Thank you, Ms. Chair.
Thank you, committee members, for inviting me to participate today. As the chair said, I present to you in my capacity as editor-at-large at The Hub, an online Canadian news organization that I co-founded nearly three years ago. We publish a combination of opinion commentary, standard news reporting and a series of podcasts.
We're philanthropically supported. Our audience size, content mix and level of engagement are growing significantly. We view ourselves as an increasingly valuable part of the country's news media ecosystem and a major contributor to its public policy discourse. As an organization, The Hub has generally opposed government intervention in support of the news media industry. I'd like to take my time here to set out how we've come to think about what's occurring within the industry and how policy-makers should respond.
Journalism is clearly going through a process of transformation. Traditional business models have been disrupted by new technologies and the rise of online platforms like Google and Meta, as the other witnesses have set out. This process of creative disruption has created a lot of destruction. It's led to business rationalization, layoffs and even outright closures, but there's also a creative dynamic, of which The Hub is a part. New and emerging players are experimenting with different business models, content forms and relationships with their audiences in order to figure out how to create a sustainable business that's ultimately supported by markets, broadly defined.
Most of these entities will fail. Some will succeed. Some will cover specific subject matters. Others will target geographical areas or particular points of view. Some will operate as for-profit businesses. Others will take the form of non-profits or even charitably funded organizations like ours.
The process I describe is complicated and uncertain, but it isn't a market failure that necessitates large-scale government intervention. It's a market correction that policy-makers should, generally speaking, let play out. It's of course the same dynamic market process that has transformed other parts of our economy over time and ultimately contributed to the country's progress and prosperity.
Now, one might argue that the news media is different, that it's not the same as other sectors, that it plays a more crucial role in our civic and democratic life, and that it therefore should be treated differently. There's something to that argument. We at The Hub believe passionately in the importance of reliable news and information in our democratic society, but we shouldn't let our good intentions interfere with the process of market-led change. Doing so would effectively signal that the legacy business model is the only one capable of meeting our democratic needs. It's ahistorical and fails to reckon with the exciting innovation occurring within the industry.
That said, there may be certain areas where public policy can play a role to better enable the transformation that's occurring within the market, rather than a shaping role that tries to presume in which direction the market should head. One example is to increase the charitable donations tax credit for registered journalism organizations to the same level as a tax credit available for donations to political parties. It would be a logical step to recognize that both institutions—the media and political parties—have key roles to play in the functioning of our democracy. Another example would be to make the subscription tax credit for qualified Canadian journalism organizations refundable and increase its generosity to higher levels.
The virtue of both these suggestions is that they would follow the choice of Canadian consumers. They would be subjected, in that sense, to a market test rather than the dictates of government itself.
I would sum up my comments this way. First, it's premature to conclude that we've reached a market failure that necessitates major government intervention. Doing so would take the onus off the industry to figure out how to create sustainable journalism, and it would impede innovation being led by independent outlets like The Hub. Second, to the extent that government opts to intervene, public policy should generally be neutral and subordinate to consumer signals. I put forward a couple of options, but there are no doubt others.
Let me conclude with this point, committee members. The Hub is currently running a series we're really excited about, called “The Future of News”. We're bringing different voices and perspectives, including some you've heard at the committee, to our pages to talk about how to move forward, specifically how to create the conditions for a sustainable journalism sector.
I can tell you that after three years at The Hub, we're optimistic that entrepreneurs and markets are indeed capable of creating sustainable journalism and would encourage policy-makers to minimize their interference in that process. That approach would be in the best interests of journalism and, I would argue, of our democracy.
Thank you.