“We had typewriters in the newsroom, we got press releases and phone calls, you were inundated,” said Julie Cashin-Oster, the owner of the Orono Weekly Times when describing the shift she has seen in her career.
Cashin-Oster’s time in the ever-evolving world of local media started when she attended Durham College’s journalism program in the ’80s.
“Now everybody expects us to just spend our days on Facebook and on social media and that’s not our role,” said Cashin-Oster, who acquired the Orono Weekly Times in 2018.
It wasn’t until right before the rise of the COVID-19 pandemic that Cashin-Oster began creating a digital issue.
“Not knowing we were going to hit a pandemic at the time, I offered digital, and I do have a handful of digital subscribers,” she said. As a result, the Orono Weekly Times offers digital access to print subscribers.
Local news outlets have had to adapt to the challenges technology presents. The shift away from print media was heightened by COVID-19. Add to that, changes in ad revenue and Meta’s response to the Canadian Online News Act, many local news outlets are unable to keep up with the change, often shutting down and creating news desserts in communities all over Canada. A news desert is the disappearance of news media outlets from a local area resulting in a desert of information in community.
Local news in Canada has drastically changed. Statistics Canada reported that print circulation sales have continued to fall, declining 12 per cent from 2020 to 2022, while digital services have grown 65.5 per cent.
The Orono Weekly Times has been a staple in the small town of Orono, Ontario for 87 years. Six years ago, when she took over, Cashin-Oster said there was not much of a digital presence.
A stark reality most local new outlets, like the Orono Weekly Times, must face is the sheer competition they have to outpace in a world dominated by the Internet, things like X (Twitter), YouTube and Instagram don’t turn off, creating a 24/7 news cycle.
April Lindgren, founder and co-director of the Local News Research Project at Toronto Metropolitan University School of Journalism, said news outlets used to be able to survive with subscription revenue and advertising revenue. But that is not the case anymore as digital platforms see more clicks.
According to Reuters, in the United States, Google and Facebook accounted for 54 per cent of digital advertising revenue in 2020. GroupM, the world’s largest media buying agency, projects that in 2024 global advertising revenue will surpass $1 trillion for the first time, growing over seven per cent next year.
In GroupM’s end of year forecast for 2024, they state digital advertising will continue to grow steadily through to 2029, which is faster than anticipated only a year ago.
“These days you must have at least four different sources of revenue because of course not very many people subscribe in Canada to digital,” said Lindgren.
Meta’s response to Canada’s Online News Act has also had a huge impact on local outlets. Meta, formerly Facebook, banned news content from all its platforms in Canada as of July 2023. The act was put in place to help support local journalism by ensuring companies like Meta and Google compensate Canadian news outlets.
Lindgren says she has not seen much of an effort to reverse Canada’s Bill C-18, which requires digital platforms like Facebook and Google to come to agreements on paying Canadian news organizations for using their content.
“It poses a huge challenge for local news outlets that rely on the Internet to distribute their stories,” said Lindgren.
According to the Local News Research Project, in the twelve years between 2008 and 2020, 336 local news outlets across 236 communities closed. Seventy per cent of these outlets were print-based services with circulations below 50,000.
The attrition of newsrooms in local communities sparked concern and discussion.
Projects like Toronto Metropolitan University’s Local News Research Project have created a vast database highlighting the impact and shift of local news order to understand the way local news evolves as well as examining its trends and the direct impact it has on communities.
Lindgren started the Local News Research Project in 2008 after a career in political reporting. At the time, she was looking at how third language and ethnic media helps newcomers understand the place they live.
“I couldn’t help but notice all the places around Toronto, for instance, Brampton and Mississauga, were big cities that had very little in the way of local news,” Lindgren said.
The way local news can impact communities is significant. Lindgren credits its ability to create change and help spotlight those who may not have a voice,
“The less access people have to it, the less information they have to participate in local decision making when there’s a political decision up for grab,” said Lindgren.
Resilience, especially while experiencing change, is not an easy task. For the Orono Weekly Times, this change is not stopping them from delivering journalism to their community.
Cashin-Oster isn’t seeing a huge demand in website-based news. In the small town of Orono, people still actively seek physical print issues.
“They still want the tactile, the smell, the everything,” Cashin-Oster said. However, she noted advertisement has slowed now that many companies use social media to advertise.
“I get a call from a group,’oh, we’re having this big event can you come out and take pictures?’ Well, how about you advertise your event in the paper,” she explained.
With advertisement revenue dwindling, Lindgren notes philanthropic support is another possible revenue source for smaller startups.
Funding Journalism, Strengthening Communities, is a series of case studies about philanthropic support for community journalism published by the Inspirit Foundation.
One of the case studies is The Narwhal, a Canadian journalism organization which received support in the form of a grant from the Winnipeg Foundation, a charitable organization, in association with the Winnipeg Free Press, helped create a new position.
While the rise of digital media has posed significant challenges such as declining print circulation and the disruption caused by global tech giants like Meta, local newspapers are showing resilience.
For Cashin-Oster, the move to digital has been a necessary step, though the demand for print remains strong in her community. The success of small-town newspapers like the Orono Weekly Times lies in their ability to balance tradition with evolution, offering a mix of content to deliver to their readers’ needs.
Creating a sense of community through local news and highlighting its value is an important aspect to what those with stakes in local news are trying to achieve through their own respected means. By focusing on the disappearance and shift of local news it sparks conversation.
“Local news, when it’s done right, when it’s done properly, it’s really like a thread that weaves the community together,” said Lindgren.