Funding & Transparency
On this page, we try to anticipate and answer any questions our audience might have about our business and editorial practices. If there’s anything missing, please get in touch to ask about it!
Organizational Structure
Peterborough Currents began in 2020 as a business partnership with Ayesha Barmania and Will Pearson as equal owners. On January 1 2022, we evolved from a partnership to a corporation by forming Peterborough Currents Media Inc., a private corporation which has two shareholders: Ayesha Barmania and Will Pearson. Effectively, this transition meant the founding of a whole new business, and the partnership wound down in early 2022.
Ayesha ended their day-to-day involvement with Currents as of December 31, 2022, leaving Will to assume the role of publisher and editor. Will is now responsible for business decisions and editorial oversight, but Ayehsa remains on as a 50% owner of the corporation.
Neither Ayesha nor Will have ever drawn on their equity in the business: all profits are reinvested in the company to produce more journalism. We do pay ourselves for hours worked when our budgets allow, but much of our labour since 2020 has been unpaid.
Financial Transparency Documents
As a business that relies on voluntary contributions from our community, we believe we have a responsibility to share with you how we are spending the money you contribute. Please see our financial transparency reports below.
Peterborough Currents 2022 Financial Transparency Report
Peterborough Currents 2023 Financial Transparency Report
Peterborough Currents 2024 Financial Transparency Report
Funding Disclosures
Audience Revenue
Our most important source of revenue comes from our audience. Here is what our community contributed to the company over the past four years.
| 2021 Audience Revenue (Partnership) | $24,292.65 |
| 2022 Audience Revenue (Corporation) | $30,015.85 |
| 2023 Audience Revenue (Corporation) | $40,114.23 |
| 2024 Audience Revenue (Corporation) | $63,910.99 |
Grants
Our second most important source of revenue is grants. These grants have all come with relatively few strings attached, and no granting bodies have ever interfered with our editorial process. Here are all the grants we’ve ever received.
| Granting Body | Year | Receiving Entity | Amount |
|---|---|---|---|
| Facebook Journalism Project | 2020 | Partnership | $5,000 USD |
| Meta Journalism Project | 2021 | Partnership | $50,000 USD |
| Inspirit Foundation | 2021 | Partnership | $10,000 |
| Indiegraf Media | 2022 | Corporation | $25,000 + in-kind services |
| Indiegraf Media | 2023 | Corporation | $6,282.50 + in-kind services |
| Indiegraf Media | 2024 | Corporation | $85,000 + in-kind services |
| Canadian Periodical Fund | 2024 | Corporation | $10,155 |
Peterborough Currents gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Government of Canada through its Canadian Periodical Fund.
Sales
Our third most important revenue source is sales of advertising and other products and services. This revenue stream has been negligible over the first four years of Currents, but we hope to increase it in the future.
Editorial Policies
Editorial decision making
We set our own editorial agenda, driven primarily by the interests of our readers and our own instinct for what stories need to be told to advance our community’s understanding of itself and its challenges and opportunities. We prioritize telling stories that would otherwise go untold in the local media ecosystem.
Sources we know
Peterborough is a small city, and we are involved in our community. That involvement deepens our connection to the city, which makes for better journalism. However, it also means that from time to time we have pre-existing relationships with potential sources for a story. When this happens, our policy is to always seek out alternative sources prior to relying on the person we know.
Errors
When we make an error, we correct it and add a correction note to the story.
Advertising and Sponsored Content
Any advertising and sponsored content is clearly disclosed as such. Content sponsors might direct us to cover a certain topic, but they do not determine how we cover that topic or what sources we consult, and they do not vet our content in advance.
Unnamed sources
Our default is to conduct all interviews on the record. Occasionally, when a source has legitimate reasons for requesting anonymity and we cannot otherwise report the information they share, we withhold their name but describe their position or relation to the story. In this case, the Currents team verifies their identify and does not disclose it to anyone.
Other disclosures
Peterborough Currents has an ongoing relationship with Indiegraf Media, a marketing and web development agency that provides services to news outlets across North America.
Peterborough Currents is a member of Press Forward, a coalition of independent and innovative Canadian news publishers.
