With her varied and adaptable work life, Angela Mombourquette considers herself a very modern journalist. The establishment of her website, LifeAfterGluten.ca, has also made her an entrepreneur.

Now, in addition to freelance writing and teaching journalism, she is learning how to monetize her site and build a community of users.

The site was created after Mombourquette was diagnosed with celiac disease and found it hard to find information that would help her eat a diet free of gluten, the mixture of proteins in grains.

Celiac disease is a condition in which the gluten in food damages the intestine. It is said to affect about one per cent of Canadians, but concern about gluten is widespread. Mombourquette said as many as seven million Canadians may be trying to avoid it.

 “I was diagnosed about four years ago,” she said. “The only treatment is a gluten-free diet for life. I soon found the thing you need is good information and, specifically, Canadian information.

“There is a lot of bad information out there. The search for information tends to take you to forums where people just speculate. As a journalist, that wasn’t good enough for me.”

She established her site last April with the aim of providing Canadians with trustworthy information that includes recipes, news, reviews and information aimed at kids.

Turning her website into a business has been aided by completing her master’s in journalism at the University of King’s College in Halifax, where she was part of the New Ventures stream for those interested in starting journalism-based businesses.

 “I had the journalism skills to do the site. I didn’t necessarily have the business skills. But the 10-month program taught me many things, including digital journalism skills, the basics of starting a business and how to develop my business plan.”

Mombourquette is basing her business on the research and writing skills she has acquired over her career in journalism. She is an award-winning freelance writer and columnist, and a former magazine editor.

Last year, her business concept for LifeAfterGluten.ca won second prize in the Lean Startup competition at Dalhousie University in Halifax. She won a cash prize of $2,500; she used that money and some of her savings to hire a web designer to build her site.

She is able to maintain the site herself because her first degree was in computer science, which she studied at Dalhousie, later settling in Halifax after a childhood spent as a peripatetic “army brat.”

She studied broadcasting at Ryerson University in Toronto and then worked at CBC as a producer of kids TV. Later, she got into freelance writing and magazine editing.

She teaches journalism part time at King’s and recently reduced her teaching load in order to focus on increasing her site’s advertising revenue. She plans to blend display advertising and native advertising.

Native advertising is content written to promote the product or service of a corporate sponsor. The use of native ads can be problematic if the distinction between these stories and regular journalism is not made clear.

Mombourquette said she is well-placed to handle any perceived conflict.

“My goal is to be as upfront and ethical as possible. If a sponsor is involved in a post, I will be transparent about it.

“I also plan to do some consulting in the community to help people newly diagnosed with celiac disease. And I will do some restaurant consulting. I can help restaurateurs design menus and understand the needs of diners who do not eat gluten.”

She is building a community of users for her site with the help of social media.

Being an entrepreneur suits her, she said.

 “There’s the freedom to be self-directed. I like being my own boss. And I still teach and do my freelance writing. I’m very diversified. As a modern journalist, you have to be.”