New Report Calls for Urgent Action to Save Local News in Canada

OTTAWA, ON, Feb. 12, 2025 /CNW/ - A report released today by the Public Policy Forum (PPF) in partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation (RHF) and the Michener Awards Foundation (MAF) highlights the critical state of local news in Canada and proposes urgent recommendations to revitalize a key industry that plays an outsized role in Canadian democracy.

The report, titled The Lost Estate: How to put the local back in local news, is supported by exclusive new Ipsos polling of Canadians living in smaller communities and cites a concerning decline in local news outlets, with repercussions that include increased alienation, a decline in trust and a negative impact on local businesses.

According to Toronto Metropolitan University's Local News Research Project, Canada has lost 252 net local news outlets across Canada since 2008, including 24 net closures over the last two years alone. The report emphasizes the importance of enabling local ownership to help rebuild this critical industry at the community level.

"Local news is an undervalued player in the media ecosystem," said Inez Jabalpurwala, PPF president and CEO. "It helps create civic spaces that are needed now more than ever, while also underpinning the very foundation of healthy democracies."

An Ipsos poll, conducted in January 2025 and commissioned as part of the report, found that 87 percent of Canadians believe local news is important to a well-functioning democracy, and they trust local newspapers and radio (85 percent) over national newspapers (71 percent) and international online news sites (55 percent). The poll was unusual in its focus on Canadians living in smaller communities — of 1,001 Canadians polled, about half were in communities with populations of less than 10,000, and half were in communities with populations of between 10,000 and 100,000.*

Respondents agreed on a range of serious implications as local news diminishes. Sixty-one percent said less local news leads to less knowledge about the workings of local government, schools and hospitals; fifty-eight percent said it leads to fewer ties to the community, as well as decreased participation in local events (57 percent), a loss of a sense of caring for each other (54 percent) and less demand for local small businesses (36 percent).

The Lost Estate report, which stems from a recent national conference of local news publishers and broadcasters organized by the RHF and the MAF, highlights several factors contributing to the crisis in local news, including the failure of non-local corporate ownership models, a collapse of traditional advertising revenues (between 2018 and 2022, ad revenues for Canadian community newspapers fell by 44 percent), as well as Meta's decision to block Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram.

But despite the challenges, the report also notes resilient green shoots, citing examples of local news organizations that are finding innovative ways to serve their communities, including employee-owned media, non-profits and startups.

"Journalism is an essential force in our democracy, and the precarious state of local news speaks to its fragility. I am encouraged, though, by the innovative approaches many small, local news organizations are taking across the country, some of which are highlighted in this report," said Teresa Marques, president and CEO of the Rideau Hall Foundation. "Now more than ever, it is critical that we find new ways to fuel the innovation needed to revitalize local news and small, community newsrooms."

The report emphasizes that public policy must not seek to preserve the media as we have traditionally known it but rather focus instead on innovations that will help sustain a flow of reliable information. It proposes a comprehensive set of recommendations for governments and philanthropists that include:

Creating a 'Report for Canada' non-profit organization, similar to a successful model in the United States, to fund reporters in local newsrooms for three-year terms. Local Journalism Initiative funds provided by the federal government would be matched by philanthropic donations and controlled by an independent board;

Driving local advertising with a tax credit for local businesses that spend ad dollars with independent, locally owned media;

Directing a portion of government advertising dollars to local publishers and broadcasters, as the Ontario government did recently by requiring that 25 percent of government ad budgets, including spending by four large provincial agencies, be directed to Ontario-based publishers;

Mandating a sales notice period to give communities an opportunity to rally support for news outlets that are threatened with closure by corporate owners; and

Stepping up community foundation involvement: There are more than 200 community foundations across Canada, as well as thousands of private foundations. They should be encouraged to support local news organizations as part of their wider missions to encourage social vitality, community health and local democracy.

"From media to government, and from the charitable sector to individual citizens, we all have a role to play in the success of local news. Democracy flows uphill and this report offers a roadmap to safeguard the future of local journalism and, by extension, to help safeguard our democracy," says Paul MacNeill, MAF executive member and Prince Edward Island community newspaper publisher. "For the first time, Canadians can see the vital role local news plays in this country. Too many communities have been hurt by media closures. The time to act on these recommendations is now, before it is well and truly too late."

The report is authored by Andrew Phillips, former editor-in-chief of the Montreal Gazette and the Victoria Times Colonist; Edward Greenspon, PPF fellow and former editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail; and Alison Uncles, PPF vice-president and former editor-in-chief of Maclean's magazine.

^* The survey was conducted online by Ipsos among Canadian residents aged 18+ within communities with less than 10,000 population and communities with a population between 10,000 to less than 100,000 residents. Results are considered accurate to within +/- 3.5 percentage points of what the results would have been had every Canadian resident aged 18+ been polled.

SOURCE Public Policy Forum

For more information please contact: Allison MacLachlan, Director of External Relations and Public Engagement| Directrice des relations externes et de la mobilisation du public, Fondation Rideau Hall Foundation, 613.316.3473; Alison Uncles, Vice-President |Vice-Président, PPF Media + Communications, Public Policy Forum | Forum des politiques, [email protected]