True North Strategic Review: 2025 End-of-Year Survey Analysis & Strategic Report
This report constitutes the comprehensive analysis of the inaugural End-of-Year Survey for the True North Strategic Review, marking a pivotal moment in the publication's history. As we close 2025, the publication has not only established itself as a premier voice in Canadian defense policy but has also experienced explosive growth that has far exceeded expectations.
With the subscriber base now surpassing 1,000 dedicated subscribers and monthly viewership shattering previous records to reach 130,000 (up significantly from the 100,000 milestone celebrated just months ago) the need to understand our evolving audience has never been more critical.
This survey, conducted from October-November 2025, was designed to capture the pulse of this rapidly expanding community, providing the data necessary to refine our content, deepen reader engagement, and chart the course for 2026. The response to this first-ever survey was substantial, with 71 full submissions providing a statistically significant sample of our most engaged core readership.
The findings reveal a publication that is successfully transitioning from a niche blog into a mainstream staple, attracting a younger, more diverse, and increasingly international audience while maintaining premier levels of reader satisfaction.
Supporting a New Generation of Professionals
Perhaps the most striking finding from this year’s data is the dramatic demographic shift in our readership. While the True North Strategic Review began with a strong foundation among senior and retired defense professionals, the 2025 data indicates a massive influx of younger energy.
56% of our respondents reported being under the age of 45, with a particularly strong surge in the 25-34 and 35-44 age brackets. This is a profound development, signaling that the publication is becoming a primary information source for the next generation of defense decision-makers, policy analysts, and industry leaders.
We are no longer just speaking to the "old guard". We are educating and engaging the future cornerstones of national security. This youthful demographic brings with it new expectations for content delivery, a hunger for data-driven analysis, and a willingness to engage with complex topics that challenge the status quo. The presence of this cohort suggests that our coverage of emerging technologies, procurement projects, and uncivered development are resonating deeply with those who will be tasked with implementing these policies in the coming decades.
Sector Diversity and Professional Profile
The professional composition of our audience has similarly diversified, evolving into a balanced ecosystem of government, industry, and academia. The survey results show a near-even split between the Government/Public Sector and Private Industry/For-Profit sectors, which together account for the majority of our readership. This balance is ideal for TNSR as it ensures that our content serves as a bridge between the public servants defining requirements and the industrial base delivering solutions.
Furthermore, we have seen a notable increase in readership from the academic and non-profit sectors, as well as a burgeoning segment of students. This latter group, likely drawn from defense studies and political science programs, represents the future talent pipeline of the sector.
Common job titles among our respondents now reflect this breadth, ranging from Senior Managers, Executives, and Principal Consultants to Policy Analysts, Systems Engineers, Research Assistants, and Program Officers. This validates our editorial approach of accessible depth, where content is rigorous enough for an expert but clear enough for the average person to engage with.
The Internationalization of the True North Brand
While the "True North" brand is inherently Canadian, 2025 has been the year of international expansion. Our data reveals that approximately 15% of our subscribers now resides outside of Canada, a significant increase from previous estimates. We are seeing clustered growth in allied nations, specifically the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and key partners like Germany and South Korea.
This international cohort is not looking for general defense news; they are specifically seeking "Canadian content" to understand how Canada fits into the broader security ecosystem. They read True North Strategic Review to decipher Canada's often confusing procurement system and to understand the country's strategic posturing.
This growing foreign readership presents a unique opportunity to serve as an interpreter of Canadian defense reality to the world, exporting our analysis to places like Washington, London, and Seoul. It also suggests that while our core mandate remains Canadian-focused, there is a clear appetite for comparative analysis that benchmarks Canadian capabilities against others.
Content Consumption Habits and Preferences
In terms of consumption habits, the survey highlights a distinct duality in our audience’s preferences. The "barbell strategy" of content consumption is in full effect: readers overwhelmingly prefer either Short-form articles (under 5 minutes) for quick situational awareness or Long-form, in-depth analysis for deep understanding.
There is very little demand for the middle ground. Our readers are busy people who value their time. They want the "bottom line up front" for daily news, but they are willing to invest 15 or 20 minutes to read a comprehensive breakdown of a major procurement project or an opinion. This finding reinforces the value of our current editorial mix but suggests we could be more deliberate in labeling content.
Furthermore, while podcasts and social media ranked lower as primary daily sources, there is a vocal minority, particularly among the younger demographic, who are eager for audio content. They expressed a desire for deep-dive discussions on specific weapon systems or historical case studies, suggesting that a podcast could serve as a valuable supplementary channel rather than a replacement for the written word.
When asked what they specifically want to see more of, the audience’s response was remarkably consistent: they crave depth and exclusivity. There is a palpable hunger for "inside scoops" and "rumours and speculation". They want content that cannot be found in the public eye. Readers are looking to the True North Strategic Review to act as an insider conduit, bridging the gap between official narratives and the reality on the ground.
Specific requests included more granular coverage of individual services, with the Air Force and Navy frequently cited as areas for expansion. Furthermore the younger demographic and student cohort expressed a strong desire for "historical research" and analysis of "how it got so bad", indicating a need for educational content. Geopolitical analysis also ranked highly, with readers asking for a broader narrative that connects Canadian decisions to global shifts in the Indo-Pacific and NATO
The inclusion of news updates and press releases proved to be the single most polarizing topic in the survey, though the sentiment leans positive. Approximately two-thirds of respondents find these updates "handy" and "useful", viewing them as a necessary consolidation of industry movements that saves them from scouring multiple sources.
However, a vocal minority finds raw press releases to be "clutter" in an already busy inbox. The differentiating factor, and the clear takeaway for our strategy, is the value of editorialization. Readers specifically praised "Noah's Notes" and the added commentary that deciphers why a press release matters. They do not want to be forwarded a statement. They want to be told what it means.
As one respondent noted, "I like having editorial content to help schmucks like me know what it means."
To bridge this gap, we have implemented a structural change that directly addresses this friction: news briefs have been migrated into a dedicated, distinct section of the publication. This allows subscribers to toggle this specific section on or off within their email notification settings.
This update puts the control firmly in the hands of the reader, allowing those who value the "daily feed" to keep it, while enabling those who prefer a "signal-only" experience to opt out of the noise. We believe this segmentation, combined with our commitment to adding more "Noah's Notes" to releases, effectively resolves the issue.
Meanwhile while satisfaction is high, the "Dislikes" category provided actionable insight on what to tackle this year. The most common complaint centered on "minor press releases from vendors" and "lobbying updates", which some readers feel dilute the high-value strategic analysis they signed up for.
For a readership composed of busy executives and government officials, the signal-to-noise ratio is paramount. Anything that feels like "chaff" is a friction point. Additionally, while we are exploring podcasts, a segment of the audience explicitly stated they "simply don't have time" for audio, reinforcing that any move into multimedia must not come at the expense of the written word.
Ultimately, the "dislikes" were rarely about the core content, but rather about the peripheral noise, a concern we have now proactively neutralized through our new content toggling features.
Satisfaction and Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The satisfaction metrics from this survey are nothing short of exceptional. The True North Strategic Review achieved a Net Promoter Score (NPS) of approximately 75, a score that places us in the "world-class" category for media and professional services. To put this in perspective, an NPS above 50 is considered excellent, and anything above 70 is rare.
This score is driven by a massive base of "Promoters", respondents who rated us a 9 or 10 out of 10 and who actively champion our work to their colleagues. Qualitative feedback indicates that this loyalty stems from our "unfiltered" approach and our willingness to "say what others won't."
Readers repeatedly described the content as "thorough," "passionate," and "essential." The overall satisfaction rate correlates strongly with this NPS, with nearly 80% of respondents reporting they are "Very Satisfied”. This high degree of satisfaction provides us with a tremendous amount of goodwill and political capital, allowing us to take risks with bolder editorial stances or new content experiments in the coming year.
Qualitative Feedback
Beyond the raw numbers, the open-ended responses provided rich insights into the emotional connection readers have with the publication. Many respondents cited the specific "vibe" of TNSR, our mix of professional rigour and conversational accessibility, as a key differentiator. Readers appreciate that we do not simply regurgitate press releases. We analyze them, critique them, and contextualize them.
One respondent noted, "You make the overall topic more accessible" while another praised the "early and broad insights" that are not available in mainstream media. There was also a recurring theme of gratitude for the specific focus on Canadian procurement, a topic that is often dry or under-reported elsewhere but is treated here with the seriousness it deserves.
The inclusion of humor and a personal voice was also highlighted as a positive, breaking the monotony of typical government and industry reporting. However, readers also offered constructive feedback, particularly regarding copy-editing, with a few gentle nudges to "hire a proofreader" or run an extra spell-check, a fair critique that we have already begun to address.
The Demand for "Canadian Context"
When asked what they wanted to see more of, the answer was loud and clear: Canada
Even our international readers are here for the Canadian angle. While there is an openness to covering global events like the AUSA conference or developments in Ukraine, the audience explicitly requested that these topics always be tied back to their implications for Canada. "How does this affect the Canadian Armed Forces?" and "What can Canada learn from this?" are the questions our readers want answered.
Specific requests included more coverage of the Canadian Surface Combatant, updates on Canadian Patrol Submarine procurement, and deep dives into the recruitment crisis. There is also a strong demand for industry insights, explanations of how the defense industrial base actually functions, how contracts are awarded, and the history behind current capabilities.
This feedback serves as a critical guardrail for our content strategy: expansion is welcome, but never at the expense of our core Canadian identity.
Brand Identity & The "True North" Style
The True North Strategic Review (TNSR) is not just a publication. It's a cultural shift in how defense reporting is consumed. We have consciously rejected the sterile, detached tone of traditional academia and the slow-moving machinery of legacy journalism.
Instead, we have embraced a "Gen-Z" ethos: fast, unfiltered, and unapologetically authentic. Our style is similar to that of a 24/7 influencer. We are always on, always accessible, and communicating with the immediacy that the modern digital landscape demands.
While the "old guard" media spaces remain trapped in archaic publishing cycles and often hide behind a veneer of "professional spin", TNSR operates with the raw energy of the internet generation. We are not journalists looking for a "gotcha" moment, nor are we academics writing for a peer-reviewed echo chamber. We are a collaborative partner sitting at the nexus of individuals, government, and industry, facilitating a conversation that is as educational as it is informative.
Our independence is our greatest asset. TNSR maintains zero affiliation with professional lobbying organizations, academic institutions, or legacy media conglomerates. We do not engage in conflict for clicks or publish deceptive headlines to drive traffic. Our mission is education first. We work keenly and transparently with industry partners to understand the technical ground truth, yet we maintain a fierce independence that allows us to critique those same partners when delivery fails or strategy falters. This "youth-focused" approach sets us apart from the monopolies that have long dominated defense news.
At the heart of this brand is a relentless commitment to community. We are not broadcasting to a passive audience. We are building an active ecosystem. Our weekly Q&A sessions are a testament to our accessibility, allowing a graduate student or a member of Industry to ask direct questions and get real answers. We maintain a hyper-active social media presence that goes far beyond the "post and ghost" strategy of traditional outlets.
We are in the comments, on the forums, and part of the daily scroll. This community-driven model ensures that TNSR remains grounded in the concerns of its readers, creating a feedback loop that makes us faster, sharper, and more relevant than any legacy competitor could hope to be. We are the new standard, the new media that for too long has been dismissed in the space.
We have launched the industry's most rigorous ethics policy, a framework so stringent it makes legacy newsrooms look like the Wild West. While traditional outlets are often hamstrung by board room pressure or trapped in the cycle of "access journalism", trading soft coverage for interviews, TNSR drew a hard line in the sand.
Our new policy mandates absolute transparency in all industry interactions and enforces a zero-tolerance approach to conflicts of interest that is virtually unheard of in the current media landscape. We don't do "pay-to-play" and we never soften our critiques to keep friends in high places.
In an era where trust in mainstream media is freefalling, we have built a fortress of credibility. We have proven that it is possible to work closely with industry to understand technical realities without working under them. This ironclad commitment to integrity puts us lightyears ahead of the old guard, ensuring that when our community reads TNSR, they are getting the unvarnished reality, not a commercially compromised narrative.
Risks and Strategic Challenges
While our growth has been meteoric, it is not without structural vulnerability. Our reliance on Substack is our most significant operational risk. The platform has been an incredible incubator, allowing us to build a direct relationship with our audience free from the algorithmic suppression of traditional social media. However, it imposes a hard ceiling on our technical evolution. We are playing in a sandbox built by someone else.
The limitations on design customization, data analytics, and multimedia integration restrict our ability to deliver the polished, multi-channel experience that our "Gen-Z style" brand aspires to. We are effectively a high-speed media company running on a newsletter engine. As we scale toward 150,000 monthly viewers, the friction between our ambition and the platform’s architecture is increasing. We are constantly hacking the system to make it do things it wasn’t designed for, but long-term, this dependency poses a risk to our brand identity and discoverability. We are "renters" in a digital ecosystem, and that lack of ownership is a strategic fragility we must constantly manage.
Let us be brutally honest as well… we are competing with billion-dollar media conglomerates on a budget that is effectively zero. This financial constraint is the single greatest throttle on our potential. While legacy outlets deploy teams of reporters to global trade shows with corporate credit cards, we operate with a leanness that borders on the miraculous. This lack of capital restricts our physical reach. We cannot easily travel to cover international events like DSEI in London or events across Canada, leaving us reliant on open-source intelligence rather than boots-on-the-ground reporting.
It limits our ability to invest in high-end video production, interactive data visualizations, or the dedicated infrastructure needed to churn out content 24/7. We are punching wildly above our weight, but gravity is a constant challenge. Every dollar spent on a new microphone or a tickrt comes directly from the pockets of our subscribers, making every investment a high-stakes calculation. It also presents a challenge as many shows and events that we could benefit going to are locked behind additional financial restraints.
Despite these constraints, the sheer power of our community has been our life support. It is entirely thanks to reader contributions that we have managed to upgrade our recording equipment and begin the long, expensive process of saving for CANSEC 2026. This grassroots funding model is a point of immense pride, proof that the community values our voice enough to pay for it voluntarily.
However, relying on "digital busking" is not a long-term strategy for a publication that aims to define the sector. The path to CANSEC represents a microcosm of our broader struggle: we are saving from mostly personal funds, upwards of several thousand dollars, to buy a seat at a table where others are sponsored by multinational corporations. It is a precarious existence, where a dip in subscriber enthusiasm could derail critical coverage plans.
Finally, we must address the elephant in the room: our recent decision to open the door to advertisers. This was a calculated risk, driven by the absolute necessity to secure a revenue stream that ensures our growth. However, we are acutely aware that introducing commercial interests into a "trust-first" brand is akin to handling unexploded ordnance. There is a tangible risk that even the perception of influence could alienate the community that values our "unfiltered" nature.
While we have erected the industry’s most formidable ethics policy to wall off our editorial content from commercial pressure, the optical risk remains. We are asking our readers to trust that we can take industry money without taking industry orders. It is a delicate balance, and maintaining that trust while executing this pivot will be the defining challenge of 2026. We are betting that our transparency will shield us, but in the cynical world of defense media, that shield will be tested daily.
Strategic Recommendations for 2026: Building True North Strong & Free
As we pivot into 2026, the strategic imperative for the True North Strategic Review is to transition from a successful rapid-growth startup into a mature, sustainable media institution. The explosive growth of 2025 has validated our market fit, but it has also exposed the limitations of our current infrastructure. To sustain our trajectory and deepen our impact, we must now build the operational rails that will support the next phase of our expansion.
This year will be defined by professionalization, hardening our systems, formalizing our partnerships, and diversifying our capabilities without losing the agile, insurgent spirit that defines our brand. Based on the survey data and our strategic outlook, we have identified the following key priorities to guide our operations in the coming year:
Establishment of a Dedicated TNSR Website: We will launch a formal feasibility study and development plan to migrate or expand beyond the "Substack ceiling." While Substack has been an excellent launchpad, a dedicated website is essential for our long-term data sovereignty and brand identity. This platform will allow for richer data visualization, a searchable archive of our analysis, and a centralized hub for our growing community. Crucially, it will enable us to host static resources such as guides and project trackers that provide recurring value beyond the daily news cycle, effectively creating a repository of institutional knowledge that is currently missing in the Canadian ecosystem.
Development of a Comprehensive Industry Strategy: By Summer 2026, we aim to codify our relationship with the defense industrial base. We will engage directly with industry partners to understand how TNSR can better serve as a bridge between their technical realities and the broader public. This strategy will focus on defining clear value propositions for industry engagement, moving beyond simple press releases to deep-dive technical briefings and "behind the curtain" access. The goal is to position TNSR as a "collaborative partner" that helps industry articulate complex challenges to a younger, policy-literate audience, ensuring that our coverage remains technically accurate while maintaining our fierce editorial independence.
Operationalizing the Ethics Policy: We will fulfill the mandate set out in our October ethics overhaul by establishing an Independent Investigation Authority. This body will serve as a third-party oversight mechanism, ensuring that any potential breaches of our code of conduct or questions regarding conflict of interest are adjudicated with total impartiality. By institutionalizing this oversight, we are future-proofing our reputation against the skepticism that plagues legacy media, signaling to our readers that our integrity is not just a promise, but a procedurally enforced guarantee.
Diversification of Revenue Streams: To fuel our "champagne ambitions" on a startup budget, our primary focus for 2026 is aggressively refining our advertising architecture. We are rejecting the "spray and pray" model of legacy media in favor of a curated, high-value partnership system. This means developing a tiered advertising structure that offers industry partners ethical, non-intrusive visibility without compromising our "church and state" separation of editorial content. Alongside this, we will launch a formal feasibility study in the new year to investigate the viability of Institutional offerings, such as potential data products or premium "Briefing Notes" for executive decision-makers in line with our Ethics policy. While there is interest from government directorates and corporate teams, we will proceed cautiously, launching a proper study to determine if an enterprise model aligns with our operational capacity before making any firm commitments. We will commit to allowing these changes to be investigated Independently to ensure they meet our ethics standards. These initiatives are the survival mechanism that will finally allow us to fund travel, upgrade our technical infrastructure, and ensure that our independent voice can afford to stay independent.
Exploration of French-Language Services: To truly live up to the "True North" name and serve the entirety of the Canadian defense community, we will investigate the viability of introducing French-language content. Recognizing our resource constraints, this will likely begin as a pilot project. Perhaps a weekly translated summary or a dedicated francophone column? This initiative is strategically vital for penetrating the Quebec market and becoming a resource of record for the bilingual public service, ensuring that our "national" conversation is truly national.
Commitment to Core Content Cadence: We pledge to maintain the high-volume, high-quality output that our subscribers rely on. At a minimum, we commit to delivering "This Week in Defence," "Let’s Talk with Noah," and at least one original opinion article every single week. This baseline ensures that even as we experiment with new formats, our core value proposition remains unshakable. Consistency is the bedrock of our retention strategy, and we will not allow expansion efforts to dilute the daily product.
Launch of the "Guest Voice" Contributor Program: To mitigate the "single point of failure" risk associated with a solo-author model and to broaden our editorial perspective, we will formalize a Guest Contributor Program. We will limitedly solicit op-eds and technical breakdowns from our highly qualified readership, ranging from retired generals to frontline engineers and academic researchers. This initiative turns our community into a content engine, allowing us to cover more ground without increasing the core workload, while reinforcing our brand as a collaborative platform for the entire sector.
Final Thoughts: Defining the Future of Defence Media
As we close the book on 2025, the True North Strategic Review stands as proof that the Canadian defense community was starving for a new voice. We started this year as an experiment and are ending it as a movement, with over 1,000 subscribers and a monthly readership that has surged to 130,000.
This growth is not accidental: it is a direct repudiation of the status quo. You, our readers, whether you are a government employee in Ottawa, a CEO in Toronto, or a student in London have proven that there is a massive appetite for defense coverage that is accessible, unfiltered, and unafraid to challenge the "old guard”.
We are building something that has never existed in this sector: a platform that is serious about policy but culturally relevant to the generation that will inherit it. 2026 will be the year we leverage this momentum to not just report on the conversation, but to drive it. To our community: thank you for your trust, your engagement, and for proving that "defence news" doesn't have to be boring to be important. We are just getting started.
Disclaimer & Methodology
The insights presented in this report are derived from the True North Strategic Review End-of-Year Survey conducted in October-November 2025. All respondent data has been aggregated and anonymized to protect the privacy of our community; no individual personally identifiable information (PII) is shared or sold. While we are proud to collaborate with industry partners, the True North Strategic Review maintains complete editorial independence in accordance with our strict October 2025 Ethics Policy.
The acceptance of advertising revenue does not grant sponsors any influence over our editorial content, opinions, or analysis. Furthermore, the content provided in this report and our publication is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be construed as financial, legal, or investment advice. We are an independent media brand, not a financial consultancy, and any discussion of publicly traded defense companies is strictly for strategic analysis, not market recommendation.
We remain committed to the highest standards of transparency and integrity, ensuring that our loyalty remains solely with you, the reader.