HomeMy WebLinkAboutHuron Expositor, 2016-05-18, Page 19Postmedia CEO warns
MPs newspaper industry
'ugly and getting uglier'
David Akin
Postmedia Network
OTTAWA - Postmedia Network
CEO Paul Godfrey warned MPs
Thursday that the newspaper
industry in Canada is in peril and
urgently needs some form of gov-
ernment help.
"In three years, there will be
more (newspaper) closures, some
in your communities," Godfrey
told MPs on the House of Com-
mons Heritage Committee.
That committee has been study-
ing ways to protect local tradi-
tional media -- newspapers, TV
and radio -- that generally depend
on the sales of advertising revenue
to pay their journalists and other
employees.
"The erosion of print revenue
has been dramatic," Godfrey said.
"The picture is ugly and it will get
uglier."
Earlier this year, Postmedia
merged its newsrooms in cities
where it owned both daily newspa-
pers -- Ottawa, Calgary and Edmon-
ton -- and laid off some journalists.
Torstar Corp., which is also cut-
ting its workforce, ceased printing
one of its big -city dailies earlier
this year. The Mercury, which had
been the daily newspaper in
Guelph, Ont., since Confedera-
tion, was shuttered on the same
day that Black Press shut down
The Daily News, which had been
publishing in Nanaimo, B.C., for
141 years.
"You're going to find there's
going to be a lot more closings,"
Godfrey said.
Godfrey's testimony mirrored
that given last week to the same
MPs by Bell Media executives
about their television and radio
networks.
Just as Postmedia is the single
largest and most -read publisher of
newspapers in Canada, including
Sun Media newspapers, Bell oper-
ates the most -watched private tel-
evision network, CTV.
Godfrey, like those from Bell,
warned of further consolidation.
"Without community
Wednesday, May 18, 2016 • Huron Expositor 19
Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
Postmedia president and CEO Paul Godfrey, appears at commons heritage
committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on Thursday, May 12, 2016, to
discuss the media and local communities.
newspapers covering hyper -local
stories, they would simply go
unexplored, unchallenged, unre-
ported," Godfrey said.
"Even in a time when people
everywhere have more access to
news than ever and when anyone
can take an active part in breaking
the news around them through
social media, it is still the role of
professional journalists to delve
deeper, to gain access and to ask
questions -- on behalf of us all."
Liberal MP Adam Vaughan
accused Godfrey of appearing
before the committee to seek a
"bailout" for Postmedia Network,
which is dealing with a considera-
ble debt problem.
Godfrey rejected the idea, tell-
ing the committee he was looking
for the government to be an "ally"
for the entire industry.
Three things the government
could do right away, he said,
would be to advertise more in
Canadian newspapers, increase a
tax credit for advertisers who buy
ads in a Canadian newspaper, and
improve an existing fund available
to help periodical publishers.
The Heritage Committee is
expected to make some recommen-
dations to the government this fall.
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