David Beers

David Beers is founding editor and editor-in-chief of The Tyee, the independent Vancouver news site he co-founded with Michelle Hoar in 2003; as of February 2026, The Tyee announced it was recruiting Beers's successor, and in April 2026 he received the Digital Publishing Leadership Award for his career impact on Canadian digital media.

Based in Vancouver, BC Org The Tyee Role Founding Editor & Editor-in-Chief

Notable work and positions

The Tyee — Founding Editor and Editor-in-Chief (since 2003)
University of British Columbia, School of Journalism, Writing, and Media — Adjunct Professor
Mother Jones — former Senior Editor
San Francisco Examiner — former Managing Editor, Sunday Magazine
Vancouver Sun — former Features Editor

Biography

David Beers is a journalist born and raised in California's Silicon Valley. He began his career at Pacific News Service in 1983 and went on to hold senior editorial roles at several U.S. and Canadian publications, including managing editor of the San Francisco Examiner's Sunday magazine, senior editor at Mother Jones magazine, and features editor overseeing special projects at the Vancouver Sun. In 1993, he won a U.S. National Magazine Award for his Harper's essay “The Crash of Blue Sky California,” which he later expanded into the memoir Blue Sky Dream.

In November 2003, Beers and business director Michelle Hoar founded The Tyee, an independent Vancouver, British Columbia news site seeded in part by an advertising executive and labour-affiliated investment funds; Beers has served as founding editor and editor-in-chief since. Hoar went on to become the outlet's first full-time publisher before leaving in 2016, when Jeanette Ageson, who had joined the organization in 2014, took over the role. In November 2009, Beers and Hoar co-founded the Tyee Solutions Society, among the first organizations in Canada to advance the practice of solutions journalism. In January 2005, Beers and Tyee contributing editor Charles Campbell testified before a Canadian Senate committee investigating concentration of media ownership. The Tyee has since converted to non-profit status.

Under Beers's editorship, The Tyee has won two Edward R. Murrow Awards for North America-wide journalism excellence, in 2009 and 2011; two gold General Excellence awards from the Digital Publishing Awards, in 2021 and 2022; two Canadian Journalism Foundation Excellence in Journalism awards; a Canadian National Newspaper Award; and the Jack Webster Foundation's Bill Good Award. Beers has personally won a U.S. National Magazine Award and two Canadian National Magazine Awards for his writing. In April 2026, the National Media Awards Foundation named him recipient of its Digital Publishing Leadership Award, its highest individual honour, citing his “vision, innovation and sustained impact.” In February 2026, The Tyee announced it was recruiting a new editor-in-chief to succeed Beers, describing him as “passing the baton to a new leader” after more than two decades in the role; as of the April 2026 award announcement, he continued to be described as the outlet's current editor-in-chief. Beers is also an adjunct professor at the University of British Columbia's School of Journalism, Writing, and Media.