You may have seen a full-page ad running in major Canadian newspapers today (May 2) entitled “An urgent message to the government of Canada from the publishers of Canada's major newspapers.” It notes that newspapers “are suffering huge advertising revenue declines because of the coronavirus pandemic.” It calls on Ottawa to implement a tax on Google and Facebook similar to what France and Australia have already announced. “That means (Facebook and Google) paying for copyrighted content and sharing the advertising dollars and data that flow from it.” It's signed by the publishers or top executives of 10 major newspapers. On the face of it, it seems like a valid argument. I have personally worked for, or worked, with two of the publishers who signed it. I know they are sincere in their belief that this is a solution to the problems faced by Canadian legacy media outlets. However, it's based on what I truly believe are several false assumptions and it leaves out some key points.

• It does not say what the money from this new tax will be used for.
• It does not promise to protect the jobs of journalists.
• It implies, though it does not say so specifically, that the money from this tax will be sufficient to keep these media outlets afloat.

I don't want to repeat here all of the points I made in an earlier post in this thread. So I will focus on the key new points. It's safe to assume that these newspaper publishers would pour any money generated by such a tax into their legacy print publishing and distribution systems, rather than develop the new digital products and platforms that are required now, not at some distant point in the future. Note that ad's headline reads “from the publishers of Canada's major newspapers.” Not media companies. No mention of digital. That, plus the fact there's no explicit promise to protect the jobs of journalists, would suggest that future cost-saving measures will mean eliminating even more jobs, not legacy infrastructure. That's been a trend accelerating over the past decade. It's certainly fair to demand the digital giants pay their fair share for the content the use that's created by others. It might also provide some minor, short-term help. However, there's no way – unless the tax rate was set at a ridiculous level – that the revenue generated by this proposed tax would make up for the massive decline in print advertising. This has also been a trend for decades. COVID-19 didn't cause it. It just accelerated it. In a recent ipoltics.ca article, Bob Cox, publisher of The Winnipeg Free Press and one of the signers of today's ad, said revenue at The Free Press has fallen more than 30 per cent since mid-March, and he has heard of revenue dropping 40 per cent elsewhere in the business. The same article noted that industry players don't think advertising revenue will return for at least a year after the pandemic – if at all. That's a massive amount, far greater than the revenue likely from the proposed tax. No one, including me, who works in, has worked in, or cares for the journalism profession wants to see major newspapers collapse in the near future. But unlike what's called for in this ad, the solution lies in making plans quickly to abandon unprofitable and dying newspapers with their huge infrastructure costs, switching to digital platforms, then partnering with Ottawa and the digital giants instead of fighting them. That's the only effective way now and in the future to protect the vital business of journalism and the jobs of the thousands of talented journalists in this country. Jim Sheppard is a digital pioneer, having started in “that Internet thing” in 1995. He launched Conquest Communications Canada in 2017. https://www.conquestcommunicationscanada.com/ He held a variety of digital leadership positions at washingtonpost.com, ABCNEWS.com and globeandmail.com. from 1995-2017. Prior to that, he was a foreign correspondent and newsroom leader at The Canadian Press.