Commons committee recommends major investments in digital media

Almost a year after starting a study of digital and emerging media, the standing Commons committee on digital media has released a report recommending that the government increase funding to the Canada Media Fund, strengthen digital media components of its arts and culture programs and take measures to protect creative works from copyright privacy. The 44-page report is called  Emerging and Digital Media: Opportunities and Challenges.

Curiously, the report and its 26 recommendations is being released a couple of weeks before a federal budget that may either already encompass them or will be so stringent in its cost-cutting that it will ignore them.

Magazines Canada was among many industry associations from books, radio, TV, music, film and so on that testified, as did the Canadian Conference of the Arts. Magazines Canada CEO Mark Jamison is quoted in the report saying

“A common theme and discussion is that young people are abandoning the print medium, but nothing could be further from the truth. The largest segment of print magazine readers are in fact people between the ages of 18 and 24." Nevertheless, he said, the magazine industry is responding to consumer demands for new ways to access Canadian content by creating enhanced content on websites.

The full text of the report can be downloaded in pdf format.