EDITOR'S NOTE: This column originally appeared on Milton Today Feb. 11.
When the MiltonToday.ca team writes a story, we want people to read it.
Pretty obvious, right?
What many of you may not realize is that direct news consumption is the only true way to support our efforts, which many have told us help keep Miltonians connected and engaged with their community.
That’s something we take great pride in. So it can be quite frustrating to go to Facebook – the Meta-owned social media platform that does not support the work we do – and see our articles copied and pasted in their entirety over a variety of community groups.
Instead of readers going to our website, which is free, many are reading and engaging with their local news on a third-party website. This does not allow us to see, in hard numbers, the reach we are having in the community.
Gauging this connection is vital to the growth of MiltonToday.ca.
In effect since June 22, 2023, Bill C-18 – or the Online News Act – was intended to protect local media outlets. Sadly, it has resulted in many obstacles that prevent readers from getting to our news.
This legislation requires social media websites to pay news outlets for traffic to their sites. The idea was to return ad revenue to news media outlets, which has largely shifted to social media websites over the past decade, thus funding and protecting wounded Canadian media.
Of course this isn’t what happened. When push came to shove, Meta chose to block all news media, including from outlets outside of the country.
So it’s understandable why people copy our articles and paste them into their Facebook community groups.
But at the risk of being confrontational or seemingly picky about how our stories are read, the copy and paste sharing isn’t the way to support your local news site.
It may not be as convenient, but that extra few clicks to visit MiltonToday.ca and encourage others to do likewise is far more effective in helping us grow – both reach wise and financially.
The same goes for signing up for our daily newsletter.
Since launching last spring, I’ve received plenty of positive feedback on the stories we’ve brought you – for which I’m immensely grateful.
I’d just be a little more appreciative if my fellow Miltonians took a more direct approach to reading our stories.
As always, thanks for your support.
