Millions of Canadians live in news deserts, CCPA finds

Two and a half million Canadians have virtually no access to local news, a new study by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives reveals. The report, titled News Deprivation: Canadian communities starving for local news, was released on March 20. Since 2008, 11 per cent of print outlets — which includes online-only sources, along with traditional newspapers and community papers — have been shuttered. About 25 outlets close each year. The worst year for print outlets was 2023 when 83 organizations closed due to the bankruptcy of Metroland and closures of Métro Média in Quebec. BCE Inc.’s Bell Media and Corus Entertainment Inc. accounted for most of the damage in the broadcasting sector. “Private broadcasting local news outlets, whether TV or radio, have fared little better, with the net closure of nine per cent of local broadcast news outlets since 2008,” the report finds. “The worst year was 2024, with the net loss of 14.5 private broadcasting outlets, driven by the decrease in CTV outlets and decreases in service and closure of several Corus stations.” Public broadcasting has seen its presence remain constant. The sector assumes a greater role as its competition dwindles. “It’s not that it’s picking up the slack, it’s just that it’s not declining,” report co-author David Macdonald said of the public broadcaster system in an interview with The Wire Report. The suburbs of large cities are most likely to suffer from news deserts, the survey reports. Regions near the Greater Toronto Area, Grand Montreal and Metro Vancouver have seen their populations increase without a commensurate jump in local news coverage. Vaughan and Mississauga, Ont., Laval, Que., and Surrey, B.C., are among the most affected in the country. Edmonton lost a third of its local news outlets, the report highlights, seeing decreases in both public and private broadcasters as well as the closure of numerous print outlets. “Broadly, the cities with the least news deprivation are regional hubs that produce broadcast content for the remainder of their province or territory,” the CCPA states. “These include Yellowknife and Whitehorse, Saint John, N.B., St. John’s, N.L., Charlottetown, P.E.I., where news content is re-aired on radio and TV repeater stations throughout those provinces and territories.” Nationwide, the study finds that of 1,739 broadcast stations, 1,178 are repeaters, rebroadcasting content that has been produced elsewhere. In Manitoba, the only private radio and TV stations are in Winnipeg and Brandon. Brandon’s only local TV station closed down in 2009. The total decrease in local news outlets for the province was 15 per cent for communities of fewer than 100,000 people. Quebec experienced a decline of 18 per cent, mostly brought on by closures of print outlets by Transcontinental Inc. in 2014 and Métro Média in 2023. Of all the provinces and territories, Newfoundland and Labrador saw the largest loss of local news outlets for communities with under 100,000 people, with a decrease of 25 per cent since 2008. Outside of St. John’s, the province consists of smaller towns and rural areas, each of which often had a single newspaper or private radio station providing local content. Their closure had a dramatic impact on the region. “The loss of local print journalism in Newfoundland and Labrador’s smaller communities has been nothing short of catastrophic, with often the only paper in town closing,” the report states. The report calls for the expansion of public broadcasting, particularly CBC/Radio-Canada and community broadcasting. CCPA’s Macdonald thinks public subsidies offer benefits to such outlets. “There certainly can be a case for public broadcasting to expand, not just stay constant which is essentially what it’s done, but to actually expand and fill some of that void of local news because it isn’t dependent on that ad-funded model,” he said. Advertising has fled the traditional broadcasters and flowed to social media instead, Macdonald added. The model of news media delivery was stable for most of the 20th century, the report states. That began to change in the 1990s when media concentration began to grow. The CRTC approved takeovers, often requiring tangible benefits from the larger conglomerates. By the early 2000s, the study continues, the commission began requiring more specific conditions of licence on media groups. It also announced a Diversity of Voices policy that attempted to restrict the number of properties owned by one company in a single community. Another factor in the decline of traditional news delivery was the digital shift in the mid-2000s, the CCPA finds. Newspapers moved online, usually behind a paywall. Broadcasters saw their audiences defect to services like Netflix and YouTube. Broadcasters can avail themselves of several financial programs, including the Local Journalism Initiative, the Local Program Improvement Fund, and the Independent Local News Fund. Macdonald says while these are good, they are not nearly enough. Reached for comment the Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) found things to like and dislike about the CCPA study. “The report demonstrates some of the outcomes of the current situations for private broadcasters without necessarily examining the commercial challenges faced by those broadcasters that has resulted in reductions in their newsrooms,” CAB president Kevin Desjardins said in an email to The Wire Report. He pointed out that Canadian companies can deduct the cost of advertising on foreign-based social media sites from their taxes. Canada has an advertising trade deficit with the United States, Desjardins added, echoing previous calls for increased domestic support. The report ignores local news portals, which aggregate radio and TV broadcasters’ news content for specific areas, the CAB continued. This newly-created online presence broadens the footprint of the broadcasters, who often pick up the slack when print media goes silent, the association argues. “Extending the journalism labour tax credit to broadcasters would help to keep more journalists in more local newsrooms,” the president wrote. Desjardins dismissed the idea of relying on public broadcasting to fill the gaps left behind by private broadcasters and print media closing down. It is not a long-term solution to the problem, he stated. ppark@thewirereport.ca

Millions of Canadians live in news deserts, CCPA finds

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By Paul Park
| March 24, 2025

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Millions of Canadians live in news deserts, CCPA finds

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