As Meta news block takes its toll, local media not unified on a path forward

Though Meta’s block of news availability on the social media giant’s platforms is already taking its toll on web traffic to news sites, local media outlets aren’t united on a path forward.

Just over two weeks ago, Meta — which owns Facebook and Instagram — began ending the availability of news on those sites in Canada in response to the passage of Bill C-18, the Online News Act, which takes effect by the end of this year.

Paul MacNeill of Island Press Limited, which publishes several weekly community papers in Prince Edward Island, and Jeff Elgie, whose company Village Media publishes around 21 community news websites in Ontario, both spoke on CBC’s The House, which aired Saturday.

MacNeill, publisher of Island Press, told guest host Tom Parry that his company’s web traffic has been down by around a quarter since the start of the Meta block.

Elgie said he expects Village Media traffic to decline by around 15 per cent.

MacNeill, whose papers still have a robust print subscriber base, said the main drawback of decreased traffic was the chance to amplify his publications’ work beyond their rural P.E.I. base.

Elgie said the bill would severely hamper any chance of future growth.

“What this bill has done is we’ve put a halt on any new market expansions and hiring more journalists in those markets,” Elgie said.

Elgie and MacNeill, though both operating in the local news industry, expressed widely different positions on C-18, which is meant to force Meta and Google to enter into agreements to compensate news agencies for content that appears on their platforms.

“I hate it,” Elgie said.

The government says C-18 is about ensuring tech companies pay their “fair share” to media organizations. Meta has countered that the only reasonable way to comply with the bill is to end news access in Canada.

CBC has joined two other groups in asking the Competition Bureau to investigate Meta’s news blocking.

“I don’t object to the notion that Google and Facebook should support journalism,” Elgie said. “But the premise of C-18, what we said, which is basically, ‘They steal our content, they’re immoral, they don’t do anything for the publishing industry,’ is all false.”

Elgie’s argument is that the transfer of value between social media sites and news outlets actually flows the opposite way: media sites benefit from free traffic and amplification when their content is posted on tech platforms.

“To me, really the goal right now is to get Meta back to the table, because my fear is the longer they’re out, the easier it will be for them to stay out permanently,” he added.

MacNeill, though, gives Meta less credit for its role in the media ecosystem.

“I think it’s the bully on the playground, isn’t it? …  I think there’s a place for everyone on the playground, but walking away and basically sulking isn’t going to solve any issues,” he said on The House.

“We do need legislation like C-18, there’s no question, because if you’re a small operator, even a modest amount of money can mean the difference between … surviving or not.”

The standoff between the federal government and Meta has dragged on for much longer than the temporary block that the company put in place in Australia in 2021, after that country passed a similar law.

C-18 called an ‘epic miscalculation’

That’s no coincidence, said Sue Gardner, a digital policy analyst.

“Since then, they’ve had a couple years to think about it,” Gardner, who used to run CBC’s digital site and the organization that operates Wikipedia, said on The House. “They’ve had a couple of years to sort of look at their operations and see what kind of role news plays in it.

“And they’ve had a couple of years to imagine what happens if this kind of law comes into effect all around the world. It’s one thing to pay out a couple $100 million in Australia. It would be something very different to pay out many, many multiples of that in countries around the world.”

Gardner dubbed C-18 an “epic miscalculation” by the government, saying she was concerned the bill is “not going to help the country. It’s actually going to make things worse for the news industry and for news audiences.”

The government has positioned itself as a global leader on the issue, saying in a statement, “The world is watching Canada.”

But Gardner warned that Canada might find itself as a cautionary tale, rather than a trailblazer.

“Other countries are watching what is happening in Canada, but rather than considering Canada to be a role model that they might follow, I think it’s encouraging them … to step back and maybe take a different approach.”

For MacNeill, however, the short-term pain is still worth it for what he believes will be a healthier media ecosystem.

“You know, democracy trickles uphill. And when local media are closed, or shuttered or stripped of assets, which has unfortunately been a model by large corporations in this country, the oversight of communities across this country is diminished, and that hurts.”