The aim of Canada’s Online News Act was to bring some of the money that the news industry lost during the online revolution back into the pockets of news organisations. The government even calculated that Google and Meta have a combined 80% share of the CAD$14 billion online ad revenues seen in the country in 2022.
However, the new legislation may make things worse for Canadian outlets, and while public broadcaster CBC or legacy newspapers will unlikely suffer much due to their robust funding models and name recognition, smaller, independent publications are already seeing the impact of the new law.
