Catching Up on MediaPolicy: CAQ Minister considers journalism standards – WaPost cutting jobs – Canadian competition laws rebooted – France culture levy on music streamers – Another Hollywood merger?

December 23, 2023

Last week MediaPolicy posted an interview with the former chair of the Ryerson Journalism School, Ivor Shapiro, that opened up a taboo discussion of journalist accountability and autonomy. It got a lot more hits than I expected.

By coincidence, La Presse interviewed Québec Culture Minister and former journalist Mathieu Lacombe who blue-skyed about public standards of journalist accountability as a response to opinion polls charting a decline in public trust in journalism. His position: the media must accept ownership of this falling level of trust. 

Lacombe mooted the possibility of giving the Québec Press Council real powers to regulate professional standards, even linking standards to Québec’s subsidies for news journalism that top up federal tax credits.

La Presse Deputy Editor Francis Cardinal volleyed back in an editorial with a derisive “non” arguing that La Presse readership is growing and the challenge is the business model, not public credibility.

“First, let’s get one thing straight,” Cardinal wrote. “There is NO connection between the “media crisis” and public trust. None. The media crisis is a crisis of revenue, of advertising, of innovation.”

“There is therefore reason to question what has been dragging down this confidence in recent years. But to talk about a “crisis of confidence in the media”? In Québec ? I  don’t see how we can come to such a conclusion, other than by spending too much time on X…”

So there.

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The 1000-journalist Washington Post is looking to eliminate 240 jobs. It was only two years ago that the Post was in hire mode.

According to the Axios story, the Post’s finances have taken a turn for the worse despite the fact that the billionaire-owned enterprise ranks third in paid subscribers among the world’s English language news sites. Press Gazette has a list of the “100,000” club of paid subscriptions (top and only Canadian site, the Globe and Mail in 30th place with 246,000).

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After laying low for several months following the sensational Rogers-Shaw merger, Canadian competition law is back in the news.

The Bureau Commissioner Mathew Boswell —our competition police chief — made a name for himself last year in a losing effort to scrap the Rogers merger and now, despite earlier suggesting he didn’t want another term at the Bureau, has in fact been renewed. 

In other competition news, several long awaited reforms to our competition law came into force as part of Bill C-56. University of Ottawa’s Jennifer Quaid does a good job of explaining them.

The much maligned Mulroney-era “efficiencies defence” —a uniquely Canadian trump card for approving mega-mergers where economies of scale outweigh the lessening of competition— is out. In addition, the Bureau will now have more power to force companies to co-operate with the Bureau’s “market studies” that explore the possibility of abuse of market power. 

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France will introduce a first time culture levy on global music streamers in its 2024 budget. During legislative debate, the figure of 1.5% of revenues was frequently discussed. Spotify has condemned the tax as “unfair.” 

In CRTC hearings last month on implementing the Online Streaming Act, the world’s leading music streaming platform argued that music streaming is not profitable, streamers should not pay any cash contribution to Canadian content, and that any regulations promoting Canadian songs must not impact the consumer experience.

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Here’s another news item in an ongoing story for 2024. It’s been clear for some time that the cost of “peak TV” —-the familiar term for Hollywood studios and streamers splurging on premium content in a fight for market share—— is something media companies want out of but can’t figure out how. 

Observers have speculated on the possibility of more corporate consolidation through mergers which have a spotty record of working out for the Hollywood giants, never mind the cable companies and viewers who pay the bills.

The latest rumour comes as no surprise: Warner Brothers Discovery might merge with (or buy) Paramount Plus from Viacom. This article investigates the possibility, but also moots the chances of a joint venture or a deal to bundle streaming content.

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