Journalism in Canada is at its lowest ebb in decades, as evidenced by the cancellation or pausing of several post-secondary programs in the subject due to the dismal job market.
Postmedia Network, Canada’s largest newspaper chain by far, is 98 per cent owned by U.S. hedge funds and has had to sell assets and lay off workers to make payments on the hundreds of millions in company debt the vulture capitalists also hold. The corporation has steadily tightened its grip on Canadian newspapers since its creation in 2010, buying: Sun Media, Canada’s second-largest chain at the time, in 2015; Brunswick News, the chain that monopolizes New Brunswick, in 2022; and SaltWire, the chain that dominates the rest of the Maritimes, earlier this year.
Canada’s current second-largest chain, Torstar, was taken over in 2020 by private equity firm NordStar Capital, which has been stripping its assets and eviscerating its workforce. Last year, it converted 71 Ontario community newspapers published by its Metroland subsidiary to online-only publications, laying off more than 600 workers in the process. It then cheated them out of the severance pay they were owed by taking advantage of our bankruptcy laws.
Our broadcasting industry isn’t in much better shape,…
Support independent outlets like The Breach or Canadaland
This is the way. Shoutout to The Tyee as well.
I’m split on this being the way - I would much prefer we keep the CBC, and I think an outlet with journalistic independence, national reach and recognition is an important thing for Canada. But there’s a million things attacking it, so directly funding alternative outlets doing good work is OK in my book.
Will note people need to be conscious of any present bias and editorial slant in these smaller outlets - Canadaland has a particular type of Torontonian snark that has rubbed some Canadians the wrong way* for a long time in other contexts - but frankly this is necessary for larger outlets too anyway.
*I could just be salty that Jesse came for my boy Stuart McLean once. Putting aside my “How dare you!” initial reaction some interesting points were made in the criticism.