Canadians’ trust in their regional or local newspapers stands at a relatively healthy 65 per cent, writes Paul Deegan.Photo by Gigatron / Getty Images

Paul Deegan: National Newspaper Week is about supporting local journalism

Real journalism by real journalists — not some artificial intelligence tool that scrapes the web for content — costs real money

by · National Post

According to the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism’s Digital News Report 2024, Canadians’ trust in news is 39 per cent. For comparison, Americans’ trust is news is even lower at 32 per cent.

There are many variables at play in the decline of trust, including engagement-driven algorithms that deprioritize hard news — which traditionally provided a common set of facts — in favour of reinforcing one’s point of view rather than informing the reader. The rise of “fake news,” misinformation and disinformation are among other factors in the decline of trust.

Paul Deegan: Ontario leads the way on sustaining quality journalismAcross Canada, governments have supported journalism for generations. Since the founding of Canada’s first newspaper, the Halifax Gazette, which dates to 1752, government advertising has been an important source of revenue for newspapers. Even prior to Confederation, direct supports, like the former Publications Assistance Program, which subsidized the postal delivery of non-daily newspapers, ensured that Canadians had access to high-quality Canadian news.Paul Deegan, Postmedia News, 03 Jul 2024