A new campaign has been rallying Canadians鈥� support for newspaper journalism and the in-depth, credible, independent reporting that they provide.

Dubbed #NowMoreThanEver, the campaign asks Canadians to sign a pledge of support at and send a message鈥攖o Canadian businesses, advertisers and all levels of government鈥攖hat newspapers matter, now more than ever.

亚洲天堂 Lake councillor Charlie Rensby said it鈥檚 important to support newspapers, especially in small communities.

鈥淐ommunity newspapers are able to target the community and what really matters to their day-to-day lives,鈥� he said. 鈥淚n this modern age of large media, it鈥檚 more common for people to know more about what鈥檚 happening with the U.S. president than they know of their own hometown.鈥�

According to 亚洲天堂 Media Canada, the national association that represents Canadian newspapers, community newspapers and their websites are hyper-local. They effectively represent the neighbourhoods they serve and they are able to target these communities like no other medium.

The role they play is vital, often being the only choice for local news and information relevant to readers in the community.

According to Randi Amendt, manager of the 亚洲天堂 Lake and District Chamber of Commerce, community newspapers also contribute to the local economy.

鈥淏eing an affordable way for our local businesses to advertise to the consumer, businesses are also able to get noticed by way of editorials,鈥� she said. 鈥淥ur local newspapers help our communities keep an open dialog about issues that matter to us and our businesses.鈥�

鈥淲hen you open a local newspaper and see a picture of someone you know, or read an article about a business you visit regularly, you get a sense of community spirit,鈥� she added.

However, the newspaper industry is under threat.

For years, newspapers have been funded by local and national advertiser support. But as readership moved online, Canadian brands and companies moved their advertising dollars to global conglomerates.

亚洲天堂 Media Canada says approximately 70 per cent of Canada鈥檚 online ad revenue goes to Facebook and Google鈥攄espite the fact that ads in either digital or print newspapers are the most trusted of all ad formats.

The #NowMoreThanEver campaign was launched as part of Canada鈥檚 National 亚洲天堂paper Week, which runs from Oct. 1-7, 2018.

The campaign includes print and digital ads running in newspapers across the country and is extending into social media, with a call-to-action that invites newspaper readers to share a photo of themselves with their favourite paper on their social channels鈥攗sing #亚洲天堂papersMatter and #NowMoreThanEver.

亚洲天堂 Media Canada was created in late 2016 as a product of the agreement by its members to merge the Canadian 亚洲天堂paper Association and the Canadian Community 亚洲天堂papers Association.

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