The NDP and Tories are set to make changes to the federal government’s news bill to help hard-pressed community newspapers that are too small to qualify for compensation from tech giants. Bill C-18, now being debated in the Commons heritage committee, would force tech giants Google and Facebook to compensate newspapers if they reuse their work or post links to their articles. However, papers employing fewer than two permanent full-time employees would not be eligible for reimbursement under the bill. The Liberals have said they will support amendments to Bill C-18 to help newspapers that employ only one full-time reporter or rely on freelancers to get funding from Facebook and Google to reuse their work. Lisa Hepfner, a Liberal member of the heritage committee and a former journalist, said: “I think we are open to these amendments.” With the NDP, Conservatives and Bloc Québécois all supporting changes to help community newspapers, the amendment would pass even without government support. Among the local papers that would now be out of compensation under the bill is the Davidson Leader, a small Saskatchewan paper founded in 1904 that serves a rural town halfway between Regina and Saskatoon. The weekly paper, which employs a part-time journalist, was sold for a dollar in 2019. Dan Senick, who now owns the paper, said it plays a critical role in the small farming community, telling residents about farming and local news, upcoming events, as well as obituaries, which are often widely shared on Facebook. He said at least 60 percent of Davidson’s 1,000 residents subscribe to the paper, along with people who live in neighboring towns and villages within 60 kilometers. “Davidson’s leader is just passing through. We can’t afford a full-time reporter,” Mr. Senik said. “We give Facebook all the obit content and sometimes an obit reaches thousands of people on Facebook. It would be fair to get some of the funding. Our paper helps keep the city alive.” Mr. Senick said another community paper he owns, Northern Pride, based in Meadow Lake, a small town in northern Saskatchewan, also has too few staff to qualify for compensation from Google or Facebook. He said the newspaper plays a critical role in connecting people in the city, which does not have a local radio station. Conservative MP Kevin Waugh, a member of the Commons heritage committee and a former journalist, warned that the limit of two staff reporters would exclude most community newspapers in Saskatchewan. The bill would force Facebook and Google to come to the table to make deals with media outlets to use their work or face sanctions. “When this bill came out, it was for newspapers, but 70 per cent of newspapers in Saskatchewan don’t qualify,” Mr. Waugh said. His concerns were echoed last month at the committee by Dennis Merrell, executive director of the Alberta Association of Weekly Newspapers, who told a committee of MPs that in that province about 50 per cent of media outlets may not be big enough to participate. Peter Julian, NDP heritage spokesman, said his party plans to amend the bill to help local papers like the Davidson Leader while excluding small fringe news organizations, including far-right ones, from being paid for their work by tech giants. The NDP spearheaded an amendment to the online streaming bill to help community radio stations, which passed committee earlier this year. The move to amend the online news bill is likely to be supported by the Bloc, which has warned of the precarious future facing small local newspapers in Quebec. Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez says one of the main goals of Bill C-18 is to help revitalize the local newspaper industry, which has seen mass layoffs in recent years as advertising revenue has migrated to tech giants like Facebook and Google. His office did not immediately comment. Ms. Heppner told The Globe and Mail that a similar law in Australia, requiring tech giants to compensate media outlets for using their work, had led to a big increase in the number of journalists employed there and a revival of local newspapers. He said he supported more investment in small Canadian local newspapers so they could employ more full-time staff.
