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Newspapers Across Canada Take Out Full Page Ad With Message To Feds
I can't recall seeing anything quite like this before - big newspapers, including the Toronto Star, and others across the country, took out a full page ad in their weekend editions to plead with the federal government to direct their advertising resources towards them - and not U.S. sites like Facebook.
The open letter to the "Government of Canada" asks those in charge about their funding choices in a time of crisis for print media.
"Why are we funding American tech monopolies that extract tens of billions a year out of Canada - largely untaxed - at the expense of local journalism and culture and whose platforms have become vectors for division and misinformation?"
My guess is that they attract more eyeballs than newspapers, but it still doesn't make a lot of sense that the local guys get less.
Here's the ad:
- DX
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Re: Newspapers Across Canada Take Out Full Page Ad With Message To Feds
While the open letter is newspaper association led, it's about supporting all "Canadian news media." Broadcasters have similar parallel campaigns going on.
People, especially in government, like to talk tough about Buy Canadian now that there's a trade war. But it's all talk and no action.
Those that do the actual buying can find an excuse to not buy Canadian. They'll say Canadian steel is too expensive (yes our workers have higher wages and face higher living costs than other countries) and takes too long to access, so our new bridges and ships are built with foreign steel. They'll say there are only a limited number of vehicles assembled in Canada (and we just lost the Jeep SUV), so our governments use foreign-built vehicles.
Does anyone ever notice that Canada just allows Google and Facebook to have a virtual monopoly on online advertising? No one in Canada said boo when Facebook bought up Instagram and What's App, or when Google bought up YouTube, to help establish that monopoly.
Yet if any Canadian companies own a group of newspapers, or a group of radio stations, or a group of television stations for synergy, some Canadians lose their feces about "corporate concentration." And then they take to American-owned social media platforms to vent.
Last edited by DX (October 16, 2025 10:17 am)
- Aytononline
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Re: Newspapers Across Canada Take Out Full Page Ad With Message To Feds
As a small business owner who buys ads on Google Facebook and other platforms, I never even considered legacy media like newspapers, radio or TV. This has nothing to do with Canada but with the platforms them selves. I wish there were other global platforms like Canada's Shopify
But in reality there are not many. If there were a Canadian equivalent to google that reached Canada and beyond and could match or better google and meta in cost and being user friendly I would use it,
I am sure one day someone will come up with a Canadian platform that will put the American platforms out of business, but right now you have to go to where the people are and thats not the newspaper.