By Connie Thiessen
Canadian Heritage has announced $58.8 million in funding to extend the Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) through 2027.
Initially launched in 2019 as a five-year, $50 million program, the initiative provides annual funding for more than 400 journalist positions across the country, with a focus on creating original local journalism in underserved communities. Content produced under the LJI is made available to media organizations through a Creative Commons licence. Friday’s funding announcement brings total support for the initiative to $128.8 million over eight years.
In 2022-23 alone, LJI journalists covered issues and stories in nearly 1,500 communities, including 60 reporters…
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Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge on Friday launched the application process for the next president of CBC/Radio-Canada.
The minister announced the convening of an independent advisory committee consisting of 10 individuals to make the selection ahead of current head Catherine Tait’s term expiry next January. Tait, who became the first woman in the history of the public broadcaster to serve as president and CEO, was extended last June.
“The successful candidate will support CBC/Radio-Canada in transforming the way it engages with Canadians in a rapidly changing environment by making the public broadcaster more digital and more ambitious in its…
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By Glenn O’Farrell, former media executive of Groupe Média TFO, Canadian Association of Broadcasters, Global Television, and TVA
“It’s time to take back the internet,” a recent ad proclaimed.
It ended with an invitation: “So forget the noise. Let’s build the internet we want—not the one we inherited.” Its purpose was to promote a book, Read Write Own, by Chris Dixon, the internet entrepreneur and investor. Dixon’s book is about breaking away from the digital monopolists that dominate today.
As Ottawa ponders the future of CBC/Radio-Canada, where will innovation figure in the plans?
Hopefully, innovation will become the driving force behind a new…
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Media company Stingray announced Monday it is collaborating with a group of independent broadcasters to call on the federal government to support Canada’s local radio industry.
Stingray said a letter has been sent to Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland and Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge “outlining actionable recommendations to address the economic challenges posed to local radio by the digital shift and the loss of advertising dollars to online platforms.”
The group is asking for the upcoming federal budget to include a commitment from the federal government to dedicate at least 70 per cent…
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Canadian Heritage announced Thursday the appointment of Nathalie Theberge to a five-year term as the CRTC’s vice chair of broadcasting, starting April 3.
Theberge, who has been vice chair and CEO of the Copyright Board of Canada since 2018, is replacing Alicia Barin, who stepped down last month.
Before her stint at the Copyright Board, the long-time public servant has been working in various capacities in the Canadian Heritage department for 18 years, including her latest as the director general of creative marketplace and innovation. In descending order, she was also director general of copyright and international trade; direct…
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The Governor in Council has reappointed René Légère and Jennifer Moore Rattray to CBC’s board of directors, on the recommendation of Minister of Canadian Heritage Pascale St-Onge.
In addition, Marie-Anne Tawil has been appointed as a director of CBC’s board.
All three will serve on the board for a five-year term. Their appointments were announced on Jan. 26.
Based in Moncton, Légère has served on CBC’s board since December 2017. He began his career in communications, working as a host and reporter with Radio-Canada Acadie. Since 2009, he…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA — The federal government might have scored a win by getting agreement from the world’s most popular search engine to compensate news publishers and broadcasters for posting their online content, but it now has to address the impact of artificial intelligence on what Canadians read, see and hear, according to panelists discussing the balancing act of safeguarding national interests while promoting growth amid the challenges of digital and AI technology at the Canadian Media Producers Association’s (CMPA’s) annual Prime Time conference in Ottawa on Feb. 1.
As Meta blocked Canadian news from Canadian users of its Facebook…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA — Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge expects that a “growing sector” will emerge from the regulatory broadcasting framework the CRTC plans to release later this year in implementing the federal Online Streaming Act, Bill C-11.
“The reason why we created the CRTC and legislation around the Broadcasting Act was to make sure that Canadian content was easily found and accessible to Canadians, so could tell and watch their own stories,” she said Thursday at the Canadian Media Producers Association (CMPA) annual conference in Ottawa.
“The other part was making sure that…
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By Christopher Guly
OTTAWA-The federal government will provide Telefilm Canada with $100 million in funding for two years, beginning in the upcoming fiscal year 2024-25, Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge announced on Parliament Hill on Wednesday.
Telefilm previously received $105 million over three years from the 2021 federal budget that St-Onge said resulted in such feature films as BlackBerry, about Research in Motion’s signature mobile device, and Bones of Crows, about Canada’s residential school system.
The new funding, she added, would support between 40 and 60 productions annually and “put food in our minds – in our thoughts and in our hearts…
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The Canada Media Fund (CMF) on Wednesday published a new report detailing the results of the federal government’s $60-million investment in 2021 in the CMF for equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) initiatives.
The CMF’s Creating Change report demonstrates the funding — announced as part of the 2021 federal budget and allocated in $20-million installments over the past three years — “has been a key driver in advancing EDI across Canada’s audiovisual sector,” according to a CMF press release, which notes “this pivotal funding, which has underpinned significant sectoral growth, will come…
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