Future uncertain for Alberta’s smaller newspapers

By Ryan McCracken, Trevor Busch and Nikki Jamieson on October 9, 2020.

Not unlike many industries impacted by the global pandemic in 2020, daily and weekly newspapers in southern Alberta have been struggling against adversity to maintain the vital role they play in their various communities, especially those in smaller, rural areas.

But while Canada’s entire economy was walloped by COVID-19, traditional print media had already been transitioning through a long period of decline largely stemming from an exodus of advertising that has been swallowed up by online media giants like Facebook and Google.

When viral fears locked down the nation’s economy in early 2020, struggling papers in small communities throughout Alberta have been met with unprecedented challenges, and in many cases, threats to their very survival.

“The bottom fell out of the advertising market,” said News Media Canada president and CEO John Hinds. “We’ve seen advertising dropping by 17-20 per cent per year, and it just sort of happened two years overnight (with COVID). That’s really hard for papers to make up for.

“I think we saw, originally, it was down 60 per cent in some cases. Unfortunately, some of the sectors that are really good advertisers in newspapers haven’t come back very well – whether that’s travel, entertainment, a lot of the dining. A lot of them had real struggles, it’s been a big hit to the revenue stream.”

In southern Alberta’s rural communities, venues like the small daily newspaper offer a different kind of news, coverage that often focuses on issues or people that would be unlikely to merit much more than a paragraph in major dailies, or only mentioned in passing by broadcast media.

“People and businesses often overlook the intangibles that community newspapers generate within their communities, from employing local residents, contributing to the municipal tax base, helping keep the local economy moving in a positive direction, and offering a trustworthy, unbiased reporting model for residents,” said Ryan McAdams, group publisher of the Alberta Newspaper Group. “We are the only media that covers minor sports, local school activities, art and cultural events and even municipal council news.”

Medicine Hat News publisher Kerri Sandford echoed that sentiment, stressing community newspapers offer a hub of vital information while celebrating local achievements and holding officials and organizations to account in a way that larger outlets simply cannot accomplish on a regular basis.

“I’m often asked, what’s our purpose? In the digital age, what is the purpose of a newspaper? The purpose of a newspaper is to provide information, to provide that area of discussion for the community, to hold elected officials accountable,” said Sandford. “A daily newspaper in a city like Medicine Hat is there for the 100th birthday of a longtime resident. At the same time, we are covering city council, provincial and economic announcements … we are there when awards are given out at schools … We want to be there because Medicine Hat is our community, and that’s what feeds the newspaper.”

Hinds agreed that print journalism – especially in smaller communities – is an integral facet of a functioning democracy, adding it even plays a significant role in local economies.

“Someone has to be able to tell the community story, and newspapers do that. Newspapers employ 60 per cent of the journalists in the country and they’re the people that cover the town council, school boards, hospital boards and the police,” said Hinds. “Without them, we really wouldn’t have a rich a society or civic engagement. Really it comes down to, the press – and I would say the written press – are really a fundamental tenet of democracy because they’re holding all those institutions accountable and they’re providing citizens with information. I think on the advertising side, I think for a lot of businesses, we’ve seen a lot of cities where newspapers close and you lose trading areas because people then go to the next town, two towns over or the local city. I think there’s a huge economic aspect to the importance of newspapers as well.”

But newspapers in smaller communities across Canada have been facing an increasingly uphill climb since the onset of the internet and social media – and with it a shift in both advertising and news-gathering to those online platforms.

Digital and online advertising are still having a profoundly negative effect on struggling papers in Alberta, especially with the double impact of COVID-19 on revenue and the economy. Hinds says he’s seen outlets use various different methods to keep themselves afloat and increase revenue through other methods, but it’s no easy task.

“It’s been a real challenge,” said Hinds. “I think there’s been a huge push to diversify revenue source. And the other thing that’s happened, and I think it’s regrettable, is that we’ve seen cuts. We’ve seen smaller newsrooms, we’ve seen smaller distribution areas. Some of the small dailies, if you look at some of the Quebec papers, have moved entirely digital during the week and are only producing a paper product on Saturdays. I think there have been a lot of strategies, some more successful than others, and really, they depend on the marketplace too I think.”

Sandford agreed the global crisis accelerated a trend that newspapers have been seeing for some time, but it doesn’t impact the importance of community journalism.

“I think COVID definitely fast-tracked the current track that daily newspapers are on right now, but at the same time what the pandemic did show us is how reliant people are on accurate news coverage. The Medicine Hat News has been able to provide that to all our readers and non-readers through our print edition, Facebook and online presence,” said Sandford. “Of course, we’re a business like everybody else, so when the country was in complete lockdown we were affected as well. The pandemic did show us that we need to look at our readership base and our advertising base, and take what we’ve learned over the years and sort of re-fabricate it for people and businesses.”

While the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy has given newspapers across the country a leg to stand on through the pandemic, it doesn’t solve the advertising issue, says Hinds.

“The wage subsidy is great, but I think at some point it will end. Our government did announce (in September) that it’s going to go on for a bit longer, which is great, but at a certain point we are going to have to face the new reality. I think the biggest thing … is that we really have to get a handle on the market failure that has resulted from the entry into the marketplace of Google and Facebook,” said Hinds. “They have completely dominated the digital advertising world and they are using our content without compensating us to do that. We have to right that situation and ensure that they are paying for content.

“It’s really the only way I can see, long term, that we’re going to be in a situation where we don’t have to rely on public handouts or public funding.”

As for how to approach that issue, Hinds pointed to Australia as an example for Canada to follow.

“They have instituted mandatory negotiations between (media outlets and digital platforms), with the government, ensuring that they are fair,” said Hinds. “Hopefully it can be done through negotiations, but it has to be a fair negotiation and it has to be reasonable compensation. It can’t be token.”

McAdams suggested the adage, “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone,” is incredibly apt when referencing a newspaper’s modern readership.

“The common misconception is that newspapers are no longer viable, when in fact – according to News Media Canada, ‘readership research confirms that 74 per cent of Canadians are avid community newspaper readers.’ The strength of the industry is its local credibility and exclusive reach into hundreds of non-urban markets across the country. The unfortunate reality is that many communities undervalue the contributions that their local newspapers provide to the day to day life in their town. However, that undervalued view would inevitably change, if or when their local newspaper falls victim to the demise of newspapers – as has happened all too often in recent years.”  

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