The Battlefords News-Optimist is one of a number of publications receiving funding through the federal government's Local Journalism Initiative. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Support for local journalism

The Battlefords News-Optimist receives federal funding to hire two new reporters

Jan 7, 2020 | 1:28 PM

The Battlefords News-Optimist is one of close to 100 publications throughout Canada that will receive funding to hire more journalists through the federal government’s new Local Journalism Initiative.

The News-Optimist, as part of the Glacier Media Group, will hire two additional reporters – one for regional municipal affairs and another to cover the regional justice system.

The federal government announced in its 2018 budget it would invest $50 million over five years to support professional local journalism. The first funds would be paid out in 2019–2020.

The newspaper did not want to provide immediate comment to battlefordsNOW but North Battleford Mayor Ryan Bater said he was pleased to see the government stepping up to help the industry and community journalism.

“Local journalism and community journalism is incredibly important,” he said. “Not only does it keep governments accountable, but it also allows for more local flair in terms of the news that people have access to.”

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The mayor said in the Battlefords the community has “great news outlets,” and if they weren’t available, people would simply have to access only Saskatoon news, or even just provincial news.

“It’s nice to have something specific to the Battlefords region, so that our city and the communities that surround us have coverage of important events and goings on,” Bater said.

The Ministry of Canadian Heritage said in a prior release the objective of the new funding was to allow Canadians living in communities underserved by news outlets to “continue to have access to media coverage on topics of public interest that affect them.”

Media outlets that receive funding from the Local Journalism Initiative will be able to hire journalists to “strengthen local coverage of civic matters” in these communities.

Private non-community broadcasters did not qualify for the federal funding. For example, battlefordsNOW is part of the Jim Pattison Broadcast Group.

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Angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW