This Magazine is an independent Canadian publication, in print and online, that has been running for more than five decades and covers progressive politics, arts, culture, and the social questions that sit alongside them. The site reads like the digital home of a magazine that knows exactly who it is. It puts journalism and analysis first, and it sorts that work into subject areas a reader can follow over time: politics and the environment, health and education, Indigenous rights, 2SLGBTQ+ issues, media, race, and literature. That spread is wide, but it holds together around a clear editorial point of view, so the breadth reads as a deliberate choice and not a scattershot one.
Original reporting and editorial voice
What carries the site is original writing. This Magazine publishes its own reporting and commentary, and the topic mix tells you the kind of stories it chases: pieces grounded in policy and lived experience, with a literary streak that shows up in how the writing reads and in the attention it gives to books and culture. A magazine that has lasted over fifty years without folding into a larger media company has had to keep an audience that comes back, and the way the work is organized here suggests an editorial team that thinks about returning readers rather than one-off clicks. Browsing the archives for a few minutes, it becomes obvious that This Magazine has a consistent editorial voice, one that is opinionated without being shrill, and literary without losing sight of the reporting.
Reader subscriptions fund the publication
The money side is stated plainly, and how a publication funds itself matters to how you read everything else it says. This Magazine runs on reader subscriptions, donations, and advertising, and it makes a point of saying it does not take corporate funding. Home delivery is offered for people who still want the print object on the table, and the digital side is there for everyone else. A publication funded by its readers answers to those readers, and the editorial independence the site claims is easier to believe when you can see where the revenue actually comes from.
Subscription options and transparency
For someone deciding whether to subscribe, the picture is reasonably complete. You can see what the magazine covers, you can sign up for a newsletter to sample the cadence before paying, and the subscription and donation routes are both present. I went looking for a paywall trap or some buried auto-renew language and did not find the usual tricks, though the real test of any subscription is the renewal months later, which no homepage can show you. What the site does well is make the value proposition legible: this is what This Magazine publishes, this is how it stays alive, and here is how you can help keep it going.
Commissioning writers and selling advertising
There is also a working relationship on offer beyond reading. The site carries contributor submission guidelines for writers who want to pitch, and it lists advertising opportunities for businesses that want to reach the audience. Both are signs of an operation that is still actively commissioning and still selling space. A site that is open to pitches and to ad bookings is one that expects new work and new clients to keep arriving, which tells you the magazine is running, not coasting on old material. Finding it in a business directory is the most minimal possible confirmation of its existence, given how much more substantial its actual output is, but the point stands: This Magazine is an active, publishing organisation with current open channels for writers and advertisers.
Podcast extends journalism into audio format
Alongside the written work, This Magazine produces a podcast called "We Need to Talk About This." The name is a small joke on the publication's title, and its presence says the team is willing to put its journalism into a second format and keep up with how people consume long-form commentary now. A podcast requires real ongoing labour to maintain, so its existence is another marker that this is a live editorial shop and not a static website. This Magazine has been producing the podcast alongside its regular print and web output, which takes genuine editorial capacity.
Social media presence across multiple platforms
The social presence backs all of that up. This Magazine is on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, posting under the handle @thismagazine, which gives readers a steady stream of headlines and a place to reply. For a reader-funded title, those channels do double duty: they distribute the work and they keep the relationship with subscribers warm between issues. None of this is unusual for a modern magazine, but it is all present and consistent, which is more than some long-running publications manage when they let their digital side drift. The handle is the same across platforms, which makes This Magazine easy to find and follow without hunting around.
Contact through forms rather than direct lines
Getting in touch is handled through a form on the site rather than a wall of phone numbers. The social accounts work as a second front door. No phone number or street address shows on the homepage, which is worth flagging plainly: a reader who wants to reach a person directly will be routed through a form and a reply, not a direct line. For a magazine that operates mostly online and corresponds with writers and readers by message, that is a defensible setup, even if a visible mailing address would add a touch of reassurance for anyone mailing a pitch or a cheque.
Limited third-party reviews available online
On outside opinion, there is not much to lean on. The clearest third-party trace is a listing on Express Mag, where This Magazine shows a single reader rating and no written reviews. Searches across the usual platforms did not turn up a body of customer reviews, ratings, or testimonials specific to this title. The absence of aggregated ratings is not a knock on the journalism. Magazines tend to be discussed through their articles and their reputation in the press, not rated like a restaurant, and a publication this old has a standing that does not really live on review sites. Still, a prospective subscriber hoping to read other readers' verdicts before paying will come up mostly empty, and that is fair to say plainly.
Weighing it as a whole, This Magazine presents itself as what it is: a veteran, reader-supported, left-leaning Canadian magazine with a clear remit, original journalism, a podcast, and a funding model it is upfront about. The strengths are concrete. The subject coverage is broad but coherent, the independence claim is backed by a stated no-corporate-money policy, and the site shows active commissioning through its submission and advertising pages. The softer spots are the absence of a phone number or address on the homepage and the near-total lack of independent reviews to corroborate the reader experience from the outside.
Focus on current work over institutional history
One thing worth noting after spending time with the site: for a publication that has lasted more than fifty years on the strength of its readers, This Magazine spends almost no energy on its own history or on telling you how venerable it is, and instead points you straight at the current work, the newsletter, and the ways to chip in. That choice says something about where the editorial attention actually sits.
