“Revitalizing the Local Media Landscape”

A panel from the Ontario Small Urban Municipalities (OSUM) conference

The panel was described in the program this way:

“The demise of local media is having a significant impact on democracy and elected officials’ ability to connect with community and adhere to legislative requirements . This panel will examine the state of local media including consideration on the revival of local news and information and how this really requires an ecosystem approach, and philanthropy and other approaches can play a critical role through strategic funding.”

• Tai Huynh, Founding Editor-in-Chief and Publisher, The Local ← This panelist was unable to attend, so John Hammill was there from Village Media

• Brian Lambie, President of Redbrick Communications

• April Lindgren, Professor, School of Journalism, Toronto Metropolitan University

• Will Pearson, Publisher and Editor, Peterborough Currents

I was basically at the event to hear about Professor Lindgren’s research. She has been mapping the opening and closing of news organizations across Canada through the Local News Research Project and has access to research now from the past 15 years.

You can listen to my conversation with her below.

I was also looking forward to hearing from Will Pearson, publisher and editor for Peterborough Currents. I’ve followed his work for a few years.

“Peterborough Currents is an independent news outlet that tells local stories with rigour and empathy. We’re committed to producing in-depth and community-centred journalism to help people understand the city better and to foster connection among community members.”

What I was hoping would be discussed was the different models (advertising-based, subscription-based, voluntary donation-based etc.) and how they are doing in the industry. And most importantly, are the folks hired to do the reporting making a living wage?

While there was some interesting panel discussion, the emphasis seemed to be on the success and growth of Village Media, which is advertising based, which I consider an old model, the old newspaper model, simply shifted to the digital space. That works while communities are doing well and the economy is doing well but I was left curious about how much the employees working at those digital news organizations were being paid? And is there much diversity of voices and lenses?

There was also no mention of philanthropic funding of news organizations. Professor Lindgren and her team partnered with two other organizations on a project called Funding Journalism: A Guide for Canadian Philanthropy.

Perhaps the moderator was reading the room. Traditionally, smaller Ontario communities vote blue (Conservative) and I did hear some murmurs about handouts and some discussion around the advertising model being held up as a glowing example.

Incidentally, as I was granted media status to attend the event, which meant I didn’t pay the registration fee, I was asked not to ask any questions until after the delegates had exhausted theirs.

I didn’t get to ask any questions.

But I did get a few moments with Will Pearson.

I asked him how the journalism landscape has evolved, since Peterborough Currents started 4 years ago.

I asked Will what issues he sees with some of the different models. I used the example of a big trucking company, a big advertiser and the trucking company suddenly is under investigation, could the public count on the credibility of the news source the trucking company puts money into?

Will talked about the challenges of his revenue model.

Someone on the panel made the point that the credibility of both politicians and journalists are being challenged in the time we’re living in and Will shared his thoughts.