OTTAWA — The federal government of Canada is undertaking a significant project aimed at mapping regions within the country that suffer from a lack of local news coverage. The initiative is being led by Canadian Heritage, involving a team of independent industry experts tasked with creating a local news directory. This multi-phase, multi-year project aims to measure the prevalence of 'news deserts' and areas of 'news poverty' across Canada.
In a memo dated December, the department highlighted the need for improved data in response to the demands from various stakeholders. This information is intended to enhance the government's ability to target its policy efforts more effectively. The challenges of compiling an up-to-date and comprehensive list of local news outlets have long troubled researchers and policymakers, as previous attempts have often been incomplete and quickly rendered outdated.
April Lindgren, a professor emerita at Toronto Metropolitan University’s journalism school, is among academics collaborating on this project. She noted that while absolute news deserts—areas completely devoid of local news—may be uncommon, numerous regions fail to meet the "critical information needs" of their communities due to reduced newsroom staffing. In some cases, news outlets may attempt to cover vital local issues like municipal politics and the environment, but their diminished resources result in inconsistent coverage.
Lindgren has long advocated for the creation of a news directory to facilitate targeted government assistance and help Canadians access reliable local news, especially in an era rife with AI-generated misinformation and disinformation. Compounding this challenge is the recent ban on news content on Meta's platforms, which has limited serendipitous encounters with local news, alongside the rise of AI summaries reducing clicks to news websites.
The Investigative Journalism Foundation is employing AI technology to assist the federal government in compiling this directory. Lindgren emphasized that prior to utilizing AI, there was no efficient, cost-effective method for identifying all news outlets across Canada’s 5,000 municipalities and maintaining the currency of this list. The new approach will utilize AI for initial data collection, which will then be assessed by a network of human verifiers, including local librarians.
Max Hartshorn, technology manager at the Investigative Journalism Foundation, elaborated that the project leverages a computer program to analyze data from various sources, including Statistics Canada and Google, to identify local news outlets. The AI makes initial assessments to determine whether a website qualifies as a local news source for a given community, filtering out non-relevant entries such as Facebook URLs.
Once the AI has produced a refined list of potential local news outlets—often narrowing down to around 40 to 50 candidates—human verifiers take over to validate these findings. Hartshorn noted that this machine-assisted method has the advantage of uncovering smaller or ethnic media outlets that may not be well known, thereby ensuring the project comprehensively represents the Canadian media landscape.
International interest in this initiative has been expressed, particularly from Australia and the United Kingdom. The project’s first stage was a proof-of-concept that cost the government $110,000. The subsequent phase will focus on mapping news outlets in all communities within Ontario and Quebec, with a planned comprehensive national rollout to be completed by 2028.
In terms of funding, the government is actively seeking partners for the latter phases of the project. Potential contributors include Statistics Canada, the CRTC, and CBC/Radio-Canada. A spokesperson for the government refrained from confirming the acquisition of required funding, indicating instead that Canadian Heritage is evaluating the second phase.
According to findings disclosed in the memo, the decline in local news outlets is heavily impacting smaller, rural, and low-income communities, leading to lower civic engagement, increased misinformation, and heightened political polarization. Current initiatives addressing these gaps include the Local Journalism Initiative, which aims to invest $128.8 million in local journalism by March 2027. Other government support mechanisms include the Online News Act and the Journalism Labour Tax Credit.
In addition to the directory project, Lindgren maintains a crowdsourced map tracking the closures and openings of news outlets. Her Local News Research Project reports a troubling trend since 2008, with 613 local news outlets closing in 391 Canadian communities, while only 270 new outlets have opened and remain operational in 196 communities.
Magda Konieczna, an associate professor of journalism at Concordia University involved in the directory initiative, emphasized that the reduction of local news can lead to significant societal issues, such as increased loneliness, disengagement, and mistrust. The COVID-19 pandemic period highlighted how disinformation can exploit news gaps when people do not know where to look for trusted information.
A study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives in March 2025 revealed that 2.5 million Canadians reside in postal codes with either one local news outlet or none. Furthermore, Canada has experienced an 11% net loss of print media outlets since 2008, affecting both newspapers and online publications, along with a 9% decline in private broadcast outlets.
The report also pointed out that urban areas most affected by news deprivation are predominantly suburban regions surrounding major cities like Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. Despite having distinct local governments and school boards, these areas often lack adequate news coverage. David Macdonald, the report's author, highlighted that an alarming decline of approximately 25 news outlets occurs annually, with just over 2,900 local outlets reported at the end of 2024, a figure which is expected to have diminished further since then.
