Local news cut in half, not-for-profit funding models emerging, reports say
OTTAWA — The number of articles generated by community newspapers in Canada has declined by almost half over the last decade, and many news organizations are trending toward not-for-profit business models to make up for a dramatic decline in advertising revenues, say a pair of new studies released Tuesday.
News coverage of local municipal councils and other democratic institutions fell by more than one-third compared to 10 years ago, said a report from the Public Policy Forum called “Mind The Gaps — Quantifying The Decline of News Coverage in Canada.” The study analyzed articles appearing in community papers across five regions of the country.
What was most striking about the findings was that the decline was consistent across almost all 20 communities studied, regardless of size or whether local papers were downsized or closed altogether.
“It’s down whether you lost your paper, you didn’t lose your paper, whether you’re big, small or medium-sized, whether you’re French or English,” said Public Policy Forum president and CEO Ed Greenspon.