How the CBC Can Save News in Canada

2017.08.29

PETER MENZIES | Troy Media

Sometime in the not-too-distant future, the nation’s largest media chain is expected to fail, taking many of the nation’s once proud but now emaciated major daily newspapers to the grave with it.

Postmedia and others have already issued appeals to the federal government, just as television broadcasters have, with more success, lobbied the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) for relief for close to a decade now.

The debate over whether their demise is suicide by incompetence or murder by technology no longer matters. And while some, such as columnist Andrew Coyne, still insist that journalists should never be compromised by the subtle fealty induced by government subsidy, principles are unlikely to survive the industry’s poverty.

There is a strong argument — one reinforced by the problematic nature of Postmedia’s structure — in favour of letting nature take its course. But governments don’t do that when you’re too big to fail. So if something is to be done, here’s the solution.

Read the whole story at The Tyee