Fed funding won’t buy off journalists’ independence

If you need proof that government cannot buy off journalists, take a look at what some of them have written and said in reaction to the new federal program to support newsrooms across Canada:

❚ It’s a re-election slush fund for the Liberals.

❚ It’s a bailout of a dying industry.

❚ It’s a threat to the fundamental principle of media freedom.

And that’s just the friendly fire. So no, even $595 million over five years is not going to make journalists any less prickly, self-righteous — or more pleasant.

No wonder it took the Liberals so long to act, knowing their hand would be bitten as soon as they offered food to the ravenous dogs in Canadian journalism.

My colleagues and I have been working for three years to persuade the government that local journalism is in crisis and needs help. Falling ad revenues, shrinking newsrooms and news-outlet closures have resulted in significantly less fact-based, independent reporting. In some communities there is none at all.

The funding announced last week by Finance Minister Bill Morneau is designed to keep journalists employed producing original Canadian news, to foster new media models supported by charitable donations, and to help develop digital media.

I started travelling to Ottawa to tell the story of Canadian newspapers in January 2016. The first critics of supporting local news were the Liberals themselves. They worried federal money would be seen as an effort to influence journalists. They did not want to bail out an industry with no hope for the future. They did not want to help pay big bonuses to news media executives. And they did not particularly like the National Post.

It was a tough hill to climb. We had to persuade the Liberals they could fund journalism without propping up bad business models, and fund news media to transition to the future, not to maintain the status quo.

That’s what the new program does. Most of the money will be spent to support labour costs to produce original news content. News outlets will get refundable tax credits based on employing journalists. It will be a powerful incentive not to shrink newsrooms further.

The program will not save poorly run companies. Where I work, the Winnipeg Free Press, the newsroom-salary budget is 10 per cent of overall costs. Our future will be determined by how we manage the other 90 per cent of costs while we reinvent ourselves.

The rest of the federal money will go to innovation and transition.

On innovation, not-forprofit news outlets supported by donations have exploded in the United States in recent years as the for-profit model has struggled. Canada could see the same now that nonprofit outlets will be able to take donations from readers and issue tax receipts as charities. Montreal’s La Presse has already converted to not-forprofit status.

On transition, readers who pay for digital subscriptions will get a 15-per-cent tax credit — a good marketing tool to help media grow paid digital readership.

To preserve journalistic independence, a government department will not determine who qualifies for money. Instead, an arm’slength panel will “define and promote core journalism standards, define professional journalism and determine eligibility.”

Government has a long tradition of distributing money by this method, using agencies such as the Canada Council, which allots grants based on the merits of applications.

The government also has a long tradition of directly

MOST OF THE MONEY WILL BE SPENT TO SUPPORT LABOUR COSTS TO PRODUCE ORIGINAL CONTENT.

funding news media without interfering in reporting. It provides more than $1 billion a year to the CBC and $71 million to magazines, community newspapers and ethnic, farm, business and Indigenous publications. This funding did not put Ottawa in charge of journalism in Canada. The new money won’t either.

What is left to criticize? Perhaps the cushy perks for media executives. Personally, I empty my own garbage, answer my own phone, buy cups of stale coffee from the cafeteria and drive a 17-yearold car. Some days I use it to deliver papers when production problems leave subscribers screaming for their daily fix of print.

The reality is that most people who provide journalism to readers across Canada are hard working and of modest means. Those are the diverse groups of men and women, and their families, that the Liberals expect to help with this program. They are not likely to stop criticizing, but they are grateful for the help.