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CBC Expands Local News Coverage

Media Action Plan

In one of the first tangible signs of success from The Online News Act, CBC has announced they will hire up to 30 new journalists to bolster their local news coverage in remote areas. The funding for this expansion comes from the annual $100 million payments by Google to exempt themselves from The Online News Act (Bill C-18). The federal government is dispersing those annual payments to local publishers in Canada.


There are 22 locations across the country that will be adding 1 or 2-person news bureaus for the CBC. There is a focus in western Canada with 6 of the bureaus in British Columbia, 1 in Yellowknife, 6 in Alberta, 2 in Saskatchewan, 1 in Manitoba, 3 in Ontario, 1 in Quebec and 2 in the Maritimes. There is also an emphasis for several of the bureaus to have coverage of nearby First Nations communities. The positions will be posted in the coming weeks on the CBC job board.

 

This announcement comes as the news deserts are beginning to appear more frequently across Canada. The number of full-time journalists fell by 1,500 last year to 10,900. According to the CBC, there are 30 towns and cities in Canada with populations over 50,000, that have no CBC journalist presence.


The CBC is entitled to a maximum of 7-percent of the funding from Google and that is split evenly between their English and French divisions. That means 3.5-percent (or $3.5 million) created these journalist positions. MAP and Canadians from coast to coast are eagerly waiting to see how other local publishers will use their percentage of the funding!

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