LJI funding cut, local media, communities lose

Ottawa’s attempt to support areas of the country underserved by journalism is falling short. As a result, some communities will now be less informed.

No good can come of that.

In May 2019, the federal government introduced the five-year Local Journalism Initiative (LJI), $50 million for news organizations to hire reporters to cover “news deserts,” communities — of place or people — with too few or no journalists covering them full-time. Their community newspaper or radio station may have closed as the media landscape contracted. Or they could be a group of people traditionally underserved by the media.

Saltwire Network was among the media organizations to receive LJI funding last year. We were able to hire eight reporters to cover, among other things, Indigenous affairs in Cape Breton, civic matters in western P.E.I. and health in Newfoundland and Labrador. Each reporter made valuable contributions; people were better informed by their efforts.

This year, Ottawa is providing funding for fewer LJI reporters across the country — 124, down from 213.

That’s because, according to the Department of Canadian Heritage, the initial funding did not flow as early as had been anticipated. That delay meant there was more money to be awarded over a shorter time frame, and so more positions were funded than had been originally planned.

“Most of (the organizations) … basically decided to do sort of one expanded cycle to use up two years’ worth of funding,” Tina Ongkeko explained to Saltwire.

Ongkeko is director of LJI with News Media Canada, one of the organizations that administers the funding. She says the reduction in positions this year brings the program more in line with what was intended.

Saltwire has lost six of its eight LJI positions. While that’s a loss for us and other media organizations, it’s an even bigger loss for the communities served.

Saltwire is still committed to covering those areas, but that coverage won’t be the same as having dedicated journalists focused on what’s happening there full-time.

That concerns us, and those communities. It means important stories left untold and less local information for citizens.

Despite the initial skepticism with which the announcement of the LJI program was met — from opposition politicians and many journalists — the funding was actually achieving its goal.

LJI content is provided free online for all publications in the country to use. Publishers themselves do not reap direct profits from the program.

However, the communities served do. They benefit from information about who they are, their triumphs, their challenges, and issues they need to fix.

Now, communities are losing valuable resources, just a year or so after they were put in place.

Ottawa, you dropped the ball on this one.