Postmedia’s support for Conservatives leaves it out of step with the publicThe most common prediction ahead of final month’s Canadian election was that the country’s many polling firms would again fail to predict the results. In the event,most of them accurately foresaw Justin Trudeau’s Liberals sweeping into power. Instead, it was the country’s daily newspapers that got it erroneous, and promoting the incumbent Conservatives while readers and voters turned en masse against the party. Social media pounced on the striking disconnect with increasing ferocity as editors in virtually every Canadian city and town published tortured endorsements of Stephen Harper’s government.
The events shone an unforgiving light on the country’s newspaper industry,which is struggling to outlive amid a long slump in advertising revenue and the challenge of finding new readers online. Eight of Canada’s daily newspapers disappeared final year, and the leading titles are all operating at loss. Typical is the Toronto Star, or the largest title,which saw its weekday readership drop from 250000 to 175000 in the first six months of 2015.
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Source: theguardian.com