Media crisis | Nearly two thirds of Google’s 100 million for the written press

(Ottawa) Most of Google’s $100 million will go to print media, learnt The Press. The share of CBC/Radio-Canada and private broadcasters will be capped. The regulation of Online News Act must be published this Friday, a little more than a week before it comes into force.

These regulations define which platforms will have to enter into compensation agreements with the media, otherwise they will have to participate in a mandatory negotiation process supervised by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC).

“A suitable portion” of the compensation must be used for the production of local, regional and national news content.

The Press was able to consult part of the documents. Few changes have been made compared to the draft regulations which were unveiled in September. The formula for calculating financial compensation has been abandoned, so it is unclear how much other web giants would pay that could potentially meet the law’s criteria.

Under this formula, the Department of Canadian Heritage calculated that Google’s share would amount to 172 million and that of Meta to 62 million, for a total of 230 million. Ultimately, the news media gets less money.

For now, the Online News Act applies only to Google, the country’s largest search engine, which has agreed with the government to pay a sum of $100 million annually, indexed to inflation. This exception is included in the regulations. Even though this amount is less than what was initially provided for in the law, the news was well received by the media at the end of November.

The written press will get almost two thirds of the 100 million. The rest will be distributed between private broadcasters and CBC/Radio-Canada. The money will be paid based on the number of full-time journalists, but the public broadcaster’s share will be capped. Other broadcasters will be affected by a separate cap.

“Every dollar that goes to Radio-Canada/CBC – which receives around a billion and a half per year from the Canadian state – from what comes from Google will not go to the information Coops or in the weeklies, said the leader of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, during his fall report on Wednesday. It won’t go to any of these places that need it dangerously. »

Exemption

“While we remain of the view that Bill C-18 is fundamentally flawed, we are pleased that the Government of Canada has recognized our concerns and created a framework leading to an exemption in the final regulations,” Google said Thursday .

Google had threatened to remove links to news content to avoid the legislation if it could not reach an agreement with the government before the law came into force on December 19.

The web giant was “a few hours” from carrying out its threat when the government offered it a way through, we explain behind the scenes. He considered in particular that the proposed regulation did not make it possible to “set a defined limit” on the amount to be paid.

A criticism repeated by Meta in parliamentary committee on Wednesday. The multinational has blocked news articles on its Facebook and Instagram platforms since August to evade enforcement. She did not participate in the consultation process for the development of the regulation.

Platforms must generate global revenues of at least $1 billion annually and have at least 20 million monthly users to be covered by the law. Their activities must also involve the distribution and access to online news content in Canada.

Meta’s head of public policy for Canada, Rachel Curran, said the American multinational could welcome back local journalism on its Facebook and Instagram platforms if it benefited from an exclusion. The company did not respond to questions from The Press THURSDAY.

This attempt to negotiate in the public arena a few days before the publication of the regulation raised eyebrows in the office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage, Pascale St-Onge. “Meta wants an exemption without giving money, but without money there is no exemption possible,” said a source who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Financial difficulties

According to a survey by researchers at Laval University, the blocking of news on Meta has contributed to undermining the confidence of Quebecers in the news they consult on social networks and more of them now consult traditional news media Since.

The publication of the regulation comes at a time when newsrooms are experiencing significant financial difficulties. CBC/Radio-Canada recently announced it was cutting 800 jobs; at TVA, 547 employees lost their jobs; the Information Coops, which brings together six regional dailies, are also eliminating 125 positions with the end of their paper editions.

Cogeco executives also fear having to carry out a major restructuring in their 21 radio stations if the CRTC does not change the regulatory framework to offer them more financial support.

With the collaboration of Joël-Denis Bellavance, The Press