Some t-dotters have tried to start up a wonkish version of the Huffington Post, the Mark.
Jeff Anders and Ali Rahnema may not have the glossy appeal of Ms. Huffington or Ms. Brown, but they have attracted a who's who of policy wonks and pundits to contribute to The Mark, their new Toronto-based site.
Launched earlier this month, it offers aggregated news stories and original commentary dedicated, as the site explains, to analyzing the news of the day and shedding "light on the dusty old question of what it means to be Canadian."
The DNA of the site's design is taken from its distant American cousins, but the content is decidedly domestic. The Mark lists a few Toronto luminaries, including businessman and philanthropist Alan Broadbent and Luminato chief executive officer Janice Price.
Eearlier this week, it featured a post on the current economic crisis by Environics Research founder Michael Adams and another, by communications specialist Sylvain Raymond, on the re-branding of the swine flu.
"What we are going to try to do is give a platform to hyper-credible people who are completely unknown to the average Canadian," said Mr. Anders. "We want this to be the cross-section of ideas across every industry and every field of activity in the country."
If you're deemed worthy of being posted on the Mark, you still won't be worthy of being paid.
The site has set a target of one million unique users per month. However, one commentator said the site's earnestness could hurt it.
"Could it attract a lot of attention? Yeah, it might," said Paul Benedetti, co-ordinator of the graduate journalism program at the University of Western Ontario.
"If they want to stake out territory, I think they have a big challenge, and that challenge is, why should I bother with your site? Why should I bother reading you? I'm oversaturated with information, I'm overloaded with stuff to read every day. What are you offering me that is distinctive?"
As well, The Mark may need to offer a better mix of high and low culture, a sensibility that is the hallmark of Ms. Brown's storied career. There are no posts on the site about sexy starlets and their dating habits or crash dieting - a welcome relief to readers who inhabit the high climes of thought.
But the absence of pop culture also might have a Slim-Fast effect on the site's page-view numbers.
"Without it, you can come off maybe perhaps a bit too academic or perhaps just a bit too earnest," added Mr. Benedetti.