Quebec has subscription crisis as regional media fail

Martin Cauchon veritably bounded into the radio studio four years ago, bursting with enthusiasm for his latest venture. The former Liberal justice minister under prime minister Jean Chretien was eager to talk about convincing his friend André Desmarais to sell him and his investors six of Quebec’s most important regional newspapers owned by a subsidiary of the family’s mammoth Power Corporation.

The first question to Cauchon maybe should have been: “What, are you crazy?” but it was more likely “Why are you doing this?” It also might have been “What have you been smoking?” since Cauchon, as justice minister had advanced a bill to lighten sentences for possession of marijuana and is currently chairman of the board of a cannabis production company.

Whatever got Cauchon exuberant about acquiring La Tribune in Sherbrooke, Le Soleil in Quebec City, Le Nouvelliste in Trois Rivières, Le Quotidien in Saguenay, La Voix de l'est in Granby and Le Droit in the Outaouais, he seemed convinced at the time he could tilt successfully against that monster windmill of information called the internet and breathe hope back into regional journalism.

Cauchon explained his motivation in an interview a year after acquiring the papers under the Groupe Capitales Médias company: “It’s all about public service.

Information plays a fundamental role in these regions and in every other region at that.

“Our newspapers serve as actors and witnesses to community, economy, politics, culture, social life, and so on. The fact that we can share this information in a way that preserves proximity and quality is a testament to our healthy democracy. I feel like it’s my duty to protect this outlet. Day in and day out, I am inspired by this mission.”

So, you can’t blame Martin Cauchon for trying. However, his hopeful vision of revitalizing regional papers through a winning combination of digital platforms and good old printing presses has piled up a mountain of debt, left the employee’s pension plan deeply in the red, and provoked (yet another) hair on fire crisis among politicians and other “influencers.”

Emergency hearings at the National Assembly last week seemed to produce some kind of consensus that taxpayers should come to the rescue of the failing media group and others in the same sinking boat. Indeed, the Quebec government quickly advanced a $5 million “loan” to keep the papers operating and some 350 journalists and the like employed.

Rival media companies are also circling like sharks smelling tasty regional pickings. Quebecor boss Pierre Karl Péladeau says he’s ready to buy them all, lock, stock and unions over a barrel.

Péladeau, whose Quebecor company earns most of its profits through its Vidéotron digital arm, says a losing business model is at the heart of Groupe Capitales Media’s woes.

So, beyond the political/corporate hand-wringing and recriminations, who really is to blame for the wretched state of media in Quebec, Canada and across the literate world?

At least a partial answer may lie in a study earlier this year by journalism graduate students at the University of British Columbia. Their survey of 1,700 Canadians found 81 per cent would not pay to read news on the internet and 90 per cent would switch to free alternatives if their preferred websites starting erected firewalls and charging for content.

So if people prefer to get their information through Facebook or any of the endless other sources of free “fake news,” what can be done about that? The simple answer might be for people to step up and support their local media via subscriptions, for which there may be a tax deduction under the federal government’s media fund for qualifying outlets.

There are some examples of subscriptions sustaining quality news sources. Apparently, Montreal’s venerable intellectual daily Le Devoir actually makes money by subscriptions. The New York Times is even making money now thanks, we suspect, to the antics of President Donald Trump stimulating interest.

So, it can be done. Seems all it takes is for at least a portion of people who moan the decline of regional journalism to put their money where their heart is.

To twist an oft-twisted quote - all it takes for regional media to fail is for good people to do nothing. Martin Cauchon did something. Maybe others should do their part.