Thank you, Marc.
As you can see, Facebook is deeply committed to supporting news in Canada, and we have been doing so for years. As noted earlier, we intend to do even more. Over the next three years, we will be making an additional investment of $8 million into the Canadian news ecosystem to increase a three-year renewal of the Facebook-Canadian Press news fellowship and provide new funding to increase the capacity of under-represented voices in journalism. This brings our total investment to date in the Canadian news ecosystem to $18 million over a period of six years.
We also announced that we hope to partner with Canadian publishers on commercial deals that allow us to experiment with ways to connect people to more news on Facebook. It is important for me to be clear on what this type of paid partnership could be and what it is not.
Currently, when Facebook users see news content in their feeds, they typically see a short preview text generated by the publishers themselves and then a link to take the user from Facebook to the publisher’s own website. We do not pay publishers for sharing this kind of content on Facebook. They choose to do so because it drives value to them. As noted earlier, Village Media assesses the value of traffic from Facebook and Google to be close to half a million dollars in one month alone. Another example is The Globe and Mail, which achieved record digital subscription growth in 2020, in part by combining its AI platform and publishing strategies with Facebook’s tools. The committee has a package that's been translated and that you will receive tomorrow, from what I understand from the committee clerk. It includes this case study with The Globe and Mail.
In some cases, we may see additional value in partnering with publishers to provide links to more stories on our platform for user experiences beyond what is already being shared by publishers themselves. If we are actively seeking to provide a certain kind of user experience that requires more from publishers, then we would proceed by striking a commercial agreement with the publisher in order to use the additional article links for that purpose. We hope to partner with Canadian publishers on commercial deals that allow us to experiment with ways to bring more value to them.
In conclusion, finding a sustainable and equitable way to foster a robust media ecosystem in Canada requires goodwill and co-operation from publishers of all sizes, digital platforms, government, and people who value news and are willing to pay for it. Facebook can play a role in this, but it cannot do it alone.
To date, discussions between the parties have been too infrequent, and it's time to come together to ensure that journalism is set on a long-term sustainable path.
With that, Mr. Chair, we would be happy to answer any questions from the committee.