Across the country, almost 100 newspapers large and small ran blank front pages on last week, as part of News Media Canada’s ‘Disappearing Headlines’ campaign.
The goal of the campaign was to explain to the public the harm to journalism and democracy created by the dominance of global tech giants, such as Google and Facebook, who refuse to pay a fair price for content created by Canadian news outlets.
Research shows that the duopoly drains off more than 80 per cent of all digital advertising revenue in Canada.
News Media Canada continues to call on the federal government to act. We believe the best solution is for Ottawa to follow the Australian example. We believe Canada should adopt legislation that allows newspapers to negotiate a fair price for use of their content, with massive fines if Google and Facebook refuse to co-operate.
Our letter to Members of Parliament can be found here.