Beginning in 1989 with Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web and later, following the creation of high-speed Internet available on fixed and mobile devices, people have had access to the vastness of human knowledge using a device they can carry in their pocket. These incredible innovations have created entirely new industries, caused most existing ones to transition to new ways of delivering their goods and services, and pushed to the brink of extinction those that are incapable of adapting.

One of the businesses that collapsed was the newspaper business, which for more than 225 years was the backbone of Canada’s news and journalism industry. Over a very brief period consumer attention and advertising dollars shifted online where innovations such as targeted, low-cost advertising offered effectiveness and cost efficiency that traditional media struggled to duplicate in print or over the air.

Since 2016, representatives of the newspaper industry have been lobbying the federal government for assistance. This has resulted in a series of patchwork, temporary government measures intended to help the familiar news outlets survive financially as they 'transition' to digital media operations. The most recent effort involved the tabling of the controversial Online News Act (Bill C-18), an effort to redistribute advertising income lost by news organisations to offshore tech companies such as Meta (Facebook) and Alphabet (Google).

There is a profound public interest in Canadians having access – in whatever fashion they most prefer – to accurate information at the neighbourhood, local, provincial/territorial, national, and international levels. The Internet provides ubiquitous access to international news platforms. Policy-makers should therefore focus on what is needed to sustain reasonably efficient domestic operators in a competitive environment focusing on the provision of what is commonly referred to as civic journalism.

The purpose of this paper is to frame a national consultation and to offer foundational policies for a national news industrial strategy. Canada needs a national news policy. Such a policy must at all costs avoid a direct funding connection between the government and newsmakers or news intermediaries. This is essential for a free and independent media to flourish and for public trust to be maintained. The policy also needs to ensure fair commercial treatment for Canada’s news producers, digital intermediaries, and consumers/subscribers.