Cornwall Ontario – Imagine that you’re a publisher, editor, or journalist in Ontario in 2018. Times are tough in the newspaper business. Print is dying if not dead. The economy in Ontario is not rosy, especially outside of certain areas like Toronto.
And as you scroll through facebook you see this:
Lord knows we all support free markets. Facebook, even with its recent controversy over data issues is still a great company. This isn’t about facebook being bad or evil, but we are living in an era where the Federal government is talking about supporting newspapers simply because they’re floundering, and dying. Communities are losing their voices.
While there may be many issues the reality is that it’s not a great time to actually practice real journalism as government controls a lot of ad dollars that are being spent. Small business is suffering terribly, especially in places like Eastern Ontario and smaller communities in general. For example the Wynne government and Liberal Party boycott this newspaper even though we’re the largest in this region, have huge traffic in other markets, have amazing demographics, and actually offer better value even than social media ads. LINK
So how do you think those working in journalism feel seeing their own tax dollars being spent by a political party or candidate with a US company with no boots on the ground in this field? This isn’t just a CFN issue. It’s impacting newspapers and media outlets across the province.
Will facebook cover local debates? How is any media outlet supposed to pay its staff without fighting on an equal footage with what’s going on? Normally there is regulation. After all we live in a country where we can get nailed for moving booze between provinces, but we’re seeing billions of dollars pumped out of the local media economy and losing jobs because of no protection for advertising.
And it’s not that these companies do a better job than newspapers. They don’t. We all know that when we scroll social media we’re zipping by or reading short snatches of content. Do you think that equals a higher percentage of one’s ads being consumed?
It might just be time for all government agencies to not be able to purchase non local ads unless a product isn’t available locally.
At the end of the day it also comes down to those buying the ads clicking a few buttons blindly rather than having to deal with sales reps from various chains and outlets, but how do bureaucrats and government think they will collect taxes if they kill the very businesses that pay those taxes?
What do you think dear CFN viewers. Is it time for government to stop sending your tax dollars out of the city, province, and country to buy ads? You can post your comments below.
And if you’re reading this far please click the donate button below. Without your viewer subscriptions you just might not be reading this….
One word….desperate!!!!