RSJ alumni providing Canadian soccer coverage with new magazine

Tagwa Moyo and Mitchell Tierney, two class of ‘17 graduates from the Ryerson School of Journalism, are part of a team who launched Darby Magazine (external link) ’s inaugural issue in December. The magazine focuses its coverage on Canadian soccer stories.

Moyo, who founded the publication, says the idea for the magazine came as a result of the lack of coverage for Canadian soccer. 

“Most of the time, I’d be working with publications from Europe or America and they wouldn’t always care about some of the stories I’d be pitching to them that are happening here in Canada,” said Moyo. “They would only care about stuff with Alphonso Davies or a big CPL match but there’s a lot more that happens in Canada and a lot more stories to be told.”

Tierney, who’s in charge of written and editorial content, joined the team a bit later on, once Darby was beginning to ramp up editorial production. Part of his desire to join Darby came from seeing a shrinking media market for soccer.

“Basically all the traditional media markets have laid off their top soccer guys, so we wanted to create something new and something that was missing in the Canadian soccer landscape,” said Tierney.

Launching the first issue certainly didn’t come without its challenges, however. Once the pandemic hit, the team was forced to make changes, such as cutting certain stories and using illustrations when they were restricted from going out to photograph. 

Since its launch though, the inaugural issue has been met with strong reviews. Darby is now working with agents and clients who are hoping for their stories to be told. 

“We were very overwhelmed with the reception we got, just straight from our pre-sales,” said Moyo. “It kind of reaffirmed that everything we’re doing as a team is needed.” 

In addition to the magazine, Darby has launched a podcast and a newsletter, which also focus on Canadian soccer, both at the professional and collegiate level. 

Both Moyo and Tierney hope to turn their roles with Darby into a full-time job and Tierney notes the 2026 World Cup as a key opportunity. 

“We’re all hoping with the World Cup coming to Canada in 2026 that the investment and infrastructure for soccer in Canada will improve immensely and I think we’re betting on the media market following in those footsteps as well.”

Darby is currently working on another issue with the hopes of launching it either in the summer or fall.