The GIST is a Canadian sports media company founded in 2017 by Roslyn McLarty, Jacie deHoop, and Ellen Hyslop. They run newsletters and a podcast called "The GIST of It". The GIST's content is written by women and provides coverage of both men's and women's sports, with a goal of connecting with people who felt left out of the sports community.[1]

The GIST
Company typePrivate
IndustryNews media
Founded2017; 7 years ago (2017)
Headquarters
Canada
Area served
United States, Canada
Key people
Roslyn McLarty, Jacie deHoop, Ellen Hyslop
Products4x-weekly sports news newsletter
3x-weekly sports business newsletter
3x-weekly college sports newsletter
The GIST of It podcast
MembersOver 900,000
Number of employees
40-50
Websitewww.thegistsports.com

History

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The GIST was started in late 2017, when friends and graduates of Queen's University at Kingston McLarty, deHoop and Hyslop launched a weekly newsletter to an initial group of 500 subscribers.[2] By 2022, the company had over 500,000 email subscribers across its three newsletters.[3]

In 2018, The GIST raised their initial funding of $100,000 through Toronto's DMZ incubator program. The group subsequently were invited to the Toronto Metropolitan University Future of Sport Lab and the LIFT Labs Accelerator via NBCUniversal.[4]

In 2020, the group's founders were named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the media category.[5] The GIST were approved a $350,000 loan from the Business Development Bank of Canada in 2021, bringing their new funding across venture and state-backed credit incentives to $1.35 million.[6]

References

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  1. ^ "These women are fighting to make sports news more accessible". CBC Sports. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  2. ^ "Toronto-based startup The Gist offers sports news by women, for women". Toronto Star. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  3. ^ Fischer, Sara (August 20, 2022). "Women's sports commanding bigger rights deals". AXIOS.
  4. ^ "How three friends launched a sports newsletter geared to women". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
  5. ^ "The GIST". Forbes. Retrieved December 1, 2022.
  6. ^ Etherington, Darrell (May 19, 2021). "Women-led sports media startup The GIST raises $1M to challenge sports reporting norms". TechCrunch. Retrieved November 7, 2023.