Davis published the first issue of This Magazine, then known asThis Magazine Is About Schools, in 1966 with a group of fellow school activists. Interested in developing a magazine that allowed for interaction between the readers and the magazine, Davis wrote in the first issue: “This Magazine will die and should die if it merely reflects the views of a small group in Toronto.” Today, the alternative magazine is known for its focus on Canadian politics, culture, and the arts. It has featured a number of well-known Canadian contributors, including Margaret Atwood, Naomi Klein, and Michael Ondaatje.

Dinnick attributes his success to the OpenFile team and their belief that the interactive news platform is the way of the future. As audiences start to access news differently and participatory journalism becomes more popular, it’s evident that the journalism industry is going through a shift in the way news is consumed, gathered, and released to the public.

Though some journalists are concerned with this shift, as explained by Alfred Hermida in Participatory Journalism, this isn’t the first time the field has seen a major alteration in how news is presented. Since its humble beginnings as broadsides in the 18th century to the transition from radio to television in the late 1940s, journalism has always been at the mercy of technological advances. OpenFile‘s concept may scare some writers, but above all it’s an example of how journalists must face new challenges in the digital age, continually adapting in order to engage their audience.Or as Dinnick said in an interview with J-Source, “We’re kind of doing this thing that … I’m not sure everyone believes is going to be the future, [but] we do.”