Two months into Meta’s Canadian news block, small-time publishers are feeling the pinch.
Driving the news: Meta’s decision to block news content for Canadian users across its platforms has disproportionately affected small online publishers, per The Wall Street Journal, as they depend more on social media traffic than larger legacy outlets.
- News site Insauga.com told The WSJ that ~30% of its traffic came from Facebook, while publisher Village Media claimed traffic to its two dozen sites has fallen by a fifth.
Catch-up: In case you didn’t notice since you don’t use Instagram for news, Meta blocked the news in August. It was in retaliation to Bill C-18 (The Online News Act), which would require tech firms to pay Canadian publishers for linking to their content.
Why it matters: Bill C-18 is unintentionally hurting the outlets it was designed to help. With Meta’s traffic unchanged after the ban and Google set to enact its own after proposed changes to the bill failed to win it over, outlets will keep losing clicks.
- And even if a miracle happens and Meta and Google play ball, analysis found most of the money generated from the bill won’t go to small publishers but to the CBC.
Zoom out: Bill C-18 takes effect on December 19. As it looks dead in the water, the trade association News Media Canada pitched ideas to the feds to help rescue the industry, like boosting labour tax credits and banning ads on CBC to free up scarce ad bucks.—QH