It would have been preferable to get into a conversation earlier, when the announcement was made, but deadlines get in the way of life.
The many hearty congratulations on my appointment as chair of News Media Canada were appreciated greatly. These are perilous times during which news media will either recover or rapidly decline.
As evidenced in a letter from Jane Vandervliet this week, an ethos is emerging in right-wing circles that the news industry should be allowed to collapse. If proprietors prove unable to work the math such that expenses can be met, closure should be their destiny like any other industry or business.
The sentiment is understood but there is a point of great significance missing in that logic.
Closures have already happened in dozens of communities across Canada, leaving in their wake a sense of loss. Civic issues left unchecked and debated tend to head in less desirable directions and corruption blossoms. Promises of an online replacement in those markets have been left unfulfilled and replacement publications have not materialized. It is a worry for the government and should be a worry to every Canadian.
This was part of the reason behind the introduction of the Local Journalism Initiative, established to encourage civic reporting in communities that were lacking coverage on important issues like local government or court proceedings. In addition to providing a reporter to help in obvious “news deserts” the content was to be made shareable amongst publishers in competing and neighbouring markets. If in fact the program is to continue after this current funding phase concludes, an improvement in our eyes would be conversations at the grassroots level about what is missing in local coverage to maximize effectiveness.
Over the term of the program, numerous LJI reporters have cycled through Wellington County working for other media outlets. For clarity, all publisher types, including dailies, community newspapers and online news sites, have utilized the program coast to coast. The Advertiser does not have an LJI reporter, and hasn’t seen much in the way of content from others worth sharing.
The Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit program was put in place to acknowledge publishers choosing to invest in their newsrooms and avoid further reporter layoffs. There are ample news reports in recent weeks to illustrate the threat of this phenomena. At last count, 470 media outlets and a third of accompanying journalism jobs have disappeared since 2008. While tragedy has befallen many organizations this program has allowed the Advertiser to grow its team of staff reporters.
The Special Measures for Journalism program was another government initiative designed to provide funds to controlled circulation products that didn’t qualify under the old Aid to Publisher program. The program has morphed into something different, but initially it was designed to help with circulation costs of paid newspapers.
Part way through the pandemic, this mechanism was established to ensure the continuance of local news across the country, whether subscription based or not. That helped many newspapers, including the Advertiser, which hadn’t qualified for a nickel in its first five decades of being, to weather the storm and publish every week without skipping a beat.
While it is easy to rage at the government’s attempts to keep an industry afloat, it isn’t the first nor will it be the last sector needing support. In fact, if time was spent delving deeper into the tax code and other public policy matters, the entanglements of government and big business would prove alarming.
How did we get here? It’s a long story.
Weakening ad revenue due to monopolistic practices online, an unregulated playground for digital players and consumers embracing immediacy over accuracy are starting points. It’s tough for anyone to compete with others who have few rules to follow or obligations to meet.
Governments around the globe have and are attempting to make monopolies like Google and Facebook more accountable, since both companies dominate the marketplace.
Although neither organization was founded as an advertising business, they have evolved into mass marketing machines leveraging user data to the detriment of news media organizations dependent on ad revenue.
In the meantime, people who care about news and its necessity in a democracy will champion the cause. Failure is not a palatable option. Much is at stake.
