The Leveller has hit four years of providing an alternative voice to issues related to Carleton and the Ottawa community.
The first issue of the newspaper hit the stands Feb. 18, 2009, and now publishes “every month or so,” as its website states.
The paper says it is “intended to provide readers with a lively portrait of their campus and community and of the events that give it meaning.”
“I think that the Leveller has an important role to play in providing critical coverage in Ottawa,” said Samantha Ponting, a Carleton graduate student who sits on the editorial board.
“We do try to bring to light issues that don’t necessarily receive the type of media coverage that they deserve,” she said.
The Leveller has recently increased its circulation from 3,000 copies to 3,500 copies, said Daniel Tubb, a Carleton PhD student who sits on the Leveller’s governing board.
Tubb first got involved with the Leveller in 2009 as part of the editorial board.
“There was room for a paper that linked campus to the community,” he said.
At times the project was supported financially by the scholarships of those close to the project, Tubb said.
More stable times came in 2010, when the Leveller won a student referendum to raise a $1.50 levy from Carleton’s graduate students.
That money now funds the Leveller’s only part-time employee, Ponting said, who takes care of operations.
“As far as all the writers, and the editorial side of things, that’s all volunteer,” Tubb said.
Because the Leveller is partially funded by the levy, it tries to provide coverage on issues of importance to Carleton’s graduate students, Ponting said.
“We’ve been expanding off campus to kind of develop one footing in the community as well, and we’ve expanded to other campuses in the city,” Ponting said, referring to the University of Ottawa and Algonquin College.
On its website, the Leveller self-identifies as left-leaning. When asked about whether or not this could introduce bias into their coverage, Ponting said the notion of bias in journalism is a false one.
“There is no paper in this country that doesn’t have a particular social positioning or economic positioning,” she said.
“There’s no such thing as two sides to every story. There are multiple sides to every story. And no media outlet will ever effectively present all the sides to every story.”
“We explicitly identify as a community paper, in terms of actively choosing to side with people over profit,” Ponting said. “We have taken more integrity I think to journalism because of that honesty.”
The Leveller will have its final copy for the school year in March, Tubb said.
