Thank you very much.
Mr. Chair, Mr. Parliamentary Secretary and members of the committee, it's a pleasure to be here today. It's also a pleasure because we consider the mandate entrusted to you as a lifeline. It's a mandate we welcome, obviously, and one we want to take part in. As has been mentioned several times, all the media throughout Canada—it's the same almost everywhere in the world—are in what is being called a “perfect storm” that is basically requiring that a new business model be implemented.
Today two of us will speak. Brian Myles, who is with me, represents Le Devoir. He's the director and publisher of Le Devoir. Also with us today is Pierre-Paul Noreau, president and publisher of Le Droit. We represent the Coalition pour la pérennité de la presse d'information au Québec.
Basically, the coalition is comprised of four major players in the Canadian newspaper industry: Groupe Capitales Médias, of which I am the executive chairman, Le Devoir, Hebdos Québec and TC Transcontinental, whose representatives testified before you here, a little earlier in the spring.
Coalition members publish 146 daily and weekly newspapers that, each week, reach nearly six million Quebecers or nearly 80% of the population. The coalition also represents newspapers in Atlantic Canada, Ontario and Saskatchewan. All of our members combined provide good jobs to more than 2,500 Canadians.
We are here today to sound the alarm and ask that we have a national discussion together on print media. It's a matter of democracy. As for the current situation of newspapers, in our case and in the case of all coalition members, readership is growing.
The first observation is that there is a need and a demand for all our products. It's important to ensure that, in Canada, we can work with professional journalists to continue to produce information that reflects the community, local information and quality information.
For a few years now, we haven't been sitting back as a coalition. We have already started to put in place certain modifications in our business models. Take the Groupe Capitales Médias, for instance; our information can now be found on many digital platforms.
Competition is fierce. It comes from all over the world, especially from giants like Google. When we talk about an intervention, which would be limited, of course, we must talk about information protection and copyright protection.
Essentially, we are asking you today to join us in transforming a business model that is already under way. However, as Mr. Honderich mentioned earlier, the findings are quite impressive. In my opinion, when I see the demand and growth in readership, I think that there will always be a place for good, quality information.
As for what we are asking you to consider, we have a number of recommendations. I will ask my colleague, Brian Myles to explain the various recommendations to you.
Thank you.