Editing Media of Canada (section)

== Business Model ==
Media often consists of a [[two-sided market]] model. In such cases, each side of the market is expected to provide a form of benefit to the other in return for the same. It is a mutual system of benefit in which there are two end-users or beneficiaries.<ref>Kumar, Ravi. "Evolution of Two-Sided Markets" http://www.wsdm-conference.org/2010/proceedings/docs/p311.pdf. Retrieved October 19, 2011.</ref> A lot of times, mass media works in this way (in Canadian society as well as in any other). For example, television requires the viewer and advertisers to provide mutual network benefits. Printed books require the publisher and author to provide readers with quality work; in return, readers provide feedback and increase the popularity of the book through purchases. A newspaper's advertisers and readers mutually benefit from one another; readers provide business for advertisers while advertisers provide readers with information (since a significant portion of newspapers' funding comes from advertisers). The more successful a newspaper is, the better it gets at providing its readers with a well-rounded accumulation of news. All advertising-based media are two-sided markets.<ref name="timkastelle1">{{cite web|url=http://timkastelle.org/blog/2010/08/the-real-problem-with-the-media-business-model/ |title=The Real Problem with the Media Business Model « Innovation Leadership Network |publisher=Timkastelle.org |date=2010-08-15 |access-date=2011-12-16}}</ref> Bob Garfield explains that there are two issues with this model: widespread access to certain content has significantly lowered the amount that consumers are willing to spend on it; the audience becomes fragmented. The second issue is that the rise in available content has lowered the prices that advertisers are willing to pay in order to access a portion of the market.<ref name="timkastelle1" />

Special attention must be paid to the importance of advertising, particularly in newspapers. Newspapers typically generate about 70 – 80 percent of their revenue from advertising, while the remainder comes from subscriptions and sales.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3677/is_200704/ai_n25137495/ |title=Online Revenue Business Model Has Changed Little Since 1996 &#124; Newspaper Research Journal &#124; Find Articles at BNET |website=findarticles.com |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090704110808/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3677/is_200704/ai_n25137495/ |archive-date=4 July 2009 |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, with the recent move to online publishing, there have been problems. Online advertising is not nearly as effective as print advertising, according to Eric Clemons.<ref name="techcrunch1">{{cite web|author=Eric Clemons |url=https://techcrunch.com/2009/03/22/why-advertising-is-failing-on-the-internet/ |title=Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet |publisher=TechCrunch |date=2009-03-22 |access-date=2011-12-16}}</ref> Although he discusses advertising in relation to newspapers in the United States, similar problems exist in Canada. He claims that Internet advertising will fail for three reasons:

* '''Consumers do not trust advertising''' – Messages coming from commercial sources have proven to be considered less credible by audiences and therefore have a less powerful impact. Company sponsored blogs are among the least trusted sources of information on products and services.
* '''Consumers are not interested in viewing advertisements''' – They visit websites for the main content and do not want to see things which attempt to distract them from this.
* '''Consumers do not need advertising''' – If users need a product or service, they have their own sources on the Internet and prefer to use these as opposed to advertisements on websites which are not solely dedicated to the product or service.<ref name="techcrunch1" />

Clemons suggests alternative methods for earning money through the Internet, namely selling content and selling access to virtual communities.<ref name="techcrunch1" /> However, one might argue that this would not be effective in current society; since content and access has been available for free for as long as the Internet has been around, sudden charges might cause an uproar among users of the Internet. Furthermore, a portion of Internet users may not be able to afford paying for content and access, which will limit the amount of revenue businesses will bring in.

In August 2015, the [[Canadian Media Guild]], the union representing CBC journalists, became a registered third party in order to campaign for increased taxpayer funding of the CBC in the 2015 election.<ref>{{cite web| url =http://www.cmg.ca/en/2015/08/14/cmg-registers-as-a-third-party-in-the-federal-election/| title =CMG registers as a third party in the federal election| date =14 August 2015| website =Canadian Media Guild| access-date =23 October 2015}}</ref> After the [[Liberal Party of Canada]] won the election, it increased taxpayer funding of the CBC by $150&nbsp;million.<ref>{{cite news |last=Szklarski |first=Cassandra |date=December 7, 2015 |title=A new era for CBC, hopefully: Things could finally start looking up for the beleaguered public broadcaster in 2016 |url=http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/a-new-era-for-cbc-hopefully-things-could-finally-start-looking-up-for-the-beleaguered-public-broadcaster-in-2016 |location=Toronto, Ontario, Canada |access-date=December 8, 2015}}</ref>
In 2017, the federal government announced a five-year $50&nbsp;million program to help struggling local newspapers. In 2018, it announced $595&nbsp;million in tax credits to help struggling newspapers and television networks.<ref>{{cite news| url =https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/600m-in-federal-funding-for-media-a-turning-point-in-the-plight-of-newspapers-in-canada| title =$600M in federal funding for media 'a turning point in the plight of newspapers in Canada'| last =Thomson| first =Stuart| date =November 21, 2018| website =National Post| publisher =Postmedia| access-date =December 8, 2018| quote =The government is pledging nearly $600 million over the next five years to help news organizations struggling to adapt to a digital age that has disrupted traditional business models.}}</ref>

=== Journalism model ===
The face of print journalism in Canada is undergoing change.<ref name="citizen1">"The Face of Print Journalism: Changing Again" Orangeville Citizen. http://www.citizen.on.ca/news/2010-09-16/Editorial/The_face_of_print_journalism_changing_again.html {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100921024313/http://www.citizen.on.ca/news/2010-09-16/Editorial/The_face_of_print_journalism_changing_again.html |date=2010-09-21 }}, Retrieved October 19, 2011.</ref> Evening newspapers are no longer popular (one of the only surviving ones is [[t.o.night|tonight Newspaper]]), while morning newspapers (including the [[Toronto Star]], [[The Globe and Mail]], the [[National Post]], and free newspapers such as Metro and 24) have survived and continued to bring in an audience. Before the 1970s, The Globe and Mail was one of the few surviving morning papers, while most popular newspapers were distributed in the evening in Toronto. Nowadays, most newspapers have joined The Globe and Mail and are published in the morning.<ref name="citizen1" />

The newspaper industry in Canada (similar to the newspaper industry in other developed countries including the United States) is controlled by a small number of individual or corporate owners. This is referred to as [[Concentration of media ownership|concentrated ownership]]. Private or partially private ownership of competitive forms of news media helps to create a great amount of freedom of expression, according to Peter Desbarats.<ref>Desbarats, Peter. (1996). ''Guide to Canadian News Media''. Harcourt Brace & Company. p. 61.</ref> However, it may be argued that even these privately owned media outlets have their own agenda, and have therefore only contributed to a limited amount of freedom of expression. Robert A. Hackett discusses this, as well as the differences between publicly owned and privately owned media outlets.<ref>{{cite journal |journal=[[Canadian Journal of Communication]] |title=Reviews: Democratizing Global Media: One World, Many Struggles. Edited by Robert A. Hackett & Yuezhi Zhoa. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2005. 328 pp. ISBN 0-247-53643-2 |first=John |last=Downing |volume=32 |number=2 |pages=317–318 |url=http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/download/1885/1962 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120419115340/http://www.cjc-online.ca/index.php/journal/article/download/1885/1962 |archive-date=19 April 2012 |year=2007 |doi=10.22230/cjc.2007v32n2a1885|doi-access=free }}</ref>{{failed  verification|date=October 2023}} It may also be argued that publicly owned media contribute more to freedom of expression than privately owned media; Simeon Djankov, Caralee McLeish, Tatiana Nenova, and Andrei Schleifer, in a joint Harvard-World Bank study, discuss the advantages and disadvantages of publicly owned media outlets in relation to privately owned media outlets. They write that one of the first principles of media is that it is in the public interest, and it is therefore necessary to have outlets owned by the public. In this way, the public keeps a check on the agenda of publications. If there is too much of a bias, the owners (which in this case consists of the public) react and demand a change through various forms of feedback.<ref>Djankov, Simeon, Caralee McLeish, Tatiana Nenova, and Andrei Schleifer. "Who Owns the Media?" http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/shleifer/files/media.pdf, Retrieved November 17, 2011.</ref> In contrast, privately owned outlets only have a limited number of voices to give feedback, and these voices may have their own biased agendas. Two characteristics of electronic journalism in Canada set it apart from print journalism: firstly, broadcasting is a regulated industry (which is important to consider in relation to news sources such as radio and television). This means that in order to start a broadcast station, one must have a licence from the [[Canadian Radio and Telecommunications Commission]]. This regulated industry also affects news content because it is constantly being monitored by the agency. Secondly, many radio stations and television stations in Canada are publicly owned. Print journalism has almost always been conducted by private enterprise in Canada, and radio also started as a private enterprise which was subject to regulation by the state. It became a hybrid of private and public broadcasters.<ref>Desbarats 1996, p. 31.</ref>

Nowadays, online journalism is on the rise. It provides a new platform for readers to interact instantly with news sources through blog comments and feedback. There are also various multimedia options which are not available with print journalism. For example, videos can be embedded into websites. Alexandre Gamela, a freelance journalist, says that "The print product is pretty much the same as it was 20, 30, 40 years ago, it is not well adapted to these new circumstances, therefore it needs to be re-thought and re-designed."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.alexgamela.com/blog/2011/04/20/decline-in-print-and-rise-in-online-journalism-an-interview/ |title=Decline in print and rise in online journalism: an interview &#124; Alex Gamela – Digital Media & Journalism |publisher=Alex Gamela |date=2011-04-20 |access-date=2011-12-16}}</ref> For these reasons, online journalism continues to gain popularity. However, as will be discussed under the section on newspapers, readerships for print newspapers in Canada seems to be steady.

The ''Digital Democracy Project'' reports that Canadians both consume and somewhat trust print, broadcast and online media sources. They also consume news from social networks such as [[Twitter]], but they mostly recognize the biased tendencies of people who actively post news on such networks. People with strong political opinions are at risk of becoming misinformed by depending only on news sources that they agree with (primarily social media, but also traditional media).<ref>{{Citation| last =Owen| first =Taylor| title =Digital Democracy Project| publisher =[[Public Policy Forum]] & McGill University| date =August 2019| url =https://ppforum.ca/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/DDP-Research-Memo-1-Aug2019.pdf| access-date =23 August 2019 }}</ref>