About a year ago, the Online News Act, Bill C-18 received Royal Assent and came into force in December 2023. As expected, changes are underway in the Canadian media landscape and the state of bargaining between Canadian news media and digital giants such as Google and Meta has taken different turns. NATIONAL Public Relations' team of experts is helping companies navigate this complexity and uncertainty, ensuring their message is able to reach key audiences.
What is the Online News Act?
The Online News Act is a legislation framework that aims to ensure that Canadian news outlets receive compensation from digital platforms when the news is shared on such platforms. The Online News Act only affects digital platforms that manage to capture 20 million unique Canadian visitors and has the global revenue of $1 billion, which for now comes down to Google and Meta.
The Online News Act is a second legislation in the world that covers a monetary compensation to news media and aims to ensure the security of media businesses of the country. The Australian News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code was the first legislation to pursue such a goal, which caused some changes in Australian media ecosystem and provoked Meta to ban news dissemination in the country. Unlike the Online News Act, the Australian legislation has faced several amendments, leading to deals settled with a number of Australian news companies.
Being one of the two legislations of such kind, the Online News Act brings some uncertainty and unpredictability into the Canadian media environment. While the Canadian government seeks to achieve a fair outcome for Canadian media outlets inspired by the achievements of the Australian News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code, the outcomes of two legislations might be different in the long run.
New developments in the last year
Since the Online News Act received a Royal Assent, a few key developments and changes happened for Canadian public, journalists, newsrooms, and public relations practitioners.
One of the first responses from sides involved came from Meta in summer of 2023, as they have tested news ban on their platforms in Canada and implemented the full ban in August 2023. Following that change Talk Shop Media surveyed 1,505 Canadians. Half of them reported that they were worried about staying informed with news being blocked on Meta social media platforms.
In November 2023, Google reached an agreement with the Canadian government to pay an annual cap of $100 million towards media funds to be distributed to Canadian news media by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
On the media communications side, one of the first reactions from the group representing Quebec journalists and public relations practitioners was to obtain a 24-hour break from Meta platforms. The next big thing that happened in February 2024 was a big Bell Canada layoff which affected around 4,800 employees. BCE chief executive Mirko Bibic noted that the reason for such a cut is due to the CRTC’s slow response and action on delivering an aid to Canadian news media outlets.
While Meta does not plan to waive their limitations on Canadian news, Heritage Minister Pascale St-Onge and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau consider a deal with Google a win and success of the Online News Act for local journalism. Back in November of 2023, St-Onge stated, “This [deal with Google] shows that this legislation works [...] Now it's on Facebook to explain why they're leaving their platform to disinformation and misinformation instead of sustaining our news system.”
In 2024, there are still steps in place to ensure fair bargaining. According to the CRTC, there are a few public consultations on the formal bargaining process, Cost Recovery Regulations, code of conduct for bargaining and others scheduled for this year. During the summer and fall the CRTC will start publishing decisions setting out the regulatory framework and will recruit independent arbitrators.
What changes do we see today?
Although there is still some uncertainty around the long-term changes and the impact of the Online News Act, NATIONAL is ready to help you navigate through these challenges and the changing media landscape. Here are some of the most common challenges that campaigns may encounter as a result of the Online News Act:
- Longer lead times. Due to newsroom shrinkage, engaging with journalists and newsrooms has become a longer and more intricate process, which requires more advanced skill set to appeal to journalists and reporters who can cover only a limited number of stories.
- Change in media campaigns results, unstable reach. Practitioners keep seeing the reduction in syndication and hits, supposedly due to inability of Canadian news media to disseminate news stories broadly through Meta social media platforms.
- Fewer opportunities to monitor. With news being blocked on Meta platforms, it has made casual social media monitoring more challenging, as public relations practitioners cannot see what stories circulate more amongst Canadians and what trends are there in the audience.
- Fewer visible results. It is harder for businesses to share their wins and celebrate great coverage raising the awareness and sharing their stories on social media.
How NATIONAL can elevate your campaigns amidst changes
Despite the evolving nature of the situation, we as public relations practitioners can elevate your campaigns and guide you through these changes by employing the following strategies:
- Support. As advisors and trusted consultants, public relations practitioners can offer more educational one-on-one sessions, webinars, and presentations to explain the essence of the legislation, its impact on usual campaigns and results and the limitations and changes that might occur in the future. We can help you understand and navigate the uncertainty if needed.
- Owned channels. Utilizing clients’ owned channels can help get the message across to the wider public on social media, build a stronger online community and presence on social media despite not being able to share brand news stories freely on Meta. Utilizing storytelling on clients-owned channels can help close the gap caused by the Online News Act.
- Adaptation. Improving campaigns and suggesting more integrated approach is an asset in the evolving media ecosystem. Leveraging sponsored, owned and shared types of tactics can help provide clients with stable reach even if the earned tactics are impacted by unexpected consequences of the legislation, news blockage or layoffs.
For more information on the possible impact on campaigns and your business contact NATIONAL’s Public Affairs team.
