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Victoria Now - online news


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#1 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 14 November 2021 - 10:03 PM

Victoria Now has quietly built up a bit of a presence here over the past 10 months.  It's at least partly owned by GSL Group, the folks that run the arena and own the Royals hockey team.

 

 

 

This is the first venture into news media for the GSL Group, but that does not mean the company comes without experience. Terry Armstrong, vice president at the GSL Group, has spent close to 30 years in the news industry, including eight years as the group publisher for the Okanagan Valley Newspaper Group.

 

VictoriaNow will have a strong presence in the Victoria market, with reporters and sales staff based in the Save-on-Foods Memorial Centre.

 

“The GSL Group identified with how NowMedia has connected with the local communities in the Thompson-Okanagan and strongly believes Victoria is a prime market for this brand of media platform, which focuses on the stuff that matters and understands its role in building community,” Armstrong said.

 

 

 

https://www.victoria...e_for_Victoria/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sports reporter internship:  https://www.victoria...at_VictoriaNow/


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 14 November 2021 - 10:04 PM.


#2 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 03:41 AM

Meta's ban on news in Canada is crushing independent media

 

Dear Reader,

 

We’re writing to you today because we want to highlight – while we still can – the impossible situation we find ourselves in as an independent Canadian media platform.

 

The truth, up-front and unvarnished, is that we don’t think we have much time left.

 

We’ve spent over a decade building NowMedia. We’ve invested an enormous amount of money and time into hiring one of the largest, most experienced and most diverse news teams in the Okanagan. We’ve sought to bring something different to the region: a modern, youthful, adventurous news site with an emphasis on the things we think really matter. Much of our focus has been on connecting with our readers through social media.

 

https://www.kamloops...edia/#fs_135459

 

Not all media companies are in quite the same predicament as NowMedia, however. That’s because many of our rivals and comrades in the news world are being subsidized by the federal government through, among other schemes, the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit. Outlets that qualify for the credit can claim as much as 35 per cent of their employees’ pay, up to a maximum salary of $85,000.

 

It’s been around for several years now, and if you’ve ever wondered why certain people often complain about “state-funded media,” the answer is they've likely been inspired by this tax credit.

 

NowMedia, though, has twice been rejected by the federal government when applying for this subsidy. In one review explaining our rejection, which was authored by an academic whose first language is not English and who lives thousands of kilometres away from our company, we were told that, based on an assessment of a small selection of our stories, we do not qualify as a producer of original news content. The primary evidence adduced to support this conclusion was that some of our stories were based on press releases from the RCMP and provincial government.

 

___________________________

 

But, given the above, why does Meta block NowMedia on Facebook and Instagram? If the federal government doesn’t consider us to be a news outlet, and Meta has chosen to block news on its platform, why are we, who are apparently not a party to their dispute, being caught in the middle of it all?


Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 March 2024 - 03:44 AM.

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#3 Victoria Watcher

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 03:49 AM

If you click on NEWS, then Victoria News on the webiste, there really hasn't been any local news published since February.

 

https://www.victorianow.com/



#4 Mike K.

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 06:44 AM

That’s because many of our rivals and comrades in the news world are being subsidized by the federal government through, among other schemes, the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit.



Media tethered to government dollars didn’t criticize the plan, and instead it was supported because it was seen as another revenue source.

Except it didn’t work out that way.

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#5 dasmo

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 08:25 AM


Meta's ban on news in Canada is crushing independent media


I called it….
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#6 dasmo

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 08:28 AM

Although from the angle that negotiating a contract with Meta or Google would kill independent media if these companies went along with the law. CBC can survive this as they feed from the trough. Indie’s need the distribution provided by SM. This law will kill them regardless.

#7 Mike K.

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 08:41 AM

For starters, it’s not Meta’s ban, it is a federal law.

If journalists have trouble framing this issue properly, what else are they not framing correctly?

A lot of these “indie” journalism outlets are not there for the news, they’re there for the advertising. 90% of their content is press release re-writes. Is that independent journalism?
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#8 Nparker

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 08:44 AM

I think journalism is framing the issue exactly the way they want the public to receive it.


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#9 dasmo

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 08:51 AM

It’s Meta’s ban to comply with the law. They could also go along with it. But they also don’t want to spend millions negotiating contracts to them spend millions giving Canadian news outlets a place to advertise and distribute their media. Makes no sense on any level.
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#10 dasmo

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 08:51 AM

I think journalism is framing the issue exactly the way they want the public to receive it.


This

#11 Mike K.

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 01:54 PM

It’s not a ban that Meta has imposed, in fact it’s the opposite. The federal government has banned Meta …from showing news content unless they pay.

Meta hasn’t banned anything. But the journalists are framing it as Meta doing the banning, when Meta is following the law (the law being no more displaying of news agency content without paying for it).

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#12 Matt R.

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 03:08 PM

Media was hoping for a payday, instead they got the opposite and nobody is too sad about that, as it turns out.  Unintended consequences.


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#13 dasmo

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 03:16 PM

It’s not a ban that Meta has imposed, in fact it’s the opposite. The federal government has banned Meta …from showing news content unless they pay.

Meta hasn’t banned anything. But the journalists are framing it as Meta doing the banning, when Meta is following the law (the law being no more displaying of news agency content without paying for it).

It's the our government's Act that is to blame yes.  



#14 dasmo

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 03:18 PM

If anyone want's to get around the ban use this 

https://sharenews.pival.me/



#15 dasmo

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 03:21 PM

Media was hoping for a payday, instead they got the opposite and nobody is too sad about that, as it turns out.  Unintended consequences.

That's why they supported it perhaps. I think the government wants to choke out independent media so they win regardless. They can coast like this and then change the Act before the election with only the MSM left intact. Or they are just idiots. Who knows. The results are just as bad. 


Edited by dasmo, 25 March 2024 - 03:35 PM.

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#16 Nparker

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Posted 25 March 2024 - 04:00 PM

...They can coast like this and then change the Act before the election with only the MSM left intact. Or they are just idiots...

I think both things can be true.


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