No bailout for ailing media outlets, Ottawa says

The Star's Bruce Campion-Smith writes that Heritage Minister Mélanie Joly took the wraps off the Liberal government’s vision for culture in Canada, laying out in broad strokes a road map for everything from onscreen productions, poetry and books and the fate of small-town newspapers.
Good journalism is “critical” to democracy but she said Ottawa won’t bail out media models “that are no longer viable.”
“We start from the premise that this is a shared responsibility between government at all levels, the private sector and civil society,” she said.

She said that “reliable” journalism is “critical” to a health democracy and that any government measures must respect journalistic independence.
“Our approach will not be to bail out industry models that are no longer viable. Rather, we will focus our efforts on supporting innovation, experimentation and transition to digital,” Joly said.
Full Star story