Regulatory, Telecom & Media News – Google moves forward with Canadian Journalism Collective

The Canadian Association of Broadcasters (CAB) says it’s concerned commercial broadcasters – the largest employer of journalists in Canada – aren’t represented on the new collective chosen by Google to distribute funds under the Online News Act. The digital giant announced Friday it had selected the Canadian Journalism Collective-Collectif Canadien de Journalisme (CJC-CCJ) to distribute its annual $100M CAD contribution to eligible news businesses. CJC-CCJ is led by Erin Millar, the CEO & Co-founder of Indiegraf, a tech provider for small and start-up publications, and founder of The Discourse. The not-for-profit organization is made up of 12 independent publishers and broadcasters including Village Media, IndigiNews, Pivot, The Resolve, and the Canadian Association of Community Television Users and Stations (CACTUS). It was largely speculated Google would choose to move forward with the collective put forward by CAB, News Media Canada, and CBC/Radio Canada, which encompassed the vast majority of broadcast and print news organizations in Canada. Read more here.

Outfront Media and Bell Media have closed the sale of Outfront’s Canadian business for the purchase price of CAD $410 million in cash, subject to adjustments. The Competition Bureau has entered into a consent agreement with Bell Media related to the acquisition of Outedge Media Canada LP (formerly Outfront Media Canada), resolving competition concerns over outdoor advertising services provided by Bell and Outedge using their respective inventories of billboards and transit displays in Ontario and Quebec. The investigation concluded the merger was likely to substantially lessen competition in Québec City, Trois-Rivières, Sherbrooke, Greater Montréal and the Greater Toronto Area. Outedge and Bell vigorously competed with one another in those markets with the bureau saying the loss of that rivalry would have resulted in higher prices and fewer options for customers. As part of the agreement, Bell must sell a total of 669 advertising displays, including certain digital displays, across the five markets.

Cam Cowie and Clayton Dreger have been inducted into the Western Association of Broadcasters (WAB) Hall of Fame. Cowie, Senior Vice-President & Chief Operating Officer at Harvard Media, and Dreger, the long-serving Sports Director at Golden West Broadcasting, are both set to retire this year. They were among those recognized at WAB’s Gold Medal Awards Gala on Thursday evening at Fairmont Banff Springs. Jasmin Laine, morning show co-host at Evanov Communications’ Energy 106 (CHWE-FM) Winnipeg, was named the Broadcast Leader of Tomorrow. Northern Native Broadcasting was awarded the Gold Medal for Digital Innovation for the CFNR Network’s broadcast of February’s All-Native Basketball Tournament. Read more here.

The Western Association of Broadcasters’ Conference was not without controversy as featured speaker Conrad Black’s denial of the death of Indigenous children at residential schools during a conversation with outgoing WAB President David Craig caused a contingent from the CRTC and a delegation from Northern Native Broadcasting to walk out of Thursday’s conference. The board issued an apology to attendees saying that Black’s opinions are not reflective of those of the board or its members. Read more here.

RTDNA Canada has announced its finalists for the Regional Awards of Excellence, recognizing excellence in digital and broadcast journalism. Check out the finalists across Audio, Video, Multiplatform, and Digital for the East Region, West Region, Central Region and Prairies Region.

The Radio Television Digital News Association in the U.S. has announced Region 14 winners of the Edward R. Murrow Awards, representing international outlets. CTV News Vancouver was a winner in four categories, including Breaking News Coverage, Digital, Excellence in Video, and Investigative Reporting. Toronto’s CityNews 680 picked up three awards in the Radio (Large Market) category, including Breaking News Coverage, Newscast, and Overall Excellence. Find the full list here. Regional winners automatically advance to the national competition to be announced in August. 

The Canadian Association of Journalists (CAJ) has handed out this year’s CAJ Awards for outstanding investigative journalism. The Montreal Gazette’s Aaron Derfel was awarded this year’s McGillivray Award, which recognizes the best investigative journalism published or broadcast in 2023. Derfel’s work exposed egregious failures in care within the city’s Lakeshore Hospital emergency department. He was also recognized in the Written News category. CAJ awarded this year’s Charles Bury Award to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) for their continued commitment to ensuring the safety and security of journalists working in dangerous environments around the world.

The Racial Equity Media Collective (REMC) and the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC) have sent an open letter to CBC executives signed by more than 500 members of the Canadian documentary and larger cultural community calling upon the public broadcaster “to address an apparent pattern of anti-Palestinian bias, Islamophobia, and anti-Palestinian racism within the corporation’s news and documentary culture.” The letter outlines a number of alleged incidents of anti-Palestinian bias and racism at CBC News, including the assertion that a CBC documentary production executive shared dozens of discriminatory social media posts about Muslims, Palestine, and Palestinians.