Canadian print media will receive $75 million in Google media payments

Montreal. Canada's print media will receive nearly two-thirds of Google's annual $75 million payout to the country's media outlets in exchange for distributing their content, the federal government announced Friday.

At the end of last November, Ottawa and Google announced an agreement under which the technology giant would compensate the media for lost advertising revenues.

A federal official explained that “the share that television and radio will receive is limited to 30%, and the share that CBC/Radio-Canada (Canadian Public Broadcasting) will receive is 7%, leaving the remaining 63% for the print press.” Journalists at a press conference.

The official added that most of the amount will go to the print press because it “depends a lot” on electronic platforms to distribute its content.

“Canada has achieved something historic,” Heritage Minister Pascale Saint-Onge told the press. He added, “Newsrooms are going through a crisis that affects journalism, the foundation of our democracy.”

The agreement between Ottawa and Google goes into effect on Tuesday. It is part of the Online News Act, which seeks to support a Canadian journalism sector that has been hurt by the flight of advertising dollars and the closure of hundreds of publications in the past decade.

Meta, Facebook's parent company which is also covered by the new legislation, opposes the text as “fundamentally flawed.”

Since August 1, Facebook and Instagram have blocked news content in Canada to avoid having to compensate media outlets. Several media outlets have announced layoff plans in recent weeks.