The Navigator (a.k.a. The Nav) is Vancouver Island University’s student press. Founded in 1969 as a newspaper, The Navigator has undergone several transformations. Perhaps most notably, The Nav is no longer a newspaper, but a monthly magazine. Just a few years ago, The Nav transitioned to a fully online magazine in order to better serve evolving news mediums.
The Nav operates seven months of the year with production based around VIU’s fall-spring semesters. In addition to regular content September through March, each volume of The Navigator contains six monthly issues.
The magazine is completely run by students—from the business end of marketing and social media, to writing, interviewing, and editing. As such, The Nav prefers to prioritize self-care during exam season, swapping a December issue for submissions and sillies so students can destress.
Whether newspaper or magazine, student press or society, The Nav strives to both provide a venue for students to gain professional experience and act as an outlet to bring pressing student and community issues to the public eye.
Now in 2024, we have some exciting news to share.
The Nav has been an incorporated non-profit society since 1992, when it became The Navigator Newspaper Society under the Society Act of BC. The Society isn’t just for The Nav’s masthead—if you’ve paid your student fees, you’re a member.
All students who have paid student fees at any VIU campus are members of The Navigator Newspaper Society, as well as any individuals who are faculty, staff, administration, alumni, or community members who have paid membership fees to the Society.
is
coming back to print.
The Navigator is privileged to operate on traditional and unceded territory—land that was taken from the Snuneymuxw First Nation of the Coast Salish People who lived and continue to live here. We are grateful to live, learn, and work on this land and strive to develop and strengthen relationships with Indigenous communities. The Nav is committed to decolonization, reconciliation, and uplifting diverse voices—we recognize Indigenous knowledge and culture as vital and will continue to educate ourselves so that we may properly honour the land and its inhabitants each and every day.
Not only will we pay you with a cheque,
we'll pay you with "exposure".