Evidence of meeting #42 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was reporting.
A recording is available from Parliament.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
Okay. So it's about $150 a year, something like that.
Who are your major competitors in your area? You're moving totally into digital. We've had people here presenting from the newspapers association who have given papers away for free, who do survive on the advertising. They don't have a subscription rate anymore.
Could you comment on the differences there and who your major competitors are in your area?
11:20 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Observer Media Group
That's such an interesting question. I think the honest answer is that we're all competing against each other now. It often seems crazy, because our budget is so tiny, but we do compete with Postmedia. We had six million readers in Canada alone in our first year from the National Observer, so they're finding stories that are valuable at the National Observer. So yes, that takes something away from Postmedia.
On the level of media companies that are more in the same range as us size-wise, there's of course The Tyee, but The Tyee and the Vancouver Observer have always been in a kind of “co-opetition”, as we like to call it. We're friendly competitors.
11:20 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Observer Media Group
There's The Globe and Mail as well. We try to scoop The Globe and Mail. They don't like it when we scoop them.
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
You mentioned the competition. You mentioned Postmedia. Postmedia was here and said that their biggest competitor was CBC—because of the subsidies, I guess—
11:20 a.m.
Conservative
Larry Maguire Conservative Brandon—Souris, MB
—and it would be one thing if CBC were doing the broadcasting they did originally, but they're into digital and everything now as well. How do you see that?
11:20 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Observer Media Group
Honestly, it's hard to get my own personal feelings out of the way on this. As an American who immigrated to Canada, I'm so grateful for all the things Canada has given and is giving me. CBC is just such a fundamental part of Canada that I hesitate to criticize it.
However, they're right that of course it presents a very difficult competitive environment, and I think there are a lot of innovative things that could be done to shift that. Some are in our submission, and I'm sure you've heard from other people about this too. For instance, there could be more collaboration. CBC could make their content free to other publications to use, because they are a public service and they are funded by the government. Why not let us all use their content?
I really don't think they should have delved into the opinion game. Wouldn't it be great if we could just have one news outlet that is free from the sniping at each other and the kinds of just questionable...? I think it just gets into an area with opinions where people are giving their opinions, and some of it is questionable. I think for them to moderate it well, it's going to take a lot, and I haven't seen them doing that.
11:25 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Observer Media Group
I'd like to see them not do that.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Yes, your time is up. Thank you.
Before I go to the next MP, you keep mentioning a submission. We don't have a written submission from you.
11:25 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Observer Media Group
Really? We submitted it quite some time ago.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
We will search for it and then distribute it, of course, to the members of the committee, but the clerk doesn't know of it. However, he's going to search and find out what happened to it.
11:25 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Observer Media Group
We submitted it in French and English.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
We'll hunt it down, but if you can send resend it, that would be very helpful.
11:25 a.m.
Liberal
The Chair Liberal Hedy Fry
Thanks very much.
I will now go to Mr. Nantel from the New Democrats for seven minutes.
11:25 a.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I will speak English for you in order to make it simple.
Thank you for your very interesting point of view, and I thank you for your journalistic virtue. I think it's amazing. Also, I was looking at the National Observer site, seeing that the Vancouver Observer, like you say, is a spinoff of the National Observer, if I'm right.
Is it fair to say that your online paper started as voluntarily biased in response to the voluntarily biased media sympathy to the oil industry, and that you came out as a voice for people objecting to this situation? Is it fair to say so?
11:25 a.m.
Chief Executive Officer, Observer Media Group
Al Jazeera did a documentary about the media in Canada a couple of years ago and featured us as one of the few critical voices of industry in Canada. I think it's an accurate portrayal that we're a critical voice in a country where the large newspaper chain has been a very supportive voice. The fact that the large newspaper chain—and other news outlets as well—was a very supportive voice of industry truly opened up a business opportunity that we moved into.
11:25 a.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you for putting the right words on the description I was attempting to give.
Can we say in this way that it creates, as you say, a business opportunity to tap into this audience so that it is potentially viable, even though there isn't a ton of advertising on your websites?