Local print and broadcast news in serious decline in Canada

A healthy and robust news environment is central to any country’s democratic health. However the last sixteen years have not been kind to local news outlets in Canada. Many residents of communities, both big and small, now find themselves  living in “news deserts” or “areas of news poverty.” A new report aims to better understand the decline in local news outlets across Canada and to examine what role public-service media could take to tackle local news deprivation. We speak with David Macdonald, one of the authors, and senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.