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Across 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.
Today, community, regional and national news publishers are struggling with declining advertising revenue. In 2012, Canadian newspaper advertising revenue stood at $3.55 billion. Today, it is under $1 billion. Yet, four out of five Canadians still read newspapers, regardless of format, at least once a week - essentially unchanged since 2012.
While things will never go back to the way they were, governments can do a much better job supporting...