By visiting this Website, you agree to the use of essential + preferences Cookies. If you want to opt in to statistics Cookies to have your Website visit analyzed, check the box below & click ‘Submit’. We do not track your visit if you leave the box unchecked. For more details, see our Cookie Policy.

Two cards lie on a wooden surface. One is titled The daily newspaper, the other The local newspaper. The cards contain more text and images. In the background, a pile of newspapers and magazines can be seen.
Two cards lie on a wooden surface. One is titled The daily newspaper, the other The local newspaper. The cards contain more text and images. In the background, a pile of newspapers and magazines can be seen.

Over 650 links Over 650 links

to Canadian media outlets in every province and territory.

Home Society Canadians: where do you get your news from?

Canadians: where do you get your news from?

There has been a lot of discussion in Canada recently about news sharing on social media. Who benefits more: is it the newspaper website that gains web traffic from social media sites? Or is it the tech company that benefits more, through increased platform usage, as its users share content such as news articles?

A free press is vital for a democracy. Media cannot exist without its readers and viewers. Yes, the media may make money from advertising, but ultimately it serves functions in a democracy that go beyond selling ads, namely to hold the powerful accountable, to report the truth according to journalistic standards, to be a trusted source of information, to cover local news that is important for local communities, and to provide context for debates and discussions that play out in the public realm. It is our belief that the relationship between the media and the reader/viewer should therefore primarily be direct. It should consist of two parties, a) the media and b) the reader/viewer; and not three participants: a) the media, b) the tech company, often based in another country, that controls what their users see via algorithms and makes money off of their users’ data, and finally c) the user.

In the book Chokepoint Capitalism Rebecca Giblin and Cory Doctorow describe how giant corporations and exploitative businesses exert excessive power and control in the arts & culture industries. The media is one of those industries. At Young W we see technology as a tool. A radio receiver is a tool, and so is a web browser or a search engine. However, the web browser or the search engine shouldn’t dictate what we get to see and read. As much as the news is distributed via digital tools these days, that technology should not be allowed to turn ‘the reader of a newspaper’ into ‘a user’. We want to choose for ourselves which articles we read. We believe informed citizens should get to make that choice. And not only that, as citizens of a democracy, we believe it is our responsibility to make such informed choices for ourselves, like where we deliberately choose to get our news from. We believe this is not a choice we should delegate to tech companies.

People need to know what publications are out there in order to make informed choices about their news habits

It was our plan to create a quick list of Canadian media outlets that could be used as a resource to access the news directly — no social media required. Making such a list was supposed to take a few hours at most. But when we realized how much media there is, compiling it ended up taking several days. We were truly surprised by how much Canadian media is out there: how many print publications, how much local news, how many French language media exist all across the country…

The below list takes you on a fascinating media tour of Canada. We encourage you to click on publications from all regions. Going on such a media tour is cheaper than a cross-country train ticket, but we assure you it is no less fascinating. We’ve learned a lot about the country, its geography and its people just by compiling this list.

What are your preferred Canadian news sources? Where do you get local news in your area?

We strongly believe in having a select number of preferred media outlets we trust, bookmarking them and then accessing them directly on a regular basis.

We are not a big fan of exclusively accessing news in a feed, without knowing who published what. Knowing what kind of media outlet we are reading matters. Deliberating choosing media outlets matters. Knowing the name of the publication that is responsible for an article matters. We pay attention to the who in “Who published this?” to ensure that the news we consume comes from a reliable and trusted source. While compiling the below list of Canadian media outlets, we noticed that many trusted publications, especially local newspapers, are no longer around. What appears to be replacing them seem to be the personal blogs of individuals who are interested in reporting on issues facing their communities. While we admire the passionate efforts of individuals acting as “citizen journalists”, we want you to be aware that personal blogs cannot fully replace the quality and capabilities of the work carried out by professional journalists.

Accessing a certain publication directly on a regular basis, gives us, over time, a sense of: what they publish, what their stance is on various subjects, how reliable, trustworthy and credible they are. This allows us to make our own assessment of the publication and hence limit our news intake to publications we trust. We keep reading them because we trust them and the more we read the more experienced and knowledgeable we become to make such choices.

Many newspapers operate according to a subscription model. You may be able to read a few articles for free, but then you will eventually hit a paywall. This can be resolved by subscribing to the publication, or at least bringing the news into your inbox via one of the free email newsletters that most media outlets send out at regular intervals. We also want to take this opportunity to remind you that broadcast radio is free — all you need to listen is an AM/FM radio, plus you can also listen to many radio stations live over the web. But if you have an actual radio, you need neither the internet nor a subscription.

While we pay for a select number of our preferred news outlets via a digital or print subscription, one cannot subscribe to every publication. During the making of this list, we came across many articles we would have loved to read from various media outlets we are not subscribed to, but a single article doesn’t really warrant subscribing to a local paper on the other end of the country. We wish there was a universal pay-per-page system that allows for a simple way to purchase one-time digital access to single newspaper pages, for example at $0.50 per PDF page. This would be really useful and we sincerely hope someone out there will make this happen some day.

About this list of Canadian media outlets

A few more notes about the list we compiled:

  • The links below include media in a variety of formats: print, radio, television and digital. We have also decided to include magazines in this list. While many magazines cover particular interests and can therefore not be considered “news”, we wanted to include them as part of the larger Canadian media ecosystem.
  • We’ve only added a few radio stations for now. We’ll make sure to add more in the future.
  • “Does it actually have a print edition?” It was often very hard to figure out if a publication does indeed produce a print edition or not. Many times we needed to use DuckDuckGo to search for “(publication name) print edition” because the publication’s website itself was just not clear. We’ve done our best to place all publications into the appropriate category (print or digital), but if you notice any inaccuracies, please let us know and we’ll update the list.
  • Even though a publication may have a print edition, it is often not clear how to obtain a copy. Some of them are distributed in public places throughout a community and can be picked up for free. Some local newspapers come bundled with the subscription of a larger regional newspaper, for example as a special insert. Many local newspapers are only published weekly these days and come as part of a bundle of advertising flyers. Some local publications strongly resemble advertising flyers actually, with a bit of extra non-advertising content mixed in. Most local newspapers are now owned by large media corporations which recycle content from their larger publications, with local coverage being limited.
  • Although the links we provided are those of their digital editions, we like that fact that some publications offer e-editions of their print versions. Whenever you have the option to view the news that way, we highly recommend it. Short of purchasing an actual print newspaper, we find that e-editions are the next best option because they let you take in the publication in its proper layout instead of one online article at a time. This gives you a much better, fuller sense of what the publication is really like.

Are there are any Canadian media outlets you think we are missing? Let us know. We’ll add it if it’s a credible, reliable and trustworthy news source in Canada. By the way, “How to assess if an outlet is trustworthy or not” will be the subject of a future blog entry. Stay tuned…

Young W is not affiliated with any media outlets listed below and does not specifically endorse any of them. We are not responsible for the editorial direction of the media outlets listed here. Use this list at your own risk. The information below is subject to change.

Click on a province or territory to jump to the media list for this region. For smaller media outlets we have included the area they cover or where they are based in brackets.

 

National

print newspaper:

print magazines (news & general interest):

radio:

digital:

more print magazines:

back to top

 

 

Newfoundland & Labrador

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Prince Edward Island

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Nova Scotia

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

New Brunswick

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Nunavut

print:

radio:

back to top

 

 

Quebec

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Ontario

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Manitoba

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Saskatchewan

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Alberta

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Northwest Territories

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

British Columbia

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

 

Yukon

print:

radio:

digital:

back to top

 

We love local newspapers because they inspire you to get to know your neighbourhood. Getting to know your neighbourhood allows you to become more engaged with your local community. Becoming more engaged with your local community is part of the flourishing offline life Young W helps you discover: by exploring SOCIETY and the other 8 pillars of arts & letters, including those you may be hesitant to try.

 

 

 

 

Broken or out-of-date link? Let us know and we’ll fix it. Thanks for helping us keep the information on Young W up to date.

From the YW Shop

Teardown: Rebuilding Democracy from the Ground Up by Dave Meslin

Teardown by Dave Meslin

Bundle of items on a white background. Items include: 32 prompt cards, satin ribbon, log book, stamps, fountain pen, explorer's notepad, embossed seal and certificate

the analog lifestyle kit - chapter 1

Two black posters that look like the interface of the videogame Tetris. The text on the first poster reads: Progress Story The Game for Platform Winners. Stack: 20,192,020. Ready Player World. Instructions: Scale Loops and Lab Crowds for Growth in space. Use Magic machine drones to capture Deep Fakes and Market-mind Interfaces. The second poster features Tetris tiles, each with a single word on them. Those words are: Stack. Ready. Player. World. Scale. Loop. Lab. Crowd. Space. Magic. Machine. Growth. Drone. Capture. Deep. Fake. Market. Mind. Interface. Winners. Platform. Story. Progress.

YW Poster - Progress Story #20