Ottawa poised to offer lifeline to newspapers in upcoming federal budget

OTTAWA — The federal government is signalling that the country’s newspaper industry is set to get financial help, with the minister in charge of the file vowing to have measures in this year’s budget and officials ready to meet with publishers to talk details.

The value and details of the financing will be laid out in the budget. No date has been set, but in the past two years, the budget has been delivered in late March.

Expectations are high that the government will allocate more money and change the rules around the Canada Periodical Fund to provide money beyond print magazines, non-daily newspapers and digital periodicals as the industry looks for a viable business model in the digital age.

Heritage Minister Melanie Joly discussed the matter during a meeting Thursday with representatives of the Federation nationale des communications, a Quebec union that represents 6,000 people who work in culture and communications.

Union president Pascale St-Onge said Joly told the gathering “there would be a support measure in the next budget” without specifying the funding formula.

Last week, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told the newspaper Le Soleil that he was preoccupied with the financial crisis facing media in Canada and that a decision on federal funding would come in the next budget.

“We’ve had an indication from the prime minister’s mouth and from the minister’s mouth that there will be help for newspapers, so both of those are very encouraging,” said Bob Cox, chairman of News Media Canada, a trade association representing almost 1,000 newspapers in the country.

The government said an announcement will be made in the coming weeks or months concerning the $75-million periodical fund.

“Journalism is critical to a healthy democracy. We have always supported local journalism and will continue to do so. We have been clear: we will not bail out models that are no longer viable,” Joly’s official Twitter account tweeted Friday.

“We are currently reviewing the Canada Periodical Fund to make sure it can support magazines and local papers to innovate, adapt and transition to digital.”

The government has been bombarded with ideas on how to help the industry.

A 100-page report from the Public Policy Forum last year called for a sales tax on foreign companies selling digital subscriptions in Canada, a “Future of Journalism and Democracy” fund to help finance reliable news and information with $100 million in federal seed money, a new local mandate for the Canadian Press news agency, and requiring the CBC to allow other organizations to publish its news content for free.

The Quebec union and News Media Canada have called for changes to the periodical fund.

“When we looked at this, the periodical fund seemed to be the best vehicle for introducing an emergency measure in the next budget that would be able to administer funds for the daily and weekly news media,” StOnge said.

News Media Canada’s proposal to morph the periodical fund into a $350-million journalism fund to, among other things, provide rebates on newsroom salaries and expenses, would require about $275 million in new federal spending.