It's real simple. Let these newspapers put up paywalls. If people value the content, they will pay; if they don't they won't. [Full disclosure: I pay for digital subscriptions to a couple of newspapers plus a couple of blogs, etc.] This whole thingy of the government forcing Facebook et al to pay the newspapers will ultimately cause Facebook, etc. to find a way to get that money back from everyone. I, for one, do not want to support certain newspapers in this country and therefore I pay for my own subscriptions for those I want to read.
If you want to support your particular point of view, then pay for a subscription, but don't force me to help keep your favorite mouthpiece going.
And, yes, one of the subscriptions that I have is to The Line.
The destruction of Canadian media - I mostly mean newspapers - began well before the Internet was a thing of influence. In my mind the damage begins with Conrad Black stripping papers of staff to line his own pockets. The Internet, especially Google, may have accelerated that, but Canadian newspapers were already on the road to ruin.
The equation is pretty simple, and obvious to anyone who wants to preserve media, not strip-mine it: if you're not producing original content, local content, and covering the news that directly impacts your potential readers you're going to see them walk a way. People haven't abandoned newspapers because they've forgotten how to read, they've abandoned them because they largely offer nothing unique or valuable.
That's why the New York Times is doing so well, and our Canadian newspapers are (allegedly) on death's door.
It's real simple. Let these newspapers put up paywalls. If people value the content, they will pay; if they don't they won't. [Full disclosure: I pay for digital subscriptions to a couple of newspapers plus a couple of blogs, etc.] This whole thingy of the government forcing Facebook et al to pay the newspapers will ultimately cause Facebook, etc. to find a way to get that money back from everyone. I, for one, do not want to support certain newspapers in this country and therefore I pay for my own subscriptions for those I want to read.
If you want to support your particular point of view, then pay for a subscription, but don't force me to help keep your favorite mouthpiece going.
And, yes, one of the subscriptions that I have is to The Line.
The destruction of Canadian media - I mostly mean newspapers - began well before the Internet was a thing of influence. In my mind the damage begins with Conrad Black stripping papers of staff to line his own pockets. The Internet, especially Google, may have accelerated that, but Canadian newspapers were already on the road to ruin.
The equation is pretty simple, and obvious to anyone who wants to preserve media, not strip-mine it: if you're not producing original content, local content, and covering the news that directly impacts your potential readers you're going to see them walk a way. People haven't abandoned newspapers because they've forgotten how to read, they've abandoned them because they largely offer nothing unique or valuable.
That's why the New York Times is doing so well, and our Canadian newspapers are (allegedly) on death's door.