Tanner Morton<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On\nMarch 19, the Ryerson Communications Centre filled with journalists and news\njunkies, attending yet another event attempting to confront the uncertain\nreality of journalism in Canada. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It happened also to be\nthe day of the federal budget release, where the government of Canada outlined\nits upcoming plan to fund journalism in Canada. March 19 was altogether a day\nfilled with plans to save the Canadian news industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At Ryerson, the title\nof the evening\u2019s panel was \u201cJournalism: All Shook Up\u201d. Each speaker used their\ntime to deliver thoughts on what could save an industry in crisis. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A theme gradually\nemerged, and as the evening concluded there seemed to be a consensus among\npanellists that the massive media chains of yesteryear were no longer\nsustainable. What they called \u201cfragmented media\u201d was going to be the way\nforward. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The long, slow death of traditional journalism has been reported in Canada since the earliest, most tentative steps of the \u201cinformation superhighway\u201d \u2014the world wide web\u2014 what we now know simply as The Internet\u00ad. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Moving from a long-established, stable, profitable, advertising-based business model, to one predicated upon the ever-shifting sands of digital-first-whatever-that-means-and-by-the-way-who-is-paying-for-it, was never going to be straightforward. Or profitable. Or, a pessimist might suggest, even sustainable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The shift to digital has dried up traditional streams of advertising revenue, and the national newspaper chains that still serve as some of Canada\u2019s largest news organizations are closing outlets or scrambling to save whatever lingering publications still operate across the country. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The\nLocal News Research Project, a crowd-sourced initiative that keeps a check on\nlocal outlets in Canada, reports that 275 news outlets have shut down since\n2008. In their place, 105 new ventures have sprung up. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
While these numbers paint a troubling picture, the goal of the conference at Ryerson wasn\u2019t to focus on the difficult conditions facing Canadian journalism. Instead, it was to look for positive developments in a rapidly changing industry, and maybe predict where the industry might be headed. Each speaker used their time at the podium to deliver their thoughts on how journalists can weather the storm, and how emerging news ventures are innovating to keep afloat. <\/p>\n\n\n\n