Ding, dong the efficiencies defence is dead
Most of Canada’s major industries, such as banking, oil and gas, media and retail, have long ago become dominated by oligopolies of a few dominant firms which exert inordinate market…
Marc Edge
Twist in Online News Act regulations could see news media owe millions to Google, Facebook
Photo from iStock Canadian news media could ironically owe millions to Google and Meta instead of the other way around under the Online News Act regulations proposed by Ottawa late…
Postmedia uses junk science to make its case for digital millions
Image from Pixabay Non-scholars tend to be impressed by studies that are seemingly scientific but on closer inspection simply don’t hold water. They are often offered by our news media…
Amazon donation to UofT follows ‘greenmail’ strategy of media companies
Photo by Robert Scoble/Flickr Most journalists are so overwhelmed nowadays by the daily grind in short-handed newsrooms—a phenomenon Dean Starkman dubbed “the hamster wheel”—that they don’t have much time for…
Competition Bureau action against Meta would confirm that the fix is in
Photo by Dima Solomin/Unsplash With Meta already blocking news in Canada, hope is slipping away that Google might still be brought onside with the Online News Act, which one critic…
Canada’s newspaper chains badly overplayed their hand in attempted tech shakedown
Photo by Sue Thompson/Flickr As the staredown continues between the Trudeau government and digital giants Meta and Google, the awful reality seems to be finally sinking in that the Online…
Canada’s old media cling to power, profits like Putin
After Shaw acquired Freedom Mobile in 2016, the company targeted Rogers, Bell and Telus, including in this 2019 ad campaign depicting the big three as ‘monolithic wireless.’ Photo courtesy Freedom…
Ottawa blinks on Bill C-18 as Postmedia-Nordstar merger talks mercifully break off
Before a sudden about-face over the weekend, Canada’s media seemed to be imploding. Photo from 123RF. What a difference a week makes on the Canadian media rollercoaster. The last time…
Ottawa, Meta escalate schoolyard spat over Bill C-18
Heritage Minister Pablo Rodríguez. Photo from Twitter. The schoolyard spat between Ottawa and Big Tech went to another level this week after Facebook’s parent company Meta announced it would take…
Postmedia-NordStar merger may actually be an opportunity to help restore local news competition
The National Post’s building in downtown Toronto. Photo by Michael Wilson/CBC. Postmedia Network may be trying to pull another fast one in a desperate attempt to stay afloat, but if…
Bell’s latest layoffs and closures show Canada’s news media need a major revamp
Photo by A Great Capture/Flickr The suits at Bell Canada have once again demonstrated that they have no concept of the social responsibility they owe Canadians for being allowed to…
Google and Facebook may be stealing, but not from news media
Google and Facebook are stealing money, but they’re not taking it from newspapers—they have been stealing from their own customers. Photo from Flickr. Are Google and Facebook stealing? It seems…
Old media may need Bill C-18, but new media need Google and Facebook
The future of newspapers in Canada is in jeopardy if the government doesn’t quickly pass Bill C-18, publishing company executives told Senate hearings into the Online News Act this week.…
Trust us? Whether it’s government or media, you have simply got to be kidding
Research shows that more than 60 percent of Canadians believe journalists are purposely trying to mislead them, with government not far behind at 58 percent. Photo by Thomas Hawk/Flickr. Special…
Is this the end of press freedom in Canada?
The ruling Liberals are seemingly doing all they can to bring the Internet under their thumb. Photo from Flickr. Canada remarkably blipped up slightly in this year’s press freedom rankings…
Google argues for media fund to support Canadian journalism
Federal estimates put the digital platforms potentially on the hook for more than $300 million a year in payments if Bill C-18, the Online News Act, passes. Photo from Shutterstock.…
Rule #1: Canada’s media bosses always get what they want
A Rogers store offering services from Rogers Wireless. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. The recent government approval of the Shaw purchase by Rogers Communications confirms a seeming iron rule in this…
Financialization is the latest business model for Canada’s media
The Toronto Star sign after being stripped from the 1 Yonge Street building. Photo by Fareen Karim/BlogTO. Canadian media have traditionally been highly lucrative businesses. Some of the country’s richest…
Canada may be on a path to digital totalitarianism
Photo from Unsplash Another breadcrumb has landed which suggests that Canadians may be on a path to digital authoritarianism, or even totalitarianism, if some politicians in Ottawa get their way.…
Google has made our online lives easier, but we may all be about to become a victim of its success
Google’s headquarters for European operations in Dublin, Ireland. Photo from Wikimedia Commons. Google is so successful that it may be about to become a victim of its own popularity, and…