Online content producers struggling for funding, revenues, says The Mark’s Anders

Online content producers face an uphill battle to secure funding for projects and experimentation with innovative ideas, Jeff Anders, CEO and co-founder of The Mark News, told the Commons Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage Thursday. “Speaking as one member of a vibrant community of start-up companies across the country, the message on the ground is: It’s tough out there,” Anders told the committee, which is studying the opportunities and challenges related to new media. “Funding for early stage companies, especially for media and information companies, is scarce.” Anders said government funding has been “frustratingly out of reach” for his company. “The Mark, for example, has reviewed at least 70 different grant programs and qualifies for surprisingly few,” he said. The Mark News is a website that publishes editorials, video and audio content from Canadian experts in the business, political, scientific, technological and artistic fields. Prominent Canadians such as David Suzuki, Jack Layton, Jay Switzer and Tony Lacavera have been counted among its 700 contributors. Anders told the committee that the news organization, founded in 2008, has almost no revenue. He said he is experimenting with advertising models, content syndication, and even a deal with Amazon to receive a portion of the profits from the sale of books authored by the site’s contributors. Anders also told the committee about Flattr, an innovative and potential solution to generate revenue. The service allows Web users to create an account with any amount of money, and when visiting participating websites, they can click on a “Flattr” button to give money directly to the website. Each click moves a set portion of money from the user’s account to the content creator. Anders said the new, amalgamated Canada Media Fund (CMF) presents a funding opportunity for small new media producers like The Mark News—funding that was previously available only to traditional content producers. The CMF launched in April 2010 through the combination of the former Canadian Television Fund (CTF) and Canada New Media Fund (CNMF). It has set aside $350-million to support the Canadian television and new media industries. Brett Gaylor, a documentary filmmaker and director of Rip: A Remix Manifesto, also appeared before the committee Thursday, and said that Canada’s current copyright regime does not help documentary filmmakers. “In an internal survey , 85 per cent of respondents said copyright is more harmful to them than beneficial,” Gaylor told the committee. He said that, in 2005, when the survey was completed, the cost of clearing copyright consumed up to 25 per cent of some documentaries’ budgets. “Documentary filmmakers need access to historical documents in order to build the arguments of their film, reflect on issues in contemporary society and interpret the media landscape that we now live in,” Gaylor said. Gaylor said Canada needs to define fair dealing in the Copyright Act so that creators can more easily refer to past works in their own content. The committee also heard from Aline Côté, president of copyright with the Association nationale des éditeurs de livres, Thursday. The association represents the majority of French-language fiction, non-fiction and educational publishers in Quebec. Côté discussed the controversial Google Books project, which is digitizing of millions of books without permission from copyright holders. Côté said it may only be a matter of time before books are devalued to the point that they sell for $0.99 on iTunes. She said 93 per cent of publishers in Quebec have opted out of Google Books in an effort to retain control over the digital versions of their books and to “protect Canadian culture.” But Gaylor advised the committee not to turn preserve old models at the expense of news ones. “The books are going to be digitized, the music is going to be made available,” Gaylor told the committee. “We are living it right now and as much as we want to discuss whether it’s appropriate, it is happening. Your responsibility is to help us create environments where the proper business models can emerge, rather than constantly trying to stop it.” Following a lawsuit in 2005, a 2008 Google Books settlement agreement proposed that Google pay $125 million US to clear copyrights and establish a Digital Rights Registry to identify and compensate copyright owners whose books are distributed digitally online. The settlement would have given Google exclusive control over millions of digitized books. International critical reaction resulted in changes to the agreement. The issue is currently before a US District Court. Google says its digital library would benefit society by making the world’s written knowledge available online. jmigneault@thewirereport.ca

Online content producers struggling for funding, revenues, says The Mark’s Anders

Broadcast | April 16, 2010

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