Canada’s news media debate needs to move beyond sustaining a moribund patient to galvanizing a higher quality, better trusted and vibrant news industry.

We hosted this two years on from an event held in partnership with The Hub Canada that led to the Ottawa declaration. Therein, we made the case for weaning Canadian journalism off permanent government support.

In our “Beyond Subsidies – the future of news media in Canada” event, we brought together media and government sector leaders to ask what would it take to build a news industry that is innovative, financially sustainable, editorially independent, and capable of producing journalism Canadians actually value?

Since the declaration, the challenges facing the industry have only become more pronounced.

AI is transforming how people search for, discover, and consume information. Arguably, the rise of streaming, digital publishing, social media, search, and the rise of generative AI makes high-quality original journalism more important than ever. We also must consider whether radio and telecoms are the mediums of the past and not the future, requiring a rethinking – at some point – of the scope and mandate of the CRTC.

We were fortunate to hear from Richard Gingras, former Vice President of News at Google and a director of Canadian digital news company Village Media, which has demonstrated that innovative local journalism models can grow successfully in Canada and beyond.

Indefatigable and prolific Macdonald-Laurier Institute Senior Fellow Peter Menzies, a former senior CRTC official and longtime news media executive, brought his extensive experience to the discussion as well.

Unlike many of Canada’s legacy outlets that struggle to produce content that Canadians want to consume, or to remain profitable, Village media shows another path forward by studying the market, and providing product offerings that people want to read and value, with remarkably high quality hyperlocal journalism.

Richard’s remarks from the event are available here.

My takeaway and favourite line from his remarks – “Policies should stimulate innovation and promote resilience, not sustain moribund business models.”