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Does Serious Journalism Have a Future in Canada?

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Does Serious Journalism Have a Future in Canada? Does serious journalism have a future in Canada? Madelaine Drohan 2015 PRIME MINISTERS OF CANADA FELLOW With thanks to our partner: The views expressed in the following pages are those of the author and do not reflect the positions of the Public Policy Forum or the RBC Foundation. The Public Policy Forum is an independent, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving the quality of government in Canada through enhanced dialogue among the public, private and voluntary sectors. The Forum’s members, drawn from business, federal, provincial and territorial governments, the voluntary sector and organized labour, share a belief that an efficient and effective public service is important in ensuring Canada’s competitiveness abroad and quality of life at home. Established in 1987, the Forum has earned a reputation as a trusted, nonpartisan facilitator, capable of bringing together a wide range of stakeholders in productive dialogue. Its research program provides a neutral base to inform collective decision making. By promoting information sharing and greater links between governments and other sectors, the Forum helps ensure public policy in our country is dynamic, coordinated and responsive to future challenges and opportunities. © 2016, Public Policy Forum 1405-130 Albert St. Ottawa, ON K1P 5G4 Tel: (613) 238-7160 Fax: (613) 238-7990 www.ppforum.ca | @ppforumca ISBN: 978-1-927009-73-4 2 | DOES SERIOUS JOURNALISM HAVE A FUTURE IN CANADA? PPFORUM.CA | 1 SAILING INTO THE UNKNOWN One of the saddest stories I covered in four decades as a journalist was the launch of the last naval vessel to be built at the Swan Hunter shipyard in Newcastle-on-Tyne in the UK. It was the 1990s and British shipbuilders could no longer compete with cheaper Asian rivals. Swan Hunter was planning to close after more than a century of operations. As workers and their families gathered dockside for the traditional launch ceremony, there were tears on many faces. The shipyard’s brass band played a mournful tune. The sailors on deck saluted. And the workers waved the ship and their jobs goodbye. That image came back to me during the research for this report. Journalists are standing on a similar shore, watching an industry they relied on for good steady jobs fade away. In place of Asian shipyards, the Internet and its ever-expanding array of digital tools have provoked an existential crisis. Who needs journalists when all the information the world possesses is at your fingertips? But without journalists, who will research and relate the stories that spark and inform debates about public policy in this country? This report looks at the main threats to the survival of serious journalism in Canada and suggests ways to address them. Without giving away the entire plot, I have to admit I have found no magic wand. And none appeared in the course of 40 interviews and roundtable discussions in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Calgary. Yet, the search has uncovered plenty of exciting experiments and fresh thinking on how journalism could be done right – and even better than before – in the digital age. Defining serious journalism proved trickier than I expected. The definition that I’ve come to believe now fits the best is about what it is supposed to do: provide citizens with the information they need to make the best possible decisions about their lives, their communities, their societies and their governments. An informed public is central to good public policy and a well-functioning democracy, which is why freedom of the press is enshrined in the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Serious journalism – fair, accurate and independent of special interests – gives Canadians the tools they need to hold their governments to account. Much of this report focuses on what is now called the mainstream, traditional or legacy media because these newspapers, magazines and broadcast outlets have Journalism provides citizens supplied the bulk of serious journalism in Canada for over a century. Fresh-faced with the information they upstarts like iPolitics.ca, the Tyee, or the Canadian arms of BuzzFeed and VICE, need to make the best are tiny in comparison. There were 10 people working for BuzzFeed Canada when possible decisions about their I visited last year. The Globe and Mail employs about 750. lives, their communities, their societies, and their But longevity and size do not guarantee the current way of creating journalism governments. has a future. The syndicates of politicians and businessmen, who laid the groundwork for today’s model when they began forming joint stock companies — American in the 1890s to buy newspapers, were a product of their time. They saw that the Press Institute larger stores created to serve Canada’s swelling population would buy enough advertising to support a business. Their arrival on the scene spelled the end for the subscription-based model, where newspapers were owned and operated by a single proprietor, who often wrote all the copy. To paraphrase Bob Dylan, the times are a changin’ again. Whether the traditional media can adapt their current model, or whether they will be replaced by other sources of journalism is in question. Other industries disrupted by the Internet – music, accommodation, taxis and even pornography – offer interesting parallels. All have experienced a drastic change in how their product or service is delivered and thus who gets to pocket the most money. As with journalism, hotel and taxi operators have to fend off new competitors while improving their game. However, this restructuring doesn’t equate with lessened demand, which leaves room for optimism about the future of serious journalism. It is reassuring to see that the almost 70 percent of Canadians who have a smartphone are increasingly using it to access local and world news, according to the Canadian Internet Registration Authority’s 2015 fact book. Surely there is a creative way to meet that demand? 2 | DOES SERIOUS JOURNALISM HAVE A FUTURE IN CANADA? PPFORUM.CA | 1 I am not an unbiased observer. I have spent my career writing for traditional media outlets – Canadian Press, Financial Post, Maclean’s, Globe and Mail, Financial Times of London, and for the past decade the Economist. I began this research feeling deeply pessimistic about the survival of serious journalism in Canada. Just as I was putting the finishing touches on this report, Rogers Media cut 200 radio, television and publishing jobs, the Guelph Mercury, in business since 1867, stopped its presses for good, and Postmedia merged newsrooms and cut staff across the country. But my mood lifted after talking to younger journalists, people at online-only media outlets, those driving creativity at some traditional media outlets, and those creating new ones. Technology has lowered the barriers to entry for new media outlets. Less than two weeks after theGuelph Mercury stopped printing, GuelphToday, an online-only local news site, sprang into being. I’ve ended up somewhere between the two extremes. I’m cautiously optimistic that serious journalism will survive the digital era, but believe there will be less of it and media outlets will be smaller. But to get there from here, journalists, media outlets, advertisers and governments first have to deal with some serious challenges. All of us have a stake in the outcome. 2 | DOES SERIOUS JOURNALISM HAVE A FUTURE IN CANADA? PPFORUM.CA | 3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction: Sailing into the unknown 1 Threats 4 The business model is broken 4 Annoying advertising and ad-blockers 6 The tech giants are moving into news 7 Sponsored content is increasing 9 Journalism is now a precarious job 10 Journalists are no longer gatekeepers 13 The audience has changed 14 Solutions 16 How media outlets could do a better job 16 How advertisers could do a better job 18 How media outlets can adapt 19 What government could do 21 How journalists can adapt 22 A new relationship is key 23 A final word about the future 25 Moving targets: Journalism and public policy 26 2 | DOES SERIOUS JOURNALISM HAVE A FUTURE IN CANADA? PPFORUM.CA | 3 THREATS The business model is broken This isn’t the first time Canadian journalism has been turned on its head by technological innovation. In the early 1800s, the printing press, which until then had been the preserve of wealthy individuals or companies, became affordable for those of more modest means. This led to an explosion of new voices, as individuals used the technology to reach a broader audience with sharply worded attacks on government policy and each other. The King’s Printers, whose staid, government-sanctioned publications had previously dominated the diffusion of news in the colony, were besieged. They fought to preserve their quasi-monopoly through the courts, winning some battles but losing the war. The winners did not have long to enjoy their victory. Starting in the 1890s, they were bought out or forced to close by incorporated rivals, who figured out how to get the lion’s share of advertising from newly arrived department stores. These rivals became the media groups that dominated journalism in Canada for more than a century before the Internet blew apart their business “People rarely bought a model, which depended on advertisers to cover most of the costs, with newspaper just for the news, it subscribers and single-copy sales making up the rest. was an add-on. They wanted to buy a car, see the sports scores Classified ads were the first to go. Consumers were lured online by free or or find a job. Now we’re asking highly specialized online sites, like Craigslist, eBay and Kijiji for selling items, them to pay just for news.” and Yelp and Urbanspoon for restaurant reviews.
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