The Star’s view

The media crisis comes at a time when local news is drying up and it’s harder than ever to sort out reliable information from junk,

Journalism in Canada is in a crisis. That much is clear from the past few years of plummeting ad revenues, sweeping staff cuts and a collapse of local news coverage in many parts of the country.

But does all this amount to a crisis of democracy that calls out for public action? A new report from the Public Policy Forum makes a persuasive case for government action to make sure vital sources of information do not fall silent as the digital revolution erodes the financial foundations of the traditional news media.

The report makes a series of sensible recommendations to level the playing field between traditional and digital media, ensure more online ad revenue goes to Canadian websites, encourage more local reporting and have the CBC focus more on what it calls “civic-function journalism.”

All this would be positive, but such measures will receive wide public support only if they are seen as ways to make sure the news media fulfils its role in a healthy, functioning democracy.

They will fall on deaf ears if they are seen as just special pleading on behalf of an industry in trouble. Or, worse, if the public fears that any money involved will end up in the pockets of a few media moguls who have cynically enriched themselves while presiding over the decline.

The Public Policy Forum report argues convincingly that much more is at stake. The traditional media are in crisis, with doubledigit declines in revenue every year and a third of journalism jobs lost in the past six years.

The problem is that new digital media are not filling the gap. They are either too small or have no serious commitment to the essential function of news and information coverage traditionally carried out by newspapers and broadcast television.

As the report warns: “Established news organizations have been left gasping, while native digital alternatives have failed to develop journalistic mass, especially in local news.”

This is a loss for our common life as citizens, not just as news consumers. City halls and courthouses go uncovered, or badly covered. Communities increasingly lack vital information that acts as the lifeblood of daily discourse and decision-making.

The report’s main recommendations aim to bridge that gap. The most common-sense one is to change tax laws to remove tax deductions for advertising on foreign websites. The PPF estimates that would shift about $300 million to $400 million of digital revenue a year from the likes of Google and Facebook, which contribute nothing to news coverage in Canada, to Canadian media organizations, whether traditional or new-media startups.

That kind of measure already applies to print media and extending it to online ads makes eminent sense.

Likewise, the report suggests applying GST and HST to digital subscriptions and revenue from foreign websites that don’t produce news in Canada.

Both measures would provide funding for a new “Journalism and Democracy Fund” with an initial investment of $100 million to foster digital-news innovation and “civic-function journalism.”

Such a fund will be controversial and raise serious questions about who decides where the money goes. But the report makes a strong argument that an arm’s-length fund with a carefully crafted mandate would be better than extending tax credits to all media. That runs the risk that organizations who make no commitment to serious journalism will end up benefiting as much as those that do.

The report makes an innovative proposal to increase local news coverage through a new service by The Canadian Press news agency. It urges that barriers to philanthropic or charitable financing of news initiatives be lifted. And it recommends that the CBC be forbidden from seeking advertising for online operations in order to keep its focus on public-service journalism, not ephemeral “clickbait.”

All these proposals will meet with resistance in some quarters, but the Trudeau government should give them serious consideration.

The crisis in news and information is not just a private matter for media companies and journalists to worry about. The stakes are much bigger, especially at a time when local coverage is drying up and it’s harder than ever to sort out reliable information from junk.

The government should look at the wider picture and find ways to make sure Canadians continue to have the information they need for a robust democracy.

This report is a good place to start.

The stakes are high as traditional media are in crisis while digital media are not up to the task