(Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Newspaper subsidies

Media reacts to federal subsidies for newspapers

Jan 7, 2020 | 6:04 PM

A newly administered federal program aims to buoy the struggling newspaper industry. But not everyone is happy about how it’s being rolled out, and even some who support the measure have reservations about how it will work.

Nearly 100 publications across the country will benefit from federal funding to hire new journalists under a program called the Local Journalism Initiative. Twenty-nine of those journalists will be in the Prairies.

The need for innovation

“I think most journalists would agree that the business model is broken, and we need to find new ways to make it sustainable,” head of the University of Regina School of Journalism Mark Taylor told paNOW.

“So hopefully these funds will help newsrooms do that and it’s not just some kind of a crutch that kind of just prolongs something for another year.”

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Taylor said he doesn’t believe the government should subsidize newsrooms in the long-term, but the funding could give publications a critical boost to innovate and figure out new ways to generate revenue.

“I don’t think it’s buying the media. We’ll have to wait and see what kind of stories are produced. But I think this is something that is worth experimenting with to see how it goes and then after a year do a content analysis to see what kinds of stories were produced.”

Newspapers in difficult position

Executive director of the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association, Steve Nixon told paNOW that his members were split on whether the government should subsidize journalism.

“I wish we didn’t need to do things like this. I would prefer that the government stayed out of the journalism business just for the fear of maybe influence or public perception of influence,” he said.

The advent of the Internet disrupted the entire media industry. But newspapers in particular have faced dwindling ad revenues and decreased readership in the decades since news began to move online.

“For me it would be easier if the government didn’t remove public notice advertising from newspapers. Then they wouldn’t have to do things like this,” Nixon said.

Broadcasters say subsidies unfair

Meanwhile, the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) says the way the government is distributing its media subsidies is unfair.

Private broadcasters, including Jim Pattison Broadcast Group, of which paNOW is part of were excluded from applying for funding to hire reporters under the Local Journalism Initiative.

“There is no policy rational for the government making a distinction between print and broadcast journalism,” CAB Board of Directors Chair Lenore Gibson told paNOW.

“For us they both provide local news and should be supported in an equal manner.”

Gibson said she believes the federal government was alarmed by the over 200 newspapers that have closed in Canada in the last decade. However she says radio and television stations have been facing the same pressures but cut costs to avoid having to shut down.

“So by the CAB members choosing to have restraint, watch their spending and not closing our stations, we’re sort of in fact being penalized,” she said.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom