Amy Watson
Research expert covering news and publishing
News in Canada - statistics & facts
The Canadian news landscape is in flux, and fresh challenges continue to present themselves. As well as the ongoing issues of declining consumer trust, falling revenue, and company lay-offs testing several markets around the world, Canadian news media must also grapple with a new law impacting the industry – Canada’s Bill C-18, also known as the Online News Act.
What is Bill C-18 and what are its effects?
The Online News Act was designed to compensate news publishers for content available on search engines and social networks. However, after striking a deal proved difficult, Canadian news content was blocked on major platforms. Meanwhile, the effects of blocked news on Canadian consumers varied. Some simply turned to other free news sources and social sites to keep up to date, and the sudden lack of access to usual outlets via social networks and Google did not encourage Canadians to invest in a news subscription to their preferred sites. In fact, Canadians remain very unlikely to pay for news in general.Canadians paying for news: the state of play
The share of Canadians who do not have an online news subscription remains between 80 and 90 percent across all age groups. This could change if access to certain online outlets continues to be restricted, however this seems improbable as Canadians rank among the least likely audiences in the world to pay for online news. The share who did so in the last year stood at just 11 percent, about half that recorded for consumers in the neighboring United States. Persuading consumers to invest in paid news content, especially at a time when Canadians are cutting back on SVOD subscriptions to save money, is no mean feat – and the effects of the Online News Act could add to this strain.What is next for Canadian publishers?
Smaller Canadian publications in particular will struggle without a social media presence. Whilst paying for news is unlikely to become commonplace in the near future, one method of damage control could be to encourage newsletter signups to give readers access to fresh content via their email inbox, driving traffic directly to the publication’s website. Newsletters are one of the main areas marked out for increased production among global news organizations, and for smaller Canadian publishers, this could be one way of keeping consumers engaged even without a presence on Meta platforms.
