If this is our last issue, I couldn’t be prouder. It’s my favourite one yet with the the best collaborators and such powerful voices:@LamarJohnsonn + Kiana Madeira@realsarahpolley + Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers@kdeveryjacobs @samchizanga @nataliamanzocco @clevack & on & on … pic.twitter.com/nQrfxqmiGp

— Radheyan Simonpillai (@JustSayRad) August 17, 2022

NOW Magazine’s acting editor Radheyan Simonpillai has shared that the August print issue may be the publication’s last. Simonpillai revealed in a tweet that the team behind the alt-weekly and its website have now gone without pay for 21 weeks. Media Central Corp., the parent organization of both NOW and Vancouver alt-weekly The Georgia Straight, filed for bankruptcy in March. Since then, NOW has been printing monthly rather than weekly. NOW was founded in 1981 by Michael Hollet and Alice Klein.

The Canadian Journalism Foundation’s (CJF) J-Talks Live series kicks off its fall season on Sept. 13 with a two-part virtual event focused on Canadian news startups. The CJF will showcase 10 visionaries who will share their insights on the growing media sector, new business models and current challenges, including Erin Millar, Indiegraf; Emma Gilchrist, The Narwhal; Chuck Lapointe, Narcity Media Group; Farhan Mohamed, Overstory Media Group; Brandi Schier, Discourse Community Publishing; Linda Solomon Wood, Canada’s National Observer; Brett Chang, The Peak; Matthew DiMera, The Resolve; Eden Fineday, IndigiNews; and Anita Li, The Green Line. 

Substack is piloting Substack Threads, a feature that gives writers a dedicated space to host private conversations with subscribers and share text, images and links directly from the app that readers can react and reply to. Prompted by the evolution of several Substacks that have evolved “into far more than just an email newsletter,” including book clubs and live events, the platform says Threads essentially gives writers their own “private social network” where they set the rules of engagement and own the relationships with members without having to compete with an algorithm. A select group of publications and their readers are currently testing the feature.