By Charlie Senack
Meta is blocking Canadian news media from using its platforms, posing a serious threat to the Kitchissippi Times.
As a local, trusted publication for the last 20 years, Kitchissippi Times has relied on the growing popularity of social media to share content for many years. Social media is a fast, efficient, and easy way to share important and reliable information as it happens.
When a severe thunderstorm caused extensive damage in the McKellar Park and Westboro neighbourhoods last week, social media, particularly Facebook, allowed Kitchissippi Times to update residents on cleanup and hydro restoration efforts. When Churchill Alternative was looking to raise money in a pinch for a new kinder-year play structure, Kitchissippi Times used social media to help the school raise funds it needed.
Facebook says the removal of news on its platforms for Canadian residents will come in the next few weeks. This is a response to federal legislation that requires tech giants such as Meta to compensate news outlets for the sharing of content on its platforms. Ironically, it will still allow newspapers to advertise on their sites.
How will this removal impact us? Based on analytics, most months Facebook is our number one referrer of content. Roughly 30 per cent — sometimes more — of our viewership comes from the platform.
The Kitchissippi Times is asking its readers to immediately take action and sign up for our email newsletter. This newsletter will become increasingly important in keeping you informed about local news.
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Kitchissippi Times also prints more than 15,000 copies in 10 issues each year, every month except July and January. Most of the newspapers are delivered via Canada Post. A few thousands printed copies are placed in 30 news boxes in the community, primarily along Richmond Road or Wellington Street West.
Readers can continue to find Kitchissippi Times on Twitter, now called X, at @kitchissippi, and on Threads @KitchissippiTimes.
A big thank you to the Kitchissippi community for your immense amount of support and dedication over the last two decades. Thanks to you, Kitchissippi Times is the best local newspaper in town!
– Charlie Senack, Kitchissippi Times editor
You can also read more from Kitchissippi Times Publisher Michael Curran on how the removal of news content will impact the industry.