The good news is that the Canadian public values a free press too much to have the government pay for it. They don't much care for Bill C-18, the Online News Act, either..The bad news is that they’re not much inclined to pay for news themselves..Either that changes, or Canada’s free press is going to shrivel away. And thanks to the Liberal government’s Internet companion Bill C-11, there’s no replacement free of government control waiting in the wings..Canadians need to wake up, and pay up..According to a just-released Angus Reid poll, “as Internet-based options — including podcasts, aggregators and social media platforms — continue to permeate and saturate Canadians’ media consumption habits, the role of print publications has moved from a place of prominence to an afterthought.”.Just one in five Canadians say they go to a print source, which is about half what it was in 2016. TV and radio have also suffered, while the number of Canadian adults using online sources has risen 12 points during that time..Trouble is, only about 15% of them actually buy an online subscription to a Canadian site..So, there’s an all-too-clear disconnect here..Canadian readers are still strongly opposed to the Liberal government’s financial assistance package to the news media: Nearly two thirds of those polled— 59% — oppose the current practice of federal funding for private newsrooms. It “compromises journalistic independence.” (No kidding.).A similar proportion — 57% — says “the consolidation of media such as the recently considered but ultimately rejected coming together of Torstar and Postmedia, should be discouraged.” Why? So there is more competition..And making Meta and Google pay, as The Online News Act (Bill C-18) proposes? Maybe, but not if it means pushing the tech giants so hard that they make good on their threat to stop carrying Canadian news. Internet options have “permeated and saturated” us, as mentioned above..'We're with you all the way: Just don't make us pay for the news we need.'.To be fair, it’s not the public’s job to understand how newspapers are published, any more than it is the job of a driver to understand how an engine works..However, anybody can understand that there’s no free lunch..And just as people who don’t top up the oil will eventually find out why it’s universally recommended, so present trends suggest there will be further unwelcome contractions in the news business if readers don’t cough up the price of a theatre ticket once a month for their subscription..In other words, it’s back to the 18th century..Newspapers in the style to which we have become accustomed started in the 1700s as subscription-only..Advertising revenue, upon which the now-failing business model is based, only came much later. Those revenues having now substantially decamped to the Internet and the public being as unwilling as it seems to countenance other options, there doesn’t seem to be any other alternative..The Reid study describes the same thing happening to electronic media..Since 2016, TV and radio have dropped in importance as news sources from 71 to 52% and 57 to 45% respectively; their remaining audience tends to be 55 and over. As with newspapers, this translates into lower advertising dollars. (The exception is Canada’s semi-official news agency; the CBC’s billion-dollar-plus budget is not tied to audience support.).But here’s the kicker that has receded from the headlines, as surely as the public interest in paying for news..The Liberal government’s Bill C-11, which amends the Broadcasting Act, places all Canadian content under the control of the CRTC. Part of the CRTC’s mandate is to set and supervise ‘standards’… an arbitrary and unpredictable measure of excellence, if ever there was one..The practical effect of Bills C-11 and C-18 together is a government-led restriction on the availability of news and the free speech hitherto enjoyed by every Canadian, one in which a regulatory fight pushes the tech giants into not carrying Canadian news and even the country’s kitten videos are theoretically published only with the approval of a CRTC guided by a Liberal government..This is not a way for a free people to live..We thank those loyal readers of the Western Standard who are part of that 15% of Canadians willing to pay for news, and who help us give them the news they need to judge the governments that tax them..News is not free. It never was..We think it's worth $10 a month. For more information, please call 1-866-479 WEST
