Tim Shoults: CBC Should Fill News Deserts, Not Compete in Saturated Markets
Tim Shoults, in a recent commentary, presents a compelling case for rethinking the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's role in local journalism. He argues that the public broadcaster should focus its efforts on communities where local media has vanished rather than duplicating coverage in towns with established daily newspapers, television stations, radio broadcasts, and online news platforms.
The Podcast Revelation
Shoults describes listening to a podcast advertisement that caught his attention. "Local news is in decline across Canada," announced a strident voice over stirring music, warning that rumors and misinformation fill the void when journalism disappears. The ad promoted CBC News's initiative to place more journalists across Canada to report on local stories.
"It's a good thing I don't drink coffee in the car, because I probably would have choked at that point," Shoults writes, expressing his reaction to hearing CBC position itself as a savior of local journalism.
The Core Argument
Shoults clarifies he is not a CBC hater. He acknowledges that Canada, with its vast geography and sparse population, absolutely needs a public broadcaster to knit the country together with national and regional coverage. The CBC should serve communities that cannot support private media outlets.
"But there's the rub," he emphasizes. "CBC spends a tremendous amount of its resources covering communities that already have local news outlets — some of them, like us, locally owned and operated. That's unnecessary duplication, at your expense."
Financial Resources and Competition
The commentary highlights several financial aspects that exacerbate the situation. CBC receives $1.4 billion in annual funding from the federal government, plus hundreds of millions more from advertising and subscriber fees. Additionally, the broadcaster secured $7 million yearly from Google as part of the Online News Act allocation.
Shoults contrasts this with how his own company, Great West, used similar funding: "We gave our share directly to our local reporters, bringing their wages up for the first time in years."
Meanwhile, CBC used its Online News Act funding to hire 30 additional reporters last year. The problem, according to Shoults, is where these journalists were deployed.
Questionable Deployment Decisions
"The problem is, it's not in places like Gibbons or Legal in Alberta that have no community news," Shoults explains. Instead, CBC placed reporters in towns like Red Deer and Medicine Hat, which already have daily newspapers, private TV stations, multiple radio stations, and online news outlets.
He cites the example of Banff, which is already served by community news outlets like the Rocky Mountain Outlook — a bureau that CBC is now expanding to include two reporters.
The Poaching Problem
Perhaps most troubling to Shoults is CBC's recruitment practices. "Better still, it's poaching those reporters from community news companies," he reveals. "Two last year from our company alone, offering wages we can't even come close to, even with our new funding."
This creates an unsustainable dynamic where the publicly-funded broadcaster can outbid locally-owned media for talent, further weakening the very community journalism ecosystem it claims to support.
Executive Compensation Controversy
The article also references the $13 million in bonuses paid to CBC executives and managers in the past fiscal year, which has drawn significant public criticism. This executive compensation stands in stark contrast to the financial struggles faced by many local news organizations across Canada.
A Call for Strategic Realignment
Shoults concludes with a clear prescription: CBC should step in only where local media has vanished, not where it already exists. By focusing on genuine news deserts rather than competing in saturated markets, the public broadcaster could fulfill its mandate more effectively while supporting rather than undermining Canada's broader media landscape.
The commentary raises important questions about resource allocation, competitive fairness, and the true purpose of public broadcasting in an era of media consolidation and decline.
