Some of Ontario’s cottage country communities are losing their main sources of print news. Last month, Metroland Media Group, one of the largest media conglomerates in Canada, announced that it was shutting down the print editions and flyer services for all 71 of its weekly community papers, many of which operate in cottage country.
Papers in cottage country affected by the changes include The Peterborough Examiner, Orillia Today, Kawartha Lakes This Week, The Muskokan, the Gravenhurst Banner, and the Bracebridge Examiner, among others.
The company claimed the changes are a result of financial losses caused by digital tech giants taking up most of the advertising revenue in Canada. Metroland is seeking protection under the Bankruptcy and Insolvency Act while it attempts to restructure.
In the meantime, the company’s publications will transition to online-only. But the move to fully digital is having a serious impact on Metroland’s workforce. As part of the cuts, the company has fired 605 employees—approximately 68 of them believed to be journalists.
“This is devastating. Devastating for these media workers. Devastating for local news. Devastating for the communities who depend on that local news and devastating for the fabric of our democracy,” said Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president, a union that represents 106 of Metroland’s employees, in a statement.
According to Unifor, the employees it represents were fired without appropriate severance. The union plans to fight Metroland for fair compensation.
Ted Britton, the original owner of the Bracebridge Examiner before he sold to Metroland in 2005, said he’s spent the last 18 years watching the paper’s print edition decline.
“When Metroland took it over, the paper became different. It became corporate. It became less tied to the community,” Britton said. “And then over the years, it just became smaller and smaller as the advertising started to leak away to the internet. What you were left with was basically just a flyer holder without much news.”
While the publication will still exist online, its diminished presence is symbolic of the eroding landscape of local news. “It’s a serious problem in terms of people knowing what’s going on and having some way of holding politicians and bureaucrats responsible,” Britton says. “Some people that are directly impacted by the decisions of the council might have no clue.”
Since 2008, the federal government reported that over 450 news businesses in Canada have closed. In part, this is because social media platforms have become a main source of news for readers, drawing advertising dollars away from traditional publications.
In 2020, online advertising revenues reached $9.7 billion, but 80 per cent of those revenues went towards Meta and Alphabet, the parent companies of sites such as Facebook, Instagram, and Google.
In response to this stat, the federal government passed the Online News Act in June of this year. The act requires digital tech companies to compensate publications any time their content is hosted on one of their sites. In retaliation, Meta has started to block Canadian content on its sites, impacting publications’ ability to expand their audience.
Currently, the federal government remains locked in a standstill with the tech giants as neither side is willing to budge on its stance.
In the meantime, Canada’s local news organizations continue to struggle. To help those affected by the Metroland cuts, the Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) is accepting donations through its website that will go directly to those laid off.
“When times get tough, journalists rally together to support each other,” said Brent Jolly, the president of the CAJ, in a statement. “Each of the people that have lost their job aren’t just another line on a spreadsheet; they have a name, a family, and a commitment to serving their communities. They need our support, and we’ll have their backs.”
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