Study shows importance of local news By: Aaron Epp Posted: 4:39 PM CST Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 Last Modified: 5:18 PM CST Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025 Updates

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A new study shows the importance of local news to community knowledge, connections and democracy in small and mid-sized Canadian communities.

An Ipsos poll conducted last month found that 87 per cent of Canadians believe local news is important to a well-functioning democracy, and they trust local newspapers and radio (85 per cent) over national newspapers (71 per cent) and international online news sites (55 per cent).

The poll was commissioned as part of a new report released today by the Public Policy Forum in partnership with the Rideau Hall Foundation and the Michener Awards Foundation. Titled The Lost Estate: How to put the local back in local news, the report highlights the critical state of local news in Canada and proposes urgent recommendations.

It’s obvious from the data that if Canadians know the people who are covering their news, they are going to trust those sources more than a national publication with remote ownership, said Andrew Phillips, who co-authored The Lost Estate.

“There’s good news in the sense of people seeing the importance of local news and linking it to the political and social wellbeing of their communities,” said the longtime journalist, who is a columnist for the Toronto Star.

The Ipsos poll focused on Canadians living in smaller communities. Of 1,001 Canadians polled, about half were in communities with populations of less than 10,000, and half were in communities with populations of between 10,000 and 100,000.

For more than three quarters of Canadians (78 per cent) having a source of local news is important, while 79 per cent rely on local news sources a great deal or somewhat to know what’s happening in their community.

The majority of respondents (61 per cent) agreed that having less local news reduces knowledge about the workings of local government, schools and hospitals; 58 per cent said it minimizes the connection within the community, as well as decreased participation in local events (57 per cent), a loss of a sense of caring for each other (54 per cent) and less demand for local small businesses (36 per cent).

While various media sources are relied on, local radio (22 per cent) and local newspaper (22 per cent) take a slight edge as the most relied upon sources.

“There’s good news in the sense of people seeing the importance of local news and linking it to the political and social wellbeing of their communities.”–Journalist Andrew Phillips

Police and crime news is rated as the most important type of local news coverage (82 per cent), followed by community events (80 per cent). A majority put emphasis on the importance of news covering schools and education (69 per cent), politics (67 per cent), advertising for local businesses (64 per cent) and general business (60 per cent).

More than half of Canadians say they consume news from the CBC (57 per cent), consistent among smaller and larger communities. Almost six in 10 (61 per cent) Canadians say they do not want any change in the amount of presence from the CBC in their community, while three in 10 (29 per cent) say they want the CBC to be more present.

Meanwhile, 76 per cent of Canadians are concerned that if governments provided financial support to news organizations, it might introduce bias.

Four in 10 Canadians say they would be likely to donate to a local news organization if a charitable tax receipt was provided.

“Without local news, everything else stands to suffer… and that seems to matter.”–Teresa Marques

Ipsos conducted the survey online among Canadian residents aged 18 and older. Results are considered accurate to within plus or minus 3.5 percentage points of what the results would have been had every Canadian resident aged 18 and older been polled.

The Lost Estate report highlights several factors contributing to a crisis in local news, including the failure of non-local corporate ownership models, a collapse of traditional advertising revenues and Meta’s decision to block Canadian news on Facebook and Instagram.

According to the report, public policy must focus on innovations that will help sustain a flow of reliable information.

It proposes a set of recommendations for governments and philanthropists that include:

• creating a non-profit organization to fund reporters in local newsrooms for three-year terms;
• driving local advertising with a tax credit for local businesses that spend ad dollars with independent, locally owned media;
• directing a portion of government advertising dollars to local publishers and broadcasters;
• mandating a sales notice period to give communities an opportunity to rally support for news outlets that are threatened with closure by corporate owners;
• and stepping up community foundation involvement.

Supporting local news should not be a partisan political issue, Phillips said.

“It should not be seen as a partisan issue but rather a broader issue of local democracy and the social health of communities,” he said.

For Teresa Marques, president and CEO of the Rideau Hall Foundation, the report and poll are exciting because they show that people care about what’s happening in their communities.

“Without local news, everything else stands to suffer… and that seems to matter,” Marques said. “I think we’re at a critical juncture right now, and that makes this work all the more vital.”

aaron.epp@freepress.mb.ca