Political journalist Susan Delacourt took on the declining government ad spending in Canadian newspapers in a recent editorial for iPolitics. Citing the 2014-15 report on federal government advertising, she notes that the federal government’s total spending on advertising in national or daily newspapers was just $357,298. Conversely, the government spent approximately ten times that amount on weekly or community newspapers, which received $3.2 million in government advertising in 2014-15.
However, total spending in print outlets (magazines and newspapers), “accounted for only 6.2 per cent of the government’s $68 million ad budget for last year,” Delacourt explains. She also notes that these numbers are a steep decline from 10 years ago when the federal government spent roughly $20 million in print advertising. Delacourt also references Newspapers Canada’s own Federal Government Advertising 2015 Report to support her argument.
“Even the new Liberal government in Ottawa, which claims it’s a big believer in journalism, doesn’t appear inclined to use its advertising dollars to show that support when it comes to print outlets,” she writes.
