News media in Canada needs Facebook!

EDITORIAL

Friday, June 23, 2023. Last updated on June 24, 2023

Before we get into this, PJXM News is against Bill C-18 that passed legislation on Thursday, June 22, 2023. The Bill will force Facebook and Google to pay certain mainstream media outlets money for journalist linked back content.

Many news outlets blame Facebook and Google for revenue loss and taking advantage of journalistic content by allowing the news content created to be shared for free on platforms that rake in advertising dollars. The true loss here will be for the public who rely on social channels for their news. Careful what is wished for..

The mainstream media over the past 8 years has suffered some serious money loss. So much so that Justin Trudeau’s government bailed out the mainstream media back in 2019 with $600 million dollars of taxpayer money over a 5 year period.

Those funds will soon run out and now the mainstream media is banking on the government to take on Facebook and Google with new passed legislation with Bill C-18. Bell Media is somewhat blaming tech giants on recent closures of BCE (Bell Media) radio stations and the 1,300 layoffs at BCE news stations such as CTV.

The losses at Bell Media are the faults of their own doing by having too much out there to offer during a time of bad economics and constantly changing viewing habits for the news industry. Bell Media has a host of TV channels that should be off-air rather than firing those who work in a newsroom.

The fallout of last year’s firing of CTV News’ Lisa LaFlamme made national headlines. It did the company no good, not to mention how it all went down. Scandal after scandal.

The loss of a welcomed and rewarded anchor in to millions of Canadian homes every night reverberated and killed what CTV had going for them since Lloyd Robertson retired back in 2011.

CTV News at 11 was the most watched newscast in Canada and won awards for many, many years for just that! CTV National News brought it like none other did. It is not that way nowadays. Bell Media needs to restructure and come up with a better plan that doesn’t involve Canadian taxpayer money bailouts.

Now one stat most mainstream media outlets would probably never share with the public is how much traffic their websites receive from linked content to and from Facebook and or a Google search. It really depends on the story type and most stories posted to social media are those that would garner website traffic opposed to a minor story that would generate very little money.

To show the public some stats on how well Facebook and Google does for news outlets, PJXM went back to the 2015-2022 stats. The PJXM website allows Google to use PJXM linked content on while searching Google for a news stories.

Please note that PJXM suspended the original Facebook page that had 16,000 followers at the end of December 2020. The page opened in 2009. Why? Spam comments and messages are the number 1 reason why PJXM left the platform. With the ability to now shut the comments off, PJXM opened a new page in 2022 to see how well it would work.

It was slow going with the newer page so this past March 2023, the original page was reopened and the stats have improved mega tons, to put it lightly. PJXM website stats have already beat out 2022 and thanks to Facebook that will continue, although at a slower rate than ever before.

The images below are from the PJXM WordPress Jetpack. PJXM started a new website in 2015 on WordPress. Clearly Facebook and search engines such as Google drives PJXM to success each year. 2016 was the best year over any other.

Why? Forest fires, particularly the Fort Mac fire in May 2016. PJXM had exclusive videos of the Fort Mac fire that year and it brought a ton of traffic for months afterwards.

As the years went on traffic slowly declined but not because people lost interest. PJXM ended news coverage from Grande Prairie, Alberta and ended all local news stories for the BC Peace…our main source of people reside in the BC Peace.

Our home since 2013 has been here in Prince George. Lots has changed and lessons learned over the years. Year 2023 marks PJXM News’ 14th doing it all for FREE since 2009!! Even without Facebook or Google, PJXM will still have Twitter, Reddit, WordPress and the PJXM Newsletter to be an option to redirect traffic to the PJXM website!

It goes to show the Canadian news media needs Facebook and Google more than Facebook and Google need the media outlets sharing and linking their work on the platforms.

If the news media, small and large, wants to be compensated for journalistic work they’ll need to come up with a Paywall plan going forward. Residents will pay for local journalism but they won’t pay for it if stories published are the same as what the outlet down the street just posted.

Here is a video posted to MSN earlier today from CBC News. It shares a different side of Bill C-18. It tells the viewer that Bill C-18 could backfire on the mainstream media.