On Monday the provincial government announced $5 million in interim financing for the Groupe Capitales Medias (GCM), the French-language media company that owns six of Quebec’s regional newspapers including La Tribune and la Voix de L’Est, and which filed earlier that day for creditor protection. Speaking about the announcement on Tuesday morning, Alain Goupil, veteran journalist with La Tribune and president of that paper’s union kept his tone cautious in telling The Record that the news came as a relief. “What we have to realize is that this is a temporary help,” Goupil said, expressing that in the long term GCM’s troubles are a symptom of a larger problem coming from the fact that information giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Apple are getting the vast majority of online advertising income. Without focused support from governments, the business community, and the population at large to support local media, he added, the issue will just come back again. See full story in the Wednesday, Aug. 21 edition of The Record.
La Tribune union relieved but alert following emergency funding announcement
By Gordon Lambie
