TORONTO – The province is helping the newspaper industry by directing its four largest government agencies to allocate 25 per cent of their advertising budgets to Ontario publishers.
Premiere Doug Ford made the announcement on July 3.
The government agencies include the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO), the Ontario Cannabis Store, Metrolinx and the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corporation (OLG).
“These government agencies are some of the largest advertisers in the province, together spending well over $100 million on marketing each year,” reads a statement at news.ontario.ca.
“By ensuring that a minimum of 25 per cent of their advertising budgets are reserved for Ontario-based publishers, the government is helping to support these publishers and their workers, who are creating local news content for people across the province.”
The government is also making similar commitments with its own advertising spending, the statement goes on to say, “helping to provide even more support for Ontario jobs and promote Ontario culture.”
Ontario-based publishers are defined as Ontario-based corporations, trusts or partnerships that have been designated as Qualified Canadian Journalism Organizations by the Canada Revenue Agency.
The agencies have been directed to have this policy in place by Sept. 3.
In an opinion piece, president and CEO of News Media Canada Paul Deegan calls the directive, “a forward-looking, smart policy that other provinces, municipalities and the federal government can follow, and it does not involve any additional taxpayer dollars.”
Deegan notes that in 2012, Canadian newspaper advertising revenue stood at $3.55 billion. Today it is under $1 billion, he states.
And yet there are more than 4,000 journalists working in Ontario doing work that not only improves the economy.
Journalism, he says, “goes beyond the economy as they keep communities across the province connected, informed and engaged.
“Subscription revenue alone may be enough to fund websites devoted to intelligent commentary, but fact-based, fact-checked coverage of schools, cops, courts, politicians and businesses – holding the powerful to account – costs real money and demands advertising revenue,” he states.
Governments and large corporations like banks, telecom companies and retailers should take a cue from Ontario and support domestic news publishing by allocated 25% of their advertising budgets to news businesses too, Deegan argued in the piece.
“This will allow us to reinvest in high-quality Canadian journalistic content and in innovative techniques that harness the power of digital tools to engage audiences and sustain viable news businesses that serve the public interest,” he said.
