Straight Goods is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 online news magazine

Magazine

Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...

, usually publishing about twenty new stories every week. Publisher Ish Theilheimer founded it in 1999, with the support of about thirty shareholders.

Its first edition went online in January 2000.

Overview

Straight Goods' slogan is "Saving you money - Protecting your rights - Untangling spin". In keeping with this slogan, civil and human rights, consumer information and media criticism appear in every weekly issue. As well, SG has at least one weekly column about the labour movement and a strong emphasis on environmental issues. Readers regularly find original articles by outstanding thinkers such as Mel Watkins

Mel Watkins

Mel Watkins is a Canadian political economist and activist. He is professor emeritus of economics and political science at the University of Toronto...

, Stephen Lewis

Stephen Lewis

Stephen Henry Lewis, is a Canadian politician, broadcaster and diplomat. He was the leader of the social democratic Ontario New Democratic Party for most of the 1970s. During many of the those years as leader, his father David Lewis was simultaneously the leader of the Federal New Democratic Party...

, Linda McQuaig

Linda McQuaig

Linda Joy McQuaig is a Canadian journalist, columnist and non-fiction author.-History:Long a business reporter at the Globe and Mail, she subsequently wrote a column for the National Post before moving to her current job at the Toronto Star...

, Armine Yalnizyan, Aaron Freeman

Aaron Freeman

Aaron Freeman is an American journalist, stand up comedian, author, cartoonist and blogger.Freeman has performed with The Second City. As a stand up comedian, he is a member of the quartet the Israeli/Palestinian Comedy Tour...

, Gordon Guyatt

Gordon Guyatt

Gordon Henry Guyatt is a physician and Professor of Clinical Epidemiology & Biostatistics at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario. He is known for his work on evidence-based medicine, a term that first appeared in a paper he published. He has published over 450 peer-reviewed articles in...

, Cathy Crowe

Cathy Crowe

Cathy Crowe, RN is a Canadian nurse, educator and social activist, specializing in advocacy for the homeless in Canada. She was the Ontario New Democratic Party's candidate in the 2010 provincial by-election and in the 2011 provincial election in Toronto Centre.-Early life and education:Raised in...

, Stewart Steinhauer and Charles Gordon, as well as "Hot Headlines", which are summaries and links to interesting articles in other publications.

Straight Goods is supported by sponsors, and individual subscribers and donors. A regular free bulletin is sent out by email and paid subscribers have access to an archive of nearly 7500 articles.

Affiliated sites

In 2007, Straight Goods added a family of new websites. HarperIndex.ca is devoted to analysis and criticism of the government of Stephen Harper

Stephen Harper

Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...

, PublicValues.ca and its French sister site Valeurspubliques.ca are devoted to news around the maintenance of public services, and YourDailyClick.ca provides links to activist campaigns and online shopping sites endorsed by the magazine's editorial team.

The Straight Goods Blog was added in 2008.

Personnel

The magazine's editorial team is headed by editor Penney Kome

Penney Kome

Penney Kome is a Canadian author and journalist, editor of Straight Goods, a Canadian independent online newsmagazine. -Overview:Kome was born in Chicago in 1948, immigrated to Canada in 1968....

and webmaster Michael Cowley-Owen, who has been the webmaster since the magazine's founding.