Hockey news, fashion tips, TV and movie listings, retirement strategies, updates on Celine Dion — all of this information now constitutes local media, at least according to federal Heritage Minister Melanie Joly.
Last week marked a black spot in the history of Canadian newspapers with the closure of three dozen papers, taking out of circulation three million copies of printed newspapers each week and eliminating more than 300 jobs.
Joly’s response in Ottawa was a refrain that she has been using more and more lately, saying the federal government is already helping news providers. “We value the importance of journalism and that’s why we invest up to $75 million per year in local media,” she said.
The minister was referring to the Aid to Publishers program, through which the federal government provides annual grants to printed publications — magazines and non-daily newspapers — primarily to help with distribution costs.
Many Canadians will be surprised by who is getting this support for “local media.” Figures from the 2014-’15 fiscal year show:
• The Hockey News, which primarily covers the NHL, got $1.3 million.
• TVHebdo got $1.5 million. It provides TV listings in French and is owned by the same company as the TVA network in Quebec.
• TV Week, which provides TV listings in B.C., got $1 million.
• Allo Vedettes, which provides Quebec celebrity news and often features Celine Dion on the cover, got $218,721.
• Good Times, a magazine aimed at retirees, got $588,531.
• Flare got $408,236, Chatelaine got $1.5 million for its English edition and $848,428 for its French one.
• Movie Entertainment got $1.5 million. It is produced for subscribers to the TV channel The Movie Network, owned by Bell Media.
This is a snapshot of a single year but the same publications get large grants year after year.
The list goes on and on to hundreds of magazines that get federal funding. It raises all sorts of questions. Why does a TV book distributed by a broadcaster qualify for funding when a TV guide distributed in a newspaper does not? And how on Earth does giving a subsidy to a promotional magazine for a TV channel qualify as support for local media?
The simple fact is that the Aid to Publishers program mostly supports magazines, an industry that for the most part does not have a viable business model without public subsidies.
Many community newspapers get money but relatively little. Those affiliated with NewsMedia Canada got between $3,301 and $124,252 in 2014-’15 and averaged $25,831, less than 2% of what The Hockey News received. Daily newspapers are not eligible.
Overall, these community papers got about $7.8 million of the $68.9 million handed out. Some went to ethnic, farm and religious publications. The Catholic Register got $403,355, The Western Producer, $1.2 million.
The bulk — $53.4 million — went to magazines. Some individual magazine companies get more per year than all community newspapers combined. TVA Publications got about $7.5 million this year, as did Transcontinental Media. Rogers Media, publisher of Chatelaine, Macleans and other magazines, got $8.9 million in 2016. Readers Digest got $3 million this year for its related publications.
The Aid to Publishers program is being revamped. It’s unclear what the new qualification criteria will be or whether the program will get any more money.
But the review is doomed to failure unless the federal government understands that it is not currently supporting local news media in any meaningful way and that the current funding, even if redistributed, will do little to help reporting in local communities across Canada.
Bob Cox is chair of the board of News Media Canada.
