The Professional Creed of Quebec’s Journalists in Canada

Canadian journalism is in fl ux.As in other areas of the world, a confl uence of factors has aff ected how journalism is now practiced in Canada.According to the most recent census of occupations there are now more than 13,000 people in Canada who describe their profession as "journalist" (Statistics Canada Census 2006).They serve Canada's population of approximately 34 million people spread over the second largest country in the world in terms of land mass.While the country is offi cially bilingual, most journalists work in English.However, approximately a quarter of Canada's population is French-speaking, living mainly in the province of Quebec.That population is served by French-language media.Many factors that have infl uenced American journalism have also aff ected Canada.The recent economic crisis has exacerbated the situation, but the Canadian media had begun their downward spiral before the crisis.Fragmented audiences, declining advertising revenue, and tough economic times have hit the sector hard.As Dvorkin ( 2009) points out in an overview he wrote for the Canadian Media Research Consortium, the old business models have collapsed.More consumers of news are turning to the Internet.The problem is, in Canada as elsewhere, that the media do not understand how to take advantage of this development.Ironically, more Canadians read newspapers in some form, including online, than ever before (Dvorkin 2009).However, a business paradigm which allows news outlets to profi t from their online operations has yet to emerge.As audiences fragment, turning to a number of diff erent sources including the Internet, mainstream "legacy" media have yet to fi gure out how to turn new ways of consuming news to their economic advantage.The impact is being felt across all sectors.The Canadian Association of Journalists (2009) reports that in the last year more than 1,200 full-time workers in Canadian news organizations lost their jobs.Newspapers have been especially hard hit.Several papers, including the Halifax Daily News, have closed shop.Other media groups have been forced to restructure.Canada's largest national newspaper, The Globe and Mail, off ered early retirement to 10% of its staff and anticipates possible future layoff s (Dvorkin, 2009).Many media groups have been forced to restructure.Canwest Global, one of Canada's largest media conglomerates, has won an extension of bankruptcy protection so it can auction off publications in its insolvent newspaper division.As a result of these challenges, journalists are being stretched as never before, forced to do more with less.Career print journalists are being asked to fi le for media organizations' television and Internet operations, for example.The situation is somewhat diff erent in Quebec.According to a survey by the Centre d'études sur les médias, newspaper circulation has remained somewhat stable over the past eight years.Profi t margins have declined 4% although advertising revenues have declined 23% in the same period.However, Quebec journalists interviewed for the Canadian Media Research Consortium say they feel the survival of their news operations is constantly under threat (Dvorkin 2009).

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