Awards". Digital Publishing Awards. Retrieved 2025-05-05.
23. ^ "Presenting the Winners of the 2021 National Magazine Awards". National Magazine Awards. 12 June 2021. Retrieved March 30, 2022.
24. ^ "And the Winners Are…". National Magazine Awards. 2022-05-03. Retrieved 2022-05-05.
25. ^ "And the Winners Are…". National Magazine Awards. 2023-05-03. Retrieved 2023-05-05.
26. ^ "And the Winners Are…". National Magazine Awards. 2024-05-03. Retrieved 2024-05-05.
27. ^ "And the Winners Are…". National Magazine Awards. 2025-05-03. Retrieved 2025-05-05.
28. ^ "The Local Wins Two Canadian Association of Journalists Awards". National Magazine Awards. 3 June 2024. Retrieved March 30, 2024.

## External links

[edit]

* Official website