Canada’s online media landscape is about to get interesting.
Daily Hive’s former Editor-in-Chief Farhan Mohamed has teamed up with tech entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson to launch Overstory Media Group (OMG), a new media company that wants to breathe life into the media industry and it’s targeting local communities.
Wilkinson is the Co-founder of Tiny, a Victoria-based technology holding company that owns businesses like MetaLab, Dribbble, and WeCommerce.
The genesis of OMG began with Wilkinson.
“I’ve always loved the news and wanted to give back to my community of Victoria, so in 2019, I set out to recreate the local newspaper in digital form, by creating a simple daily newsletter focused on my hometown which today has nearly 50,000 subscribers,” said Wilkinson about the launch.
That publication is OMG’s OG property, Victoria’s Capital Daily.
Mohamed helped grow Daily Hive from a passion project to a fully operating newsroom across Canada reaching 6.5 million people monthly.
Mohamed announced his departure from Daily Hive one year ago.
But don’t expect OMG to chase pageviews and clicks the way Mohamed’s previous property did. OMG promises to deliver “high-quality, fact-based journalism and storytelling” and with Wilkinson’s design background, the user experience should be easy on the eyes.
During an interview last week, Mohamed told Techcouver that in his previous role at Daily Hive he “was part of the problem” with today’s media landscape, recounting stories of a newsroom that pushed its writers to publish at an unsustainable pace.
The last year has given Mohamed time to reflect and its safe to say that OMG will be a different type of publisher. One that chooses quality over quantity and with communities at its core.
“We intend to help people find common ground through storytelling. In an era of news fatigue, we believe that informed communities are empowered communities and that content is best delivered by the people within them,” said Mohamed.
“Our media network is a collective of like-minded individuals who care deeply about their community and the stories that drive them. Communities are transforming and the pandemic has shown us that more than ever before, people are searching for ways to connect.”
With Mohamed at the helm, the company plans to expand across Canada, launching 50 community brands by 2023 and adding 250 journalists to its roster. OMG is currently hiring reporters and editors in Burlington, Edmonton, Hamilton, Lethbridge, Oakville, Ottawa, Richmond, Saskatoon, and Surrey.
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