Staffing the National Assembly has been a challenge for Quebec English-language media for many years. It’s in Quebec City, and that market doesn’t have local English-language media beyond community media, the Quebec Chronicle-Telegraph and a small CBC Radio station. So generally the journalists work for Montreal-based media as a satellite bureau.
Because Quebec City doesn’t have a large English-speaking community, journalists are generally imported from Montreal. And for personal reasons, many don’t want to move. So even if you have the budget, it can be hard to find someone qualified who wants to do it. The result is a lot of young journalists, or people who will spend a few months or a few years there before moving back.
And it’s not cheap. Besides the costs of office space (which aren’t astronomical thanks to a de facto subsidy of the press gallery building by the Quebec government) and the logistics of having a remote office, there’s travel costs and other headaches.
On top of that, the major private English-language media outlets can’t share those costs among their peers, because their only TV, radio or print outlet is in Montreal. And to make matters worse, it’s not like they get some of that money back during election time, because the parties aren’t interested in advertising to Quebec anglos whose votes are pretty much a foregone conclusion.
Still, newsroom managers have tried their best to keep those bureaus open, because they know how important covering Quebec politics is to their audience.
This week, that struggle was lost for one of those news outlets. Global News shut down its Quebec City bureau, laying off its journalist there, Franca Mignacca, who had recently graduated to videojournalist after Global stopped employing a cameraman there.
Asked about the layoff, Global owner Corus Entertainment sent this statement to me:
Global News’ commitment to covering Quebec politics and its impact on the Anglophone community remains unchanged. While we will cover the National Assembly as needed, our main focus has been and will continue to be centered around how the policies and politics of the National Assembly affect our communities.
It’s a decent spin on the situation. And it’s not entirely untrue. Global has tried to differentiate itself by being closer to the anglophone community.
But this shutdown is in the context of a financial crisis at Corus. Revenue is in a deep dive as the TV advertising market dries up (Corus’s own third-quarter financial report estimates a 20% year-over-year drop by the end of 2024-25). Subscriber revenue, responsible for most of the rest of its income, could also fall off a cliff now that Rogers has taken away its most popular brands like Food Network and HGTV.
And while Corus will get some relief with the Independent Local News Fund (assuming the tax on the online media giants survives both legal and political challenges), it hasn’t been enough to give investors hope. Corus is no longer issuing a dividend, it’s showing net losses per share, and stock is currently trading at 9 cents a share. Its quarterly reports are crowing about Global’s successes, but are also filled with highlights of debt renegotiation and aggressive cost-cutting.
So in that context, it makes sense that at a poorly-rated station with a handful of staff owned by a company that wouldn’t surprise anyone if it filed for creditor protection tomorrow, having a journalist at the National Assembly has become a luxury it can no longer afford.
But being understandable doesn’t make it good.
What’s left?
Global’s departure leaves the anglo contingent at the National Assembly pretty light. CJAD cut its reporter there years ago. CTV has only a cameraman there full-time and sends journalists from Montreal as needed. The Globe and Mail and The Canadian Press haven’t had permanent journalists there in many years. CityNews never went there in the first place. And The Gazette has Philip Authier holding the fort alone in its office.
Besides CBC, which can benefit from synergies with its French-language counterpart, there isn’t much left keeping close tabs on the government of Canada’s second-largest province who are producing their work in English.
Maybe they can strike a deal with Rebel News, and have Rebel’s Alex Lavoie provide them with news.
Of course I’m joking.
But, at least Rebel News is handling Quebec stories.
Somebody start the countdown for the end of tradition media outlets in Canada.
They brought it upon themselves.
Rebel News is “handling” Quebec stories. That’s being polite. How could Rebel ever be called a legitimate source for Quebec City news given its track record of muckraking for the sake of it.
While this is a story about the broadcast industry and it’s challenges, I think it is much more about the lack of application of technology to do the job.
Quebec City beat is really only provincial politics. There really isn’t much more to it. Outside of that, it isn’t a place that generates much relevant news for the majority if the province’s population – certainly not the Anglos. I can see where Global has figured it is a safe cut. Less than 10% of the province’s population lives in the great Quebec City area, outside of the politics it is really not super relevant.
From a technology standpoint, all needed press conferences and scrums and whatever could be handled via remote quite easily. There is no reason to pay a bunch of reporters to go to Quebec to cover what is often 1 story a week. What is the point?
Quebec politics isn’t one story a week. It’s not even one story a day. It’s multiple stories a day. But if you have one journalist, you’re covering one story, maybe two.
CTV is certainly trying to cover it by just having a cameraman and occasional journalist. But if you’re not there, it’s harder to do the work.
As I mentioned, much of it is covered with press scrums, that could easily be transmitted to all directly via internet. A single pool camera could do the work.
We live in modern times, we have telephones, video calls, and everything new and modern. Physical presence isn’t required for much of anything at this point – unless your close tabs is trying to figure out which “Danse a 20” a particular politician is visiting.
Outside of the politics, Quebec City isn’t exactly any more newsworthy to Anglo Montrealers than say Sherbrooke. So if the political beat can be covered remotely, is there anything really missing?
If reporting from Quebec City involves nothing more than clipping from pool feeds that are almost entirely in French, and not covering any stories or asking any questions of politicians that are different from other media, then sure, that would work.
It is not just a technology question although it may appear that way sitting watching news on TV. Politics is people and covering it implies building contacts and relations to get the story behind the story. Not just radio and TV clips. Having done this many years I see the difference in media present and those who drop in. Those media know it too but accept the reality for their own financial reasons.
Quebec City is synonymous with the National Assembly. News that way more than just Quebec City Anglos pay attention to. Besides, Quebec has to know we are watching. Keep them honest, if that’s possible.
I miss the good old days of Ralph Noseworthy!
Even if there are journalists posted in Quebec City rarely do they challenge the politicians with tough questions. Maybe they are too young or too inexperienced or simply maybe they don’t have the resources or the inclination. Mostly I hear soft ball questions coming from the Anglo journalists.
It’s not really a journalist’s job to look tough on TV. Their job is to get answers to their questions. If you have journalists who aren’t used to the beat, or are still pretty young, you probably won’t get the kind of hard-hitting questions that a seasoned veteran might ask. But for broadcast journalists at least, the goal is to get good sound clips, and that usually means open-ended questions.
At this point, the only way I see this being reversed is moving the capital to Montreal which of course won’t happen.