{"id":264755,"date":"2017-02-03T11:30:01","date_gmt":"2017-02-03T16:30:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/issues\/ten-ways-to-build-a-new-canadian-media-ecosystem\/"},"modified":"2025-10-07T21:27:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T01:27:27","slug":"ten-ways-to-build-a-new-canadian-media-ecosystem","status":"publish","type":"issues","link":"https:\/\/policyoptions.irpp.org\/fr\/2017\/02\/ten-ways-to-build-a-new-canadian-media-ecosystem\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten ways to build a new Canadian media ecosystem"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cAiling<\/a>,\u201d \u201cbeleaguered<\/a>\u201d and \u201cbeing murdered<\/a>\u201d \u2014 according to its own headlines, 2016 was a rough year for journalism in Canada.<\/p>\n

Entering 2017, it shows no signs of recovery. Legacy media are still struggling with the digital transition. Advertising dollars are all but gone, sucked up by American web platforms and social media juggernauts. Subscription dollars so far do not appear promising enough to fill the gap.<\/p>\n

Our country\u2019s large-scale news organizations face huge challenges that are not going away. As one Toronto newspaper honcho recently acknowledged<\/a>, the loss of traditional advertising dollars that once sustained his publication has been so severe that \u201cindeed, the very business model is at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is that the survival of a well-funded, democratic media that holds the powerful accountable and facilitates deep and nuanced discussion about public issues is seriously threatened. We have relied in large part on traditional corporate models to provide such forums in the past. Yet in that media sector, there\u2019s no reason to believe we won\u2019t see more layoffs and further diminished capacity.<\/p>\n

And while the CBC performs a vital role in this regard and deserves ample funding, one monolithic public institution cannot alone fill the void being left by faltering corporate models.<\/p>\n

As editors past and present of one of the country\u2019s longest-running independent digital news media experiments, the Tyee<\/em><\/a>, we believe it\u2019s time for Canada to get serious about strengthening the enterprises that are trying to do things differently \u2014 the publications that inhabit the space we\u2019re calling the \u201cindependent digital public interest journalism sector.\u201d There are many flourishing examples in the United States, as that media-ecosystem undergoes its own transformation. They include ProPublica<\/em>, the Texas Tribune<\/em>, Grist<\/em>, and many dozens more.<\/p>\n

The Tyee<\/em> helped pioneer this sector here in Canada. Other members today include Canadaland<\/a>, iPolitics<\/a><\/em>, OpenCanada<\/a><\/em>, Discourse Media<\/a><\/em> and more. Yet Canada\u2019s independent digital public interest journalism sector remains vastly underdeveloped compared with that in the US.<\/p>\n

The questions Canada\u2019s government should be contemplating at the moment, therefore, are: Which current policies and priorities suppress the development of this sector? and, Which\u00a0new ones could help this sector grow and help supplant fading models for producing and delivering public interest journalism?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s begin by suggesting criteria for who belongs in Canada\u2019s independent digital public interest journalism sector. We would not include individual bloggers, advocacy sites, or click-bait operations that are built on buzz over substance. To be counted in this group, a media member<\/p>\n