Local MP supports weekly newspapers

By Sean Feagan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Bow River MP Martin Shields stood up for weekly newspapers in parliament, saying these publications need federal advertising revenue.

Weekly newspapers are important because they cover issues and events in the community, including information on local organizations, municipal governments and the ongoing pandemic, said Shields in the House of Commons on May 18.

“These are the papers that are highly read. The percentage that are read in the communities, whether it’s print, whether it’s online, or both, is huge, because they’re covering things in their local community,” said Shields.

Also, major daily newspapers do not cover these local issues across smaller municipalities like weekly papers do, he noted.

Despite their role and readership, local weekly newspapers have seen a decrease in federal advertising revenue, and instead these funds are being directed to social media platforms.

“The Prime Minister and the Heritage Minister, they complain about the social media giants, Google (and) Facebook, but that’s where the government is putting their advertising dollars,” said Shields. “Now they’re taking Canadian taxpayers’ dollars and they’re putting it in the social media giants.”

The result of this is weekly newspapers in Canada are getting one third of one per cent of what they used to get. If the government had spent tax dollars on weekly newspapers, some of them would not have gone out of business, said Shields.

The federal government should redirect funding back into weekly papers, he added. “If you want to protect our culture in our rural communities, like I have, then you should be putting the advertising dollars in those weekly papers, who, pro bono as well, support the cultural activities in our communities.”