You wouldn’t think Justin Trudeau’s government and Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch would be caught dead dancing to the same tune, but if this week’s hearings on Canada’s latest media rescue plan was anything to go by, the two are twirling up a storm.
According to advocates for Canada’s Online News Act (Bill C-18), the Australian media baron’s shakedown of online web giants Meta and Google has already saved the newspaper industry Down Under. And, once this country passes its legislation, it’s gonna be jobs, jobs, jobs for journos.
Jason Kint, CEO of Digital Content Next—a U.S.-based trade organization/lobby group—flew into Ottawa from Washington, D.C., to appear before the House of Commons Heritage Committee on Sept. 27. There, he dismissed highly respected critics such as Dr. Michael Geist, Canada research chair in internet law at the University of Ottawa, of spreading misinformation, declared the Aussie rules to be a sweeping victory for journalism, left me with the general impression that anyone who disagreed with him was paid for by global web monopolists, and flew home. In terms of lobbying, it was a masterful performance.
All Canada had to do, he assured those listening, was to follow Australia’s Murdoch-inspired model. And, judging by the warm reception he received from Liberal MPs, that’s what Canada intends to do.
Trouble is, while I can find evidence it has helped Murdoch’s market-dominating Australian Newscorp (he also owns the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Dow Jones, Harper Collins, the (UK) Sun, The Times, Sunday Times, etc.), I’m having trouble finding proof these latest subsidies are going to be enough.
After all, the first $119 million-a-year in tax credits that Canada’s newspaper industry managed to squeeze out of taxpayers in 2019 hasn’t created any more jobs. Sure, the pandemic was an issue, but there were additional subsidies for that. And if you don’t want to believe me, take it from Jamie Irving, chair of News Media Canada, the trade group lobbying for online loot.
“The financial pressures facing Canadian news outlets due to the current market failure are only becoming more dire,” he wrote to the Commons finance committee earlier this year. “We are forecasting annual losses as an industry of about $500 million a year.”
That’s a big number. And that appears to be after the $119 million, the $50 million over five years for the Local Journalism Initiative, and the $75 million annual Canadian Periodical Fund that’s been in place for decades.
It would appear that even if the Canadian news industry lobby—that now includes CBC, Bell Media, and other broadcasters—is able to shake $500 million annually out of Mark Zuckerberg’s and Google’s pockets, the best they can do is break even. So, still no jobs.
It’s true that Facebook and Google were both successfully bullied by Murdoch and his Australian partners into making deals—for now, at least. And while the details of arrangements there are supposedly confidential, $200 million keeps being dropped as the number involved. I think that’s inflated by Newscorp’s global muscle. But let’s say it’s true. And let’s say that $200 million in Australia turns into $300 million in Canada. What happens then? Well, the CBC gets richer. Bell gets richer and most of those news outlets that have been approved by the government are, according to Irving’s forecast, still going to be short hundreds of millions annually. Which means they’ll be either belly up or back for more. And the more they appear to be dependent on politicians and web giants, the less readers will trust them. And the less readers trust them, the more they’ll be back for more.
According to Meta, there’s not much evidence the deals Down Under have done anything other than line the pockets of Murdoch and others.
“Some of the revenue publishers have received from our commercial agreements is being used to pay down debt, or issue distributions to shareholders,” Meta wrote in response to Australia’s 12-month review of its news media bargaining code. “Indeed, some companies have even cut journalism jobs after striking agreements after the legislation was passed.”
Others claim jobs have indeed been created but News Media Canada made no mention of any in its presentation to the Heritage Committee.
I don’t know. But I do know that you don’t build a viable industry or media culture on bailouts, subsidies, and political favours owed. You build it on thoughtful, economically sound, market-based national policy frameworks. In the case of news media, those should promote innovation, entrepreneurship, independence, accountability, and cultures that build trust between publishers and readers that what they are reading is the truth—the whole truth—and not the soft left pap for which so many are famous.
The Trudeau government is already well on its way to regulating the internet in order to enrich one class of approved creators at the expense of another. And it’s planning to crack down on speech of which it and certain classes of people disapprove at the expense of others. Now, with the Online News Act, it appears ready to insert the state into the newsrooms of the nation.
