The Leveller is a left-leaning newspaper covering campus issues, the city of Ottawa, and the wider world. Our aim is to provide news and analysis in support of people everywhere who are fighting oppression. We are a democratic organization, and we side with people over profit.
The Leveller is a small-staffed project that pays small honourariums, while also relying on volunteer labour. We couldn’t publish without people like you writing and editing articles, taking pictures, doing illustrations, laying out the paper, and giving it to people.
Getting involved with the Leveller generally falls into five categories: content, editorial, production, distribution, and business.
Content is what drives all our work. We are always looking for new writers, photographers, artists, reviewers, horoscopists, etc. who want to create power-challenging content with us. If you’re interested in creating podcasts or videos, so are we are! (Get in touch).
Our Leveller News & Analysis Writing Guide explains how to write for the Leveller. Our Submission Guidelines and Honourarium Policy detail how to get published and paid. Email editors@leveller.ca to talk directly with us about pitches. You can also join us for our next Story Meeting held at the beginning of every month to pitch stories or pick up a story idea.
Editorial work shapes the content of the paper. Editors contribute story ideas, recruit writers, sometimes write stories themselves, and (obviously) edit stories as they come in.
More specifically, story editing involves making the story clearer or stronger, ensuring it has the necessary information. Copy editing involves fixing spelling and grammar, correcting factual errors, double-checking names and titles, and making sure style conventions are consistent for each piece. Proofreading involves finding last-minute errors in a laid-out pages.
Production involves putting the paper together and maintaining the website. It includes laying out the stories and adding graphics to make a solid visual design. Photography management and illustration are also part of production. Layout of the physical newspaper has been put on temporary hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, but all other areas of producing our online content are welcoming volunteers.
Distribution entails getting The Leveller into readers’ hands, or to places where people will read it. Newspaper distribution has been put on temporary hold during the COVID-19 pandemic, but we are experimenting with posters to promote our digital-only issues.
We’d love to level up our social media game! If you’d like to help with that form of distribution, get in touch!
Business is all the stuff that has to happen to make sure we have the money to get the paper printed and pay our staff. The operations manager is responsible for this general area, but volunteers are needed to assist. Volunteers can help with advertisement sales, particularly to small businesses off campus that might support our newspaper. Helping with fundraising, sharing our news articles, and seeking out subscribers for our Liberapay are ways for volunteers to support the Leveller.
Sign Up
If you want to create content for us, you can subscribe to our Contributors email announcement list to get story meeting invitations, due dates and calls for pitches.
If roles besides content creation have caught your interest, fill out the Leveller Contributor Application Form.
If you just want to read the Leveller as it is published, sign up to our Newsletter.
Opportunities to get involved are also posted to our Twitter and Mastodon accounts. As of August 2023, posts are blocked on our Facebook and Instagram.