Advertising: Feds spend millions more with just Facebook than they do with the whole Canadian radio industry

By Steve Faguy AS THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT argues big tech giants are threatening traditional media, its annual report on advertising shows it's buying more than four times as much in advertising from Facebook and Google alone than from the entire Canadian radio industry. And that's despite a boost given during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. For the fiscal year 2019-20, which ended as the pandemic was only two weeks old, the government spent $24.7 million on digital advertising, representing 55% of its advertising total for the year. Of that, $5.85 million went to Facebook (including ads on Instagram),...