The study tour opening the INMA Media Subscriptions Summit offered the 25 international news executives in attendance a look inside Canada’s changing media landscape, where publishers, educators, and industry leaders are experimenting with new approaches to reader revenue, audience engagement, and journalism sustainability.

Across presentations from publishers including The Globe and Mail, The Walrus, The Green Line, CBC, Toronto Star, and Le Devoir — alongside insights from News Media Canada, INMA’s Readers First Initiative, and Toronto Metropolitan University — a clear picture emerged: Sustaining journalism increasingly depends on diversified revenue, stronger audience relationships, and new ways of thinking about both content and community.

These five lessons stood out across the sessions:

1. Policy intervention is reshaping the economics of news

One of the defining features of the Canadian media landscape is the growing role of public policy in supporting journalism.

Paul Deegan, president and CEO of News Media Canada, described how industry advocacy helped secure legislation requiring large technology platforms to compensate publishers for news content.

“We wound up with a $100 million dollars annually from Google,” Deegan said.

News Media Canada represents hundreds of news organisations across the country, ranging from national publications to local community outlets.

“Our job here is very simple. It is either to put money in your pocket or keep money in your pocket, and anything else isn't worth doing,” Deegan said.

Additional policies — including newsroom labour tax credits and government advertising allocations — are also helping sustain the industry’s editorial capacity.

2. Reader revenue is becoming central to sustainability

While policy support has provided important relief, speakers repeatedly emphasised that the long-term sustainability of journalism depends on building stronger relationships with audiences.

Greg Piechota, lead of INMA’s Readers First Initiative, placed Canada’s market within the global context of digital subscription growth.

“The median growth in revenue was 13%,” Piechota said, citing benchmarking data across hundreds of news brands.

At the same time, Canada illustrates one of the most pressing structural challenges facing publishers globally: digital advertising revenue flowing to global technology platforms rather than domestic media.

“In digital, only 6% of revenue from advertising goes to Canadian companies,” Piechota said.

The shift has accelerated the industry’s focus on subscriptions, memberships, and other reader-revenue models.

3. Subscription success requires deeper audience relationships

Several publishers on the study tour demonstrated how subscription growth depends on understanding audiences and building stronger engagement.

At The Globe and Mail, leaders described how audience insights, product development, and newsroom collaboration work together to drive reader revenue.

“So part of the community thing is about access and what will people pay for? What kind of access can we give them or what kind of perks can we offer them? How do we move them down the engagement funnel and drive them to subscriptions?” a Globe and Mail executive said.

The publisher also gathers extensive first-party data through reader events, comments, and engagement initiatives to strengthen its understanding of audience behaviour.

French-language publisher Le Devoir shared how it has built a durable subscription business through decades of commitment to reader revenue. Executives described how analytics and performance metrics are integrated into newsroom decision-making to strengthen engagement and retention.

4. Diversified revenue models are expanding

Across the tour, organisations demonstrated how diversified revenue strategies are becoming essential to sustaining journalism.

At The Walrus, leaders described a hybrid non-profit model that blends long-form journalism with events, memberships, branded content, and partnerships.

“We do not do an event without a sponsor,” one presenter said while explaining how the organisation’s national speaker series helps support its journalism.

The Green Line, a Toronto-based digital publication focused on younger audiences, showed how community-focused journalism can engage readers who may feel disconnected from traditional news.

“We’re very much an information and community services organisation,” a presenter said.

The organisation focuses on service journalism and civic information designed to help residents navigate life in Toronto while building a strong relationship with younger audiences.

Public broadcaster CBC and Toronto Star also shared perspectives on navigating the evolving media environment, including balancing public service missions with changing audience behaviour and new digital distribution strategies.

5. Journalism is reconnecting with communities

Another major theme across the study tour was the need for journalism to rebuild trust and connection with communities.

At Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism and its DMZ innovation ecosystem, faculty members described how journalism education is adapting to a rapidly changing media environment shaped by AI, the creator economy, and new storytelling formats.

“We have to do more than just train people in the skills of journalism,” one professor said. “You have to think about like what is journalism? What is its purpose?”

The programme encourages students to experiment with new forms of storytelling while better understanding the business realities facing modern news organisations.

Lessons for global news executives

Taken together, the study tour illustrated how Canada has become a testing ground for new approaches to sustaining journalism.

Policy support, subscription strategies, diversified revenue models, and new forms of audience engagement are all being explored simultaneously across the country’s news ecosystem.

For INMA members attending the summit, the study tour offered several practical lessons applicable across markets.

1. Policy support can help stabilise the industry, but it works best when paired with strong reader-revenue strategies. Canada’s experience shows how legislation, tax incentives, and advertising policies can reinforce — rather than replace — a subscription-driven business model.
2. Successful subscription strategies require alignment across the organisation. Publishers such as The Globe and Mail and Le Devoir emphasised how editorial, product, marketing, and data teams must work together to move readers from casual engagement to loyal subscribers.
3. Community connection increasingly drives audience loyalty. Organisations such as The Green Line and The Walrus demonstrated how events, service journalism, and mission-driven storytelling can build stronger relationships with audiences that ultimately support revenue.
4. Diversified revenue models are becoming essential. Memberships, events, partnerships, branded content, and philanthropy are helping publishers reduce reliance on a single revenue stream.
5. Investing in the next generation of journalists and media innovators remains critical. As Toronto Metropolitan University’s journalism programme illustrated, preparing journalists to understand both storytelling and the business of media will be key to the industry’s long-term sustainability.

The summit ends today with topic-specific seminars.

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