Small Sask. publications are feeling the pain of Meta's news block
CBC
Small and local news publishers in Saskatchewan say they're feeling the pain of Meta's decision to block news in Canada on their social media platform.
Kerry Benjoe is the editor of Eagle Feather News, a publication that focuses on providing news to First Nation and Métis communities.
Benjoe says they distribute 10,000 papers throughout province.
"A lot of those papers go into smaller communities and so we don't distribute our papers into larger urban settings and that's where social media played a really big role because there's a limited amount of papers," Benjoe told Stefani Langenegger, host of CBC's The Morning Edition
The effects of the news block have been devastating, according to Benjoe, who hoped Eagle Feather News would be small enough to "slip through the cracks."
Before it went into place, news stories would be posted on social media and then shared hundreds of times.
"So instead of 10,000, maybe we got 400,000 views. That was reaching audiences not just here in Saskatchewan, but nationally and worldwide. Some of our stories were read in areas like Switzerland and so to not have this access anymore, it's really concerning."
The federal government passed Bill C-18, or Canada's new Online News Act, in June. It's expected to take effect by the end of the year.
Once it does, the legislation would require companies like Meta and Google to pay media outlets for the news content shared on their platforms.
Earlier this month, social media giant Meta put their foot down and blocked news on their Facebook and Instagram platforms.
News organizations — including CBC/Radio-Canada — have asked Canada's Competition Bureau to investigate Meta's decision to block Canadian news, calling it "anti-competitive."
Audiences can still reach Canadian digital news directly — by going straight to news sites themselves, or using an app on mobile devices.
But for many outlets, which rely on the distribution of their stories on social media, the block has revealed a painful reality.
Kevin Weedmark is is the publisher of the Moosomin World-Spectator, a newspaper in the small town of fewer than 3,000 people located 225 kilometres east of Regina.
WARNING: This story contains profanity and details of racist language.
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