Energeticcity.ca Weekly Review: 2024 Annual Report

Welcome to the next installment of the Weekly Review, a series where we mention what’s going on behind the scenes and showcase the previous week’s top stories.

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Behind the Scenes

Welcome to Energeticcity.ca’s 2024 Annual Report. This is our first annual report we have done since opening in 2008 and is part of our effort to be more transparent with our readers and Supporters.​ In this email, we will share some behind-the-scenes information on the health of our news organization and our plans for 2025. If you have any questions or comments, you can let me know at areaburn@moosemediafsj.ca

The Finances

I first started Energeticcity.ca in 2008 as an expansion of Moose FM. Since we were already covering local news on the radio, it made sense to expand our focus with a dedicated news site. Over the years, how we have funded our journalism has shifted due to internal and external forces.

For example, we are now the largest newsroom in northeast B.C., with five full-time reporters located in Fort St John. While I believe local news is essential for keeping communities connected, it does not come without a cost. 

We have budgeted to spend over $300,000 in 2025 on wages for the newsroom staff. This does not include other operating costs, such as rent, utilities, website hosting, support and digital advertising staff, and other general business costs. 

Energeticcity.ca generates most of its revenue from advertising and advertising services. The businesses of Fort St. John and the North Peace provide over 70% of our revenue. Moose Media’s services include our ads on the website and digital marketing services. We help local businesses with digital marketing like social media management, Google Search management and more. We also expect to receive revenue from Google this year due to the Online News Act. There are also tax breaks and grants that we received from the Federal Government and money donated by local readers. This chart breaks down where our money comes from:

One of the biggest questions I’m asked is how we remain independent while still accepting funding from the Federal Government. Like many businesses, when grants or tax breaks are offered by any level of government, it makes sense to take advantage of those programs. Those programs in no way dictate what we do and the stories we write. My integrity isn’t for sale and never will be. If these programs disappear, we will still be here, we will just shift like any business would and adjust what we do to make sure we can continue to operate.  

Inside the Newsroom

As mentioned earlier in this email, we currently have five full-time reporters working in the newsroom. A big change for us partway through 2024 was the departure of Tre Lopushinsky from our News Director position. The News Director helps organize the reporters and provides direction for new projects and what stories we cover while also building relationships with other local organizations. Tre joined our team in 2021 and helped us not only expand the newsroom but also guided it through the pandemic, the Online News Act, and more. Thank you to Tre for being with us and we wish him the best in future endeavours. 

I also want to give a special thanks to our reporter Steve Berard for stepping in as Interim News Director. Steve had only been with us for a couple of months before stepping into such an important role. I am excited to announce that we do have a new News Director: Franki Berry. Franki joined us on January 20 and is adjusting well to the position.

As of this writing, we now have Franki Berry as our News Director, Steve Berard and Max Bowder as General Reporters, Caitlin Coombes as our Civic Reporter, and Ed Hitchins as our Indigenous Voices Reporter. If you would like to reach out to our reporters about a story or to provide feedback, you can do so at contact@energeticcity.ca

By The Numbers

As part of our goal for transparency, I wanted to share some stats that we saw during 2024. For the most part, we had a general increase across the board compared to 2023, so thank you for continuing to trust us as your source for local news.

• Social Media
  • 1,421 new followers on TikTok
  • 714 new followers on LinkedIn
  • 304 new subscribers on YouTube
• Newsletters
  • 660 new Daily Newsletter subscribers
  • 570 new Peace Politics subscribers
  • 298 new Events Newsletter subscribers
• 1,039 App downloads
• 61 new Supporters

• YouTube
• TikTok
• LinkedIn
• X
• Threads
• Bluesky

Plans for 2025

Right now, we are running our 2025 Reader Survey where you can let us know what you want to see more of in the new year. Click here to take our survey. Our other plans for 2025 include the People’s Choice Awards coming in the spring, the federal election happening at some point this year, and continuing to expand our digital marketing services through Moose Media.

Moose Media​ was a major project for us in 2024. The goal of this new company is to better combine our offerings for local businesses from both Moose FM and Energeticcity. Our plan for 2025 is to continue refining our advertising services to fund our journalism and help other businesses advertise in our community.

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Thanks again for supporting Energeticcity.ca! If you have any questions or concerns, you can reach out to me at areaburn@moosemediafsj.ca or our Reader Engagement Lead Greg at greg@moosemediafsj.ca

Most-Read Stories of the Week

It’s always interesting to see what the readers of Energeticcity.ca are most curious about. Sometimes it’s a big decision that will impact property taxes, and sometimes it’s a new restaurant coming to town. Here are the most-read stories for the week of February 2 to 8, 2025:

1. Employment Continues to Decline: at the Site C dam. BC Hydro has released the December employment statistics for the in-construction hydroelectric dam, showing the workforce fell to 1,866, down from 2,149 in November.
2. Fort St John was Colder than Antarctica: on Monday, February 3, 2025. Fort St John recorded wind chill temperatures of -41°C, some of the lowest outdoor temperatures in the world and colder than Antarctica by six degrees. 
3. Tower Cranes at New Dawson Creek Hospital Build Removed: as construction continues. Workers have nearly finished installing structural steel and the installation of interior framing, windows, and other essentials is well underway.

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