Hello. Thank you for asking me to speak today.
I've been publisher and CEO of the Globe for the last 21 years. I'm also co-chair of The Canadian Press, so I'm wearing two hats today.
The Globe is privately held by Woodbridge, which is the holding company for the Thomson family. They've owned media since the early days of Roy Thomson in the 1930s. I worked for him and his son Ken in the U.K. when they owned some of the leading titles there. Now the third generation, in the shape of David Thomson as chairman, is in charge.
One common factor across all those decades is that the principle of editorial independence is respected. Our proprietor doesn't dictate what we publish or what causes we support, and the Thomsons have an enduring belief in the value of journalism that makes a difference. They own the Globe because they think it can make a contribution to Canada.
The cornerstone of our business is not advertising, which is a revenue stream that shrinks each year. No, the present and the future of the Globe is founded on readers and users paying for our content. More than 60% of our revenue comes from subscriptions, print and digital, and advertising revenue is now only 33%.
To keep on growing our subscriptions, we invest in editorial talent. The best reporters, columnists, designers and data scientists support that business goal. At a time like this, when expert comment and analysis on the pandemic is in high demand, we rely on the wisdom of journalists like André Picard. We have the best team of health and science writers in the country.
Normally we would put that reporting behind the paywall to drive subscriptions, but at the start of the pandemic crisis we made a decision to open up our paywall. We felt it was important for all Canadians to be able to access that content for free. Our audience doubled in April as a result, and we had our highest-ever traffic levels on our websites. That means we sacrificed revenue, but we built trust with our audience. In the current climate, being able to rely on accurate information is a key priority for many Canadians.
We are one of a small number of publishers around the world that have transitioned successfully to a business model that's based on premium content. The majority of our revenue comes from the 120,000 digital subscribers and the 110,000 print subscribers who currently pay to consume our journalism. Because only a third of our revenue comes from advertising, the consequence is that we did not qualify in March for the government's new wage subsidy scheme. April revenue went down further, and May will be about the same on the advertising front, so it remains to be seen if we become eligible.
In their latest results announced last week, Postmedia stated that they expect to receive $20 million to $22 million in wage subsidy from March 15 through to June 6. Torstar, the second-largest group, expects to collect $18 million in the same period. For many in our industry, this is welcome and substantial assistance from the government.
Let's be clear. The long-term outlook for the Globe and many others has darkened because of the pandemic. Print advertising revenue, once the backbone of newspapers, will go into accelerated decline. Some companies have been reporting a 20% annual drop in print advertising revenue, and that was pre-pandemic. For our new fiscal year starting in September, the Globe is forecasting a drop of 32% year on year in print advertising. That's many millions of dollars of high-margin revenue, and we won't be the biggest victims in Canada.
We have been cutting costs over the last few months to minimize layoffs, and I have suggested schemes to Canadian Heritage like a rebate on our printing costs or a subsidy on the fees that all the leading media companies pay each month to The Canadian Press. The broadcasting industry has received additional support, and I argue that targeted support measures for the news publishing industry are likewise needed to help publishers weather the storm.
The newspaper industry is disappointed by the small amount of money spent so far by the federal government from its $30-million COVID-19 awareness campaign. So far the Globe has received only $81,000 out of that $30 million. By contrast, the Ontario government has spent nearly $1.5 million with The Globe and Mail in the last two months on its health awareness campaign. That was a deal done within 24 hours and implemented immediately.
You are no doubt aware that all of Canada's major publishers signed an open letter earlier this month calling on Ottawa to address the inherent unfairness of the system whereby the global platforms enjoy exemption from sales tax in Canada, while paying nothing for the journalism content that they use. The lack of protection for the copyright of our most valuable asset, our content, is a well-known problem. Tax and trade treaties with Washington are no small barriers to solving these issues, but even in the U.S.A the publishing industry association is asking Congress to enable newspapers to bargain with Google and Facebook on a level playing field.
If you value the contribution that newspapers like The Globe and Mail make to the democratic debate and you want to see them survive the current crisis and be healthy, I suggest it's time you pay urgent attention to these inequities.
Thank you for listening. I'm happy to answer questions later.