hayu has announced rate increases from five to nearly 15% depending on what province you’re in, ahead of a July 1 deadline for digital services to collect and remit GST/HST. Netflix has also notified members that they’ll see the charge applied to their next bill on or after July 1. Netflix has concurrently posted for a Corporate Tax Manager for its new Toronto office.
The Facebook Journalism Project has unveiled a plan to pay some Canadian publishers for news stories on the platform. Fourteen publishers are participating in the News Innovation Test, a new initiative the digital giant says is aimed at helping “promote a healthy news ecosystem, elevate authoritative journalism, and deliver a valuable experience for people on Facebook who are interested in news.” Participating publishers include blogTO, Canada’s National Observer, The Coast, La coopérative nationale de l’information indépendente, Daily Hive, Le Devoir, Discourse Media, FP Newspapers, Narcity, The Narwhal, SaltWire Network, The Sprawl, The Tyee, and Village Media. Publishers will be paid for the ability to link to additional news stories not already posted on Facebook, which the platform says will help it experiment with ways to enhance the user experience for those looking for trusted Canadian news about important topics.
Indiegraf, the Vancouver-based startup helping small digital news publishers reach underserved communities, has announced its initial American partner publishers as it expands into the U.S. They include the Bushwick Daily in Bushwick, New York; Maryland media cooperative Bloc by Block News; and Shasta County, California non-profit Shasta Scout.
The Breach has launched under the Indiegraf umbrella, a member-funded, not-for-profit media outlet with an eye to pursuing a mix of investigative and video journalism. The outlet’s crowdfunding campaign raised $100,000 in just 10 days through small donations from more than 700 founding members – a number that’s since risen to $180,000, from almost 1,400 members. The Breach’s team includes Mi’kmaw writer and lawyer Pamela Palmater, journalist and poet El Jones, author and journalist Linda McQuaig, and journalist and scholar Azeezah Kanji, among others.
