Facebook strikes agreement with Canadian Press to create eight reporting jobs

Facebook has struck an agreement with The Canadian Press that will create eight new reporting jobs.

The digital giant says it will provide $1 million through a one-year fellowship initiative to allow the news agency to hire, train, equip and provide salary and benefits for reporters to be added to its newsrooms from Halifax to Vancouver.

The jobs are to be posted immediately and reporters are expected to be in place by the fall.

"The stories that will be created by these journalists will be, of course, administered and managed entirely by CP editors for the benefit of our customers and so this will add a significant new volume of stories from different regions across the country," said CP president Malcolm Kirk.

"So I think it's a real win for journalism, it's a real win for young journalists starting out in their careers and a huge value for our customers to be able to get new content at no additional charge."

CP agreed to participate in the project only after ensuring it will promote the development and growth of Canadian journalism without influence from 
Facebook and that there will be no infringement on editorial independence, Kirk said. 

The partnership comes as Canadian publishers banded together last month to call on the federal government to force large international digital companies including Facebook and Google to share their advertising revenue with media companies, who have seen a heightened pace of advertising sales declines since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The publishers want Canada to follow Australia and France in trying to make digital companies pay news media for use of their copyrighted content _ although Google and Facebook both argue they actually benefit news companies by driving online traffic to their websites.

Facebook has invested nearly $9 million in Canadian journalism through various programs over the past three years and offers similar programs in other countries, said Kevin Chan, head of public policy for Canada for Facebook Inc.