Over the last couple of weeks, we have seen a deluge of news about some of the troubles facing Canada’s media industry on a large scale.
First was news that two of Canada’s biggest media companies, Postmedia Network Group and Nordstar (owner of Metroland Media Group and the Toronto Star) are in talks to merge, taking a large percentage of our country’s news publications, large and small, and placing them under a single banner. Then, online tech giants Meta (which owns Facebook and Instagram) and Google are planning to remove access to Canadian news links in the coming months as a response to the Federal government approving the divisive Bill C-18.
C-18, also known as the Online News Act, tasks these tech giants with making agreements directly with news organizations to compensate them when news links, previews, and similar content is shown on their platforms. It is the Federal government’s bid to address some of the issues plaguing Canada’s media industry, based, in part, on the reality that advertisers in 2023 favour utilizing existing electronic algorithms to target specific audiences digitally (i.e. Facebook and Google ads) over general advertising in newspapers.
Many longstanding Canadian publications have shut their doors for good over the last few years, and that list is growing. When a community loses their local newspaper, they lose a source for not just keeping up on the latest events in their community, but on important fundraising initiatives taking place, community groups who serve us all with their efforts, local government being held accountable through responsible reporting, and most importantly, we lose out on the stories that define our community’s beating heart.
With neither side backing down, it looks like the threats made by Meta and Google might become a new reality, one which will impact us directly as your provider of local news. Things are only getting uglier in the battle, with Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accusing the companies of using bullying tactics to undermine Canadian democracy, and Meta firing back that the bill in its current form leaves no room for negotiation, leaving them with no choice but to pull the trigger on removing Canadian news links from their platform. Last week, the Federal government announced they would suspend their advertising on Facebook and Instagram as a response to the situation.
And sitting in the middle of all this drama, watching with bated breath, are publishers, editors, advertising reps, and reporters like me. Regular people who have chosen a career path centered on providing quality, useful information to their communities.
I feel empathy for my colleagues at publications around the country that have been temporarily or permanently laid off from their jobs. The loss of talented, dedicated reporters with the skills and the drive to tell stories that matter, but whose livelihoods have been threatened by large-scale circumstances beyond their ability to control is immeasurable.
We may be forced to watch a situation play out that directly impacts us, and of which we can do nothing proactively about, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t as dedicated and focused as we’ve ever been on serving our community.
We here at The Haldimand Press love telling stories about our community. It’s more than a job for us – it’s a passion. We love nothing more than getting to tell you about the people, places, and events that make Haldimand County such a great place to live, and we will use every resource available to us to continue in our mission of doing so.
We recognize our place in a long history of local news, and deeply value the faith placed on us by our readers to deliver honest, unbiased news and features that accurately reflect life in our county in 2023.
To those who already support us through their subscription, we thank you. Your support means the world to us.
It is crucial to our continued existence, and it means you don’t have to worry about losing out – our stories will still keep coming directly to your mailbox or your laptop through our website.
To those who are not yet subscribers, or who have let their subscription lapse, we welcome you with open arms. If you rely on Facebook or Google to tell you when there’s a story you want to dig into, that service may soon disappear. Buying a yearly subscription to our paper will provide you with a wealth of information to help you connect with the places and people you share this community with.
With the support of our community behind us, we here at The Press can weather the storm of uncertainty surrounding the Canadian media landscape and continue in our mission of chronicling daily life for all of you.
To subscribe, visit our website online at haldimandpress.com or give us a call at our office, 905-768-3111. We are proud to announce that our website has recently undergone a redesign and is now much easier to navigate and find the content you’re looking for.
And lastly, thank you for reading our paper. We appreciate every single one of our readers, and regardless of what comes next, we will stay true to the principles that have made The Haldimand Press such a great publication for the last 155 years.
