The future of media in Canada has never been more uncertain. With a federal election on the horizon, publishers of small- and medium-size digital outlets are bracing for more big changes. 

In recent years, there have been a number of seismic shifts in the Canadian journalism profession, most significantly, the rapidly dwindling funding and revenue streams available to news outlets. 

One by one, the philanthropic organizations that once funded journalism are “changing direction” and “shifting strategies” away from funding news. This, at a time when the government is encouraging non-profit outlets like Ricochet to attain charitable-like status and go after philanthropic funds. As a result, there’s a smaller and smaller fundraising pool from which to draw.

And that model is proving itself to be completely unsustainable.

Ricochet Media is a non-profit outlet in Canada celebrating our tenth anniversary year — a huge milestone for any publication. But like many of our peers, we find ourselves on the edge of a knife.

This summer, New Canadian Media, another non-profit digital outlet, announced that the math no longer works and they had no choice but to fold. 

NCM launched as “an answer to journalism’s diversity problem,” and sought to amplify the voices of immigrants and refugees trying to carve out a new life in Canada. “But to be candid, I was whistling in the wind,” the editor wrote in a bulletin to subscribers. Despite winning awards, outlets like NCM are being set up to fail. Few care to do anything to address the core problems at the root of this crisis.

NCM is just the latest casualty in the slow death of Canada’s emerging digital media sector, an industry already desperately trying to fill the gap left by the ongoing crisis in legacy media that has seen more than 500 local outlets shutter in the past 15 years. Even the biggest names in national news have been phasing out investigative journalism. In March, CTV’s long-running flagship news magazine show W5 signed off for the last time after 58 years, citing a need for “cost cutting.”

These are devastating losses, and each should serve as yet another wake-up call for Canadians. Unless something is done to stop the bleeding, and soon, there won’t be anything left.

What makes this latest closure so surprising is that NCM was a Registered Journalism Organization, a designation that only 11 outlets in Canada have achieved. It is effectively charitable status for news, and with this “qualified donee” status comes the ability to issue charitable tax receipts. It’s part of the Canadian government’s strategy to throw a (leaky) life raft to the industry. By encouraging outlets to go through the steps to get RJO status, publishers could then go and seek financial support from philanthropic organizations.

But achieving RJO status is a lengthy and expensive process. Outlets must first achieve Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization status, which comes with its own lengthy series of steps.

Ricochet was designated a QCJO last year, and is currently in the process of applying for RJO status.

However, over the past couple of years, major Canadian foundations that have historically supported news and media have decided to “shift away” from journalism. Just as the Canadian government is increasingly telling media outlets to seek their support. 

It’s a strategy that is working fairly well in the U.S., but it’s important to understand that Canada and the U.S. have very different philanthropic ecosystems. There are far fewer foundations and other institutional funders here. There’s no Knight Foundation in Canada — a foundation focused almost exclusively on funding journalism, started by newspaper barons John and James Knight in 1950, who both understood that well-informed communities were essential to a healthy democracy.

Canada has a fraction of the population size of the U.S., which means far fewer millionaires and billionaires to fund these foundations. And generally, there are far fewer donors in Canada, big and small. 

What is the result of the dwindling options for news in Canada? How is it impacting the lives of Canadians? In recent years, we’ve seen a spike in misinformation and disinformation, which has led to a rising far-right, increased hostility to immigrants and other marginalized groups, and all the signs of a crumbling democracy.

Just when public-interest, accountability-seeking investigative journalism is needed most, newsrooms across the country are shrinking or, like NCM, closing up shop altogether. In the process, often laying off hundreds of journalists and cutting off yet another potential outlet for hungry freelancers to pitch stories to.

That also means there are far fewer working journalists in Canada covering those crucial municipal and political beats, like school board and city council, and doing investigative journalism — the kinds of reporting that is foundational for the entire industry.

An informed electorate is critical to a strong democracy. But Canadians are consuming far less news than ever before — yet they’ve never had access to as much content and information.

And as a result of the Online News Act and the Meta block, there is far less news in our social media feeds, and certainly far less conversation about news items.

The journalism landscape, especially in Canada, is completely different than it was 10 years ago, even five years ago. There are fewer questions being asked, fewer people to keep power accountable, fewer journalists covering policy changes on the public’s behalf. A majority of newspapers in Canada are now owned by corporate chains and American-owned hedge funds. There are very few remaining free papers with local listings, news and profiles. People are less connected to community, and less informed, than they’ve ever been.

Media has been in a state of crisis for as long as I’ve been a journalist, but now it feels like the ship is really about to sink.

The reality is that journalism will never be profitable. But it must be considered a public service, essential to the survival of our democracy. We really don’t want to see what happens when the bottom falls out.