Board of Directors Meeting – Sept 29, 2022
Video Call
Present: President Evan Jamison, Lisa Sygutek, Craig Barnard, Amanda Zimmer, Jeff Burgar, News Media Canada CEO Paul Deegan, Ad Canada CEO Jeff Beardsworth, Executive Director Dennis Merrell.
Regrets: Daria Zmiyiwsky, Shannon Peace.
Recording Secretary: Dennis Merrell.
1:33 p.m. President Evan Jamison called the meeting to order.
Approval of the Agenda
RMS (Resolution moved and seconded) Lisa Sygutek/Craig Barnard to approve the agenda. CARRIED.
Approval of the July 21, 2022, minutes
RMS Craig Barnard/Lisa Sygutek to approve the minutes of the July 21, 2022, meeting. CARRIED.
President’s Report
President Evan reported on the meeting AWNA held with Rachael Thomas, Conservative MP from Lethbridge, who serves on the Canadian Heritage Standing Committee. The CHPC has started its meetings to discuss Bill C-18, and how it could be improved. News Media Canada testified last week, and the SWNA will appear next week, Evan reported. The AWNA is #5 on the Conservative list of witnesses, so should be called in mid to late October, it is expected. Most industry representatives have been supportive of Bill C-18 so far, although there has been some opposition. Rod Sims, former chair of Australia’s competition regulator, had good things to say about negotiations between news organizations and tech companies there, stating that smaller newspapers have been able to participate.
Evan said that things have been quieter on the EPR and public notice fronts.
RMS Amanda Zimmer/Lisa Sygutek to approve the President’s report. CARRIED.
Business Arising from the Minutes
Jeff Burgar reiterated his position that he would like to see the association advocate for the online streaming of municipal and county council meetings. He said he has been contacting member newspapers about their tourism supplements and plans to discuss the promotion of these supplements with Ad Canada in the coming weeks.
August 2022 financial statements
Executive Director Merrell gave a synopsis of the August financial results, as follows:
- Blanket classified/value ad revenue – is up $21,000 for the year, or 21% above the previous year – $122,000, compared to $101,000 last year.
- Ad Canada royalties – down $10,000, or 23% below the previous year – $34,000 compared to $44,000 in 2021.
- Overhead expenditures have been reduced from $319,000 to $206,000 – $113,000 or 35% below 2021.
- Wages are $118,606, a $13,000, or 10% reduction from the previous year.
- Computer expenses are down approximately $2,000 from last year, a reduction of 10%.
- Office expenses have been reduced from $8,300 last year to $3,600 this year, a reduction of 57%.
- Professional fees have seen a similar downward trend – $31,000 in 2021, $17,000 this year, a 55% reduction.
- Phone costs have been reduced by 29%, or $900.
The advertising picture looks a bit better for the September/October period, a trend that will likely continue into November, Merrell added. We achieved the 30% royalty threshold in the month of August, and our Ad Canada partners have told us that we should hit that threshold in September and October as well.
If ad revenues continue their current path, we should end the financial year close to a break-even on our operations. Overhead expenditures have been reduced across the board from 2021.
The AWNA’s investment portfolio has suffered due to the downturn, with a cumulative loss of $68k, or 5.6%.
RMS Craig Barnard/Jeff Burgar to approve the August 2022 financial statements. CARRIED.
Government Affairs committee report
President Evan reported that the QCJO (Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization) threshold is emerging as the hot topic at the Canadian Heritage meetings to discuss Bill C-18. Hearings are expected to be wrapped up in late October, but C-18 is unlikely to be passed before Christmas.
News Media Canada report – CEO Paul Deegan
Paul reported on the work News Media Canada has done to increase funding for the LJI (Local Journalism Initiative) to $20 million/year, with a view to making it an ongoing, permanent program. NMC has also pushed for the $40 million over 3 years (Special Measures for Journalism program) to be diverted mainly to smaller publications that do not qualify to participate in Bill C-18.
Bill C-18 is expected to pass, said Deegan. The timeline on developing the arbitration process is February/March of 2023.
Paul reported that Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre is pursuing the defunding of CBC aggressively. News Media Canada is aligned with the Conservatives on this issue, particularly when you consider that the crown corporation receives an annual $1.4 billion subsidy yet competes against private media for ad dollars.
Paul said that Canada Post has been more responsive on customer service issues. He asked directors to arm NMC with any solid anecdotes of CP service breakdowns, or evidence that Canada Post has actively poached flyer customers from newspapers.
News Media Canada has experienced some frustrations in Saskatchewan on the EPR front, with its decision to levy fees of $280 per tonne of newsprint consumed.
Paul also reported that AWNA’s Duff Jamison had recently been appointed Chair of the LJI judging panel.
Ad Canada report – CEO Jeff Beardsworth
Jeff reported that that they are tracking close to the previous year, considering that we had federal election, census and COVID campaigns in 2021. Things are off to a good start in October, and Ad Canada expects to reach the 30% royalty threshold for the third month in a row. Things are ‘predictably unpredictable’. There has not been any decrease in the number of active clients. We have seen some new ad dollars from Direct Energy, Olds College, UFA Co-Op and Alberta Innovates.
The provincial government ad spend in Alberta continues to lag behind Saskatchewan’s – $100k compared to $532k. Jeff mentioned they have adopted a more aggressive pricing strategy in Saskatchewan and Manitoba that seems to be working, as government spending is back to 2013 levels.
Research study applications have been sent to the Alberta Civil Society Fund and Heritage Canada (Newspapers 24/7 study).
Ad Canada needs to do a better job of showcasing its newspapers, and now each quote includes a link to the newspapers’ front pages. We are also getting back to providing a compendium of newspaper data, including map data sheets showing circulation areas, along with data on the Totum Media Usage survey.
Jeff also reported on the publishers’ roundtable taking place in early November. The agenda for the first of a series of roundtables will focus upon provincial government advertising, online advertising, and the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) program.
Membership Committee report
Membership committee chair Amanda Zimmer reported that the committee has received an application from the Cold Lake Respect, a regional bi-weekly newspaper. Committee members like the newspaper in many respects but noted that it does not conform to the bylaws as currently written. For this reason, the committee is not prepared to recommend the Respect for regular membership at this time. The committee is preparing to bring forward some suggested bylaw changes at the next annual general meeting, updating the regional newspaper definition, frequency of publishing and other considerations.
RMS Amanda Zimmer/Jeff Burgar to accept the Cold Lake Respect as an associate member of the AWNA. CARRIED.
Amanda mentioned that the committee wondered why the AWNA bylaws were located behind a ‘Members Only’ firewall, when it is a public document. Prospective members would benefit from being able to refer to the bylaws before applying for membership.
It was suggested that a full review of the bylaws be conducted, then we could consider going public or not.
Amanda will assemble a sub-committee to look at the bylaws.
RMS Amanda Zimmer/Craig Barnard to accept the committee reports. CARRIED.
New Business
Craig Barnard reported on some big decisions that Postmedia has been making, most notably to discontinue its Monday publications. Mondays are traditionally not a high ROP revenue day, which made the decision easier to make. The Toronto Sun is still publishing 7 days a week. Craig also reported that Rick O’Conner has retired from Black Press, effective immediately. David Black will take over some of Rick’s duties, along with Randy Blair, CEO of Black Press’ B.C. newspapers.
4:03 p.m. The meeting was adjourned.