One year of The Hatchet, our Brookfield series and a new look

It's our birthday and we can cry if we want to

An exclusive look inside The Hatchet’s recording studio (also known as Arshy’s dining table with a blanket thrown over it) with Andrea Werhun.

For the last few months, I’ve been wondering what the hell happened to podcasts.

Maybe you’ve noticed the difference too. A decade ago, it felt like this new medium was the future of in-depth journalism. Every few weeks, a major investigative podcast seemed to drop out of nowhere. Here in Canada (where the news media collapse has been even faster and harder than in America), long-form podcasts were a rare bright spot in an otherwise dreary landscape.

So where did all of those shows go?

It feels like the organizations that were once putting out deeply-reported podcast series have either given up or pivoted to putting out low-effort work.

And then this week, I came across came across this article from Rolling Stone about the death of the narrative podcast.

The article not only confirmed my suspicions that something bad was happening, but it detailed exactly how the fall took place. Media organizations thought that narrative podcasts would be huge money-makers, either by going viral or by selling IP rights to Hollywood. When that didn’t work out as planned, they cut off funding.

I don’t blame them. These are companies that have to make a profit to survive. But it’s still an enormous loss for people like me who are desperate for actual in-depth journalism in a world increasingly dominated by propaganda and bullshit.

Which is why I’m proud to say that a year after our launch, The Hatchet is still going strong. And more importantly, we’re about to put out our most ambitious long-form project to date.

As many of you know, we’ve been working on a series about Brookfield, one of the most powerful companies in the world. And over the next few weeks, we’ll be releasing our four-part series on this corporate behemoth.

It really is an almost unbelievable story. We delve into Brookfield’s murky (and legally-dubious) origins and explain how they’re ushering in an entirely new era of global capitalism — one that leaves everyday people worse-off. We look into why some of the smartest people in global finance think there are signs of rot at the core of their empire. And how it might all be falling apart.

It’s a true Canadian epic about how the money from Saskatchewan’s biggest-ever criminal enterprise took control of the commanding heights of the global economy.

In other words, it’s exactly the kind of long-form podcast that media organizations have stopped investing in.

Which is why, if you aren’t already, I’m asking you to become a paid supporter.

Your support is essential to getting our ambitious journalism over the finish line. We’ve already started a number of in-depth projects that we’re hoping to release over the next year. These touch on Canadian companies involved in America’s immigration detention system, organized crime in Vancouver and Toronto, sexual abuse in the Catholic Church and much more.

Over the last year, The Hatchet has published nearly 40 episodes, as well as around a dozen print pieces. Jordan and I are certainly proud of the work we’ve been able to do. We’ve been working together for seven years, and this is by far the largest volume of output we’ve produced, despite having no additional resources at our disposal.

But we’re still not satisfied. We want to be able to publish more of the long-form, narrative podcasts that we’ve come to specialize in.

So far, more than 500 of you signed up to be paid supporters. I really can’t describe just how much your trust means to us. Very few independent Canadian publications ever reach that level of support, let alone after just twelve months.

So from the bottoms of our hearts, we want to say thank you to everyone who has chipped in. But I also want to ask you for another favour.

Please help spread the word. As you might have noticed, The Hatchet doesn’t have a robust social media presence so far. That’s mostly because we’ve been so focused on the journalism, that we’ve neglected promotion. (But also partially because both Jordan and I have only a rudimentary understanding of social media). So anything you can do to tell other people about The Hatchet will help immensely.

Because if we want to keep going, we’re going to need even more people to jump on board. Unlike other outlets, there are no grants that we qualify for and no government money available to us. Our long-term goal is to eventually reach 2000 paid supporters, which would ensure our financial viability. In the meantime, both Jordan and I are willing to burn through our own money to keep The Hatchet alive.

Because we believe that Canadians deserve in-depth journalism that takes this country seriously. And we know that you feel the same way.

Additionally, we’re also very pleased to unveil some new branding for The Hatchet. Our initial look was always meant to be temporary, especially because it was made last-minute in Canva by a man who almost failed fine art class in middle school (me).

But earlier this year, we hired the incredibly-talented Joshua Duchesne to create a new visual identity for our publication. And I really think what he came up with captures the essence of what we want The Hatchet to be— a deeply Canadian publication that challenges the easy, comforting myths that we tell ourselves in this country.

And in an attempt to further humanize us, here’s Jordan and I at a Blue Jays game earlier this year. (No subscriber money was spent on Blue Jays tickets).