Postmedia Network

• Three events have recently marked a powerful inflection point in Canadian journalism.
• First, Google and Meta announced they will no longer share Canadian news links on their platforms in response to the new Online News Act, Bill C-18, designed to make them pay for their use of Canadian journalism.

What’s at stake?

• At stake is the nature of the country’s communications ecosystem, affecting how Canadians get news and information that matters to them.
• As former journalists, researchers and co-founders of The Conversation Canada, a national not-for-profit news organization dedicated to sharing insights from academics, we support the emergence of the best possible journalism ecosystem given the conditions.

The role of Google and Meta

• For now, Canadians won’t notice anything different as Google says the changes will take place when the law comes into effect over the coming months.
• Similarly, Meta plans to phase out news by the end of the year.
• Google also announced that it would close down its Google News Showcase program, launched in 2021.

Act expected to take six months to be in place

• These moves by Google and Meta were precipitated by the Online News Act, which became law on June 22.
• It is likely to take six months to come into force as the Department of Canadian Heritage works out the details on how to enforce it.

How we got here

• The main focus of Google’s activities has involved funding individual organizations through direct payment deals for content on Showcase.
• The company has also provided funding for digital innovation and training, oriented within their own proprietary systems, and boot camps for startup entrepreneurs.
• For example, in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Google provided $1.5 million to 230 Canadian newsrooms.

Why now?

• This is separate to its support of the CBC, the country’s public broadcaster.
• And this is where the proposed moves by media giants Postmedia, Nordstar (publisher of the Toronto Star) and Bell come in.
• The larger questions for Canadians are about the nature, amount and quality of journalism and who controls its communications infrastructures.

Impact of Postmedia-Nordstar merger

• Examples such as the proposed merger of Postmedia and Nordstar illustrate one of the trade-offs under consideration about the amount of journalism content and who is doing it, in addition to journalist economic conditions.
• The last time the two companies made a deal to swap papers in 2017 resulted in 291 job losses and continuing centralization of content.
• How we understand what is happening now and how we got here is necessary to make sound policy decisions moving forward.

• As a result of these initiatives, total operating expenses for Q4 2022 decreased by $8.1 million, or 34%, compared to Q4 2021 and by 16% from Q3 2022.
• Mogo reported positive Adjusted EBITDA2 of $0.2 million in Q4 2022, well in advance of the Company’s target to achieve positive adjusted EBITDA by Q4 2023.
• Adjusted net loss2 decreased to ($4.3) million in Q4 2022 from ($9.7) million in Q4 2021 and ($8.4) million in Q3 2022.
• Mogo will host a conference call to discuss its Q4 2022 financial results at 3:00 p.m. EDT on March 23, 2023.

• TORONTO, Jan. 27, 2023 /CNW/ - Unifor is disappointed and frustrated that Postmedia has largely kept the union and media workers hanging with a slow bleed of information that has provided no real clarity to workers about what jobs are on the chopping block.
• To dangle dire news that is detrimental to media workers' livelihoods, careers and families is disrespectful and hurtful to the workers who have given so much to the company," said Unifor's National President Lana Payne.
• Unifor represents more than 10,000 media workers, including journalists in the broadcast and print news industry.
• Unifor is Canada's largest union in the private sector, representing 315,000 workers in every major area of the economy.

• BET99 will partner with the NHL to launch their new Free-to-Play game called "NHL PrePlay", and fans in Canada can access it now at www.nhl.com/NHLPrePlay .
• Each game day during the NHL season, fans will be provided a set of predictive outcome-based questions.
• ", as well as queries using NHL Edge (Puck & Player Tracking) data, such as "Which of these players will have the hardest shot?"
• "This partnership is groundbreaking for Canadian hockey and sports fans," said Jared Beber, CEO of BET99.