Official Languages Committee on Nov. 1st, 2011

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Aren't most free?

[Lily Ryan]

No. For example, the one I edit is one-third subscription. Not all of them are free at all.

[Costas Menegakis, Conservative, Richmond Hill, ON]

Thank you.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Harris.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Thank you all for being here. I'm going to switch it up and actually speak in English. It's what I'm feeling comfortable with today.

You have probably heard several of our members on the opposition side bringing up the midway report for the road map. It is worth saying that this is largely because we feel that in the planning of the next road map, that midway report is going to be very important for planning the path ahead, the road forward. Getting lots of input—and I hear you speak today about what you'd like to see in the next one—is certainly important.

Since there has been a bit of a theme on youth and involvement, I wanted to ask a couple of questions. Would it be fair to say with respect to new media, for instance, that the degree of involvement of your newspapers and radio stations each year is dependent right now upon whether you have the one volunteer or employee who is very adept at it; that the papers and radio stations that are better involved have that person and the other ones don't? Would that be fair to say?

[François Côté]

Absolutely, Yes.

[Lily Ryan]

That's fair to say, but it also depends on what's going on inside the newspaper organization, regardless of how interested in activism a school is or not. Often it comes down to what kinds of teachers are promoting media.

One initiative in Quebec is this key word, which I guess is a new buzzword, plate-forme. The ministry of culture in Quebec is working on a plate-forme: an information-sharing system for community newspapers whereby articles can be shared and downloaded throughout Quebec. It will be interesting to see what level of increased youth readership there is.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

Since many, though not all, of your organizations are not-for-profit, do some of the organizations apply in the summertime for the Canada summer jobs program to employ youth, and do you get any?

[François Côté]

Some of our stations have students come in during the summer, but there are not many who do. I would say it is about 10% of radio stations overall. It depends on the market.

[Lily Ryan]

I'm not sure what the numbers are across Quebec, but I'd say the numbers are medium to low.

[Francis Potié]

I don't have any statistics on that. In any case, we encourage our members to make an application. Many of them do, and they normally secure one employee.

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

That's good that they are. Of course, it would be nice if there were more jobs available. That goes coast to coast.

Following up, most of you have mentioned some base funding. This seems to be across all aspects of government right now, whether we're talking about transit, infrastructure, or anything that cities, provinces, or organizations are looking for. They're looking for long-term, stable funding that they're going to be able to rely on so they can plan.

Just how critical do you think that would be--getting stable, long-term funding in terms of being able to plan two, three, five, ten years out?

[François Côté]

I'd say that for community radio stations, that is absolutely critical. In a context where money from fundraising and advertising is dropping year over year, obtaining base funding becomes critical. Many of our radio stations are in dire straights. In Iqaluit and Rivière-la-Paix, employees were lent by the newspaper or the Association canadienne-française de l'Alberta. And yet they are not much better off, which means that, at some point, the situation is going to become extremely difficult. At one point, we even thought that we could lose the station in Iqaluit. In the last few years, that was also the case for other stations. So, having base funding is critical, at least for us.

[Lily Ryan]

Certainly stable funding for small newspapers would be particularly interesting in a program to hire sales managers, advertising sales managers, because time after time, once that sales manager is hired, the stability of a newspaper is far more assured.

Going back to your youth question, I wanted to mention that although readership might be predominantly adults, people who work at newspapers tend to be young. These are freelancers of every department, whether young graphic designers, or young journalists who spend a couple of years in local media before they move over to the bigger companies--

[Dan Harris, NDP, Scarborough Southwest, ON]

And get established.

[The Chair, Conservative, Michael Chong]

Thank you very much.

Mr. Lauzon.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I would like to welcome our witnesses to the committee.

Ms. Ryan, you suggested something in your last comments about going out and hiring a sales manager. I'd be interested to know how much of your financial resources come from advertising, for example, percentage-wise.

[Lily Ryan]

Different newspapers are very different, so on behalf of the Community Newspapers Association....

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Give me an average.

[Lily Ryan]

Of what percentage comes from advertising sales...?

Professionally, I represent three newspapers. We have three newspapers in our independent company, and advertising sales account for about 80% to 90% of our income.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Where is your other income?

[Lily Ryan]

There's a bit of subscription, and we get some help from the editor's fund.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

And for community radio stations?

[François Côté]

Advertising represents about 30% or 35% of our funding. The rest comes from fundraising campaigns.

[Guy Lauzon, Conservative, Stormont—Dundas—South Glengarry, ON]

Would it be possible to increase that 35%?