BACK-END: Financing New Media Initiatives

While Journalism Awards and Lobbying Associations are Useful Tools, Independent Journalists are Generally Considered too Poor to Support these Initiatives. New Media "Upfronts" are the Solution!

This is the third of a three part series on turbocharging independent, “new media” in Canada.

In part one of this series, the March 5th, 2025 Freedom Forum BACK-END post, “Canada Needs a ‘New Media Journalism Award’," we discussed how one of the best ways to grow independent journalism is to create a series of awards to highlight industry expertise.

In part two, the March 13th, 2025 Freedom Forum BACK-END post, “Independent Canadian Journalists Need a "Canadian New-Media Association," we noted how the Canadian government provides hundreds of millions of dollars annually to legacy media “allies” through government grants and Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) tax rebates intended to encourage specific, mostly government approved viewpoints.

We also noted how many of these media subsidies were credited to the lobbying efforts of News Media Canada, a legacy media trade association formed in 2016. We suggested that small, unaffiliated new media outlets would benefit from the creation of a lobbyin…