How to save the Canadian media industry from mass extinction

Our challenge is clear: find a way to pump a lot of money into the Canadian media sector, while avoiding the ethical problems inherent to government picking and choosing which media outlets get saved.

Heritage Minister Steven Guilbeault, pictured Feb. 3 in West Block, announced measures meant to support Canadian media during the COVID-19 pandemic. That and the government’s wage subsidy program won’t be enough, writes Daniel Bernhard.The Hill Times photograph by Andrew Meade

Opinion

BY DANIEL BERNHARD

April 1, 2020

TORONTO—If current trends continue, Canada’s news media will not survive the COVID-19 recession. Even during the boom years of 2009-2019, nearly 300 Canadian outlets shut down and 16,000 journalists were laid off. But the good times, if you can call them that, are over. In the last two weeks, ...

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