Is it possible to build a new Canadian media empire?
- Techvibes
- MobileSyrup, BetaKit, InsideTimmies
- Yummy Mummy Club
- BlogTO
- Vice (Does Vice Media still count as Canadian? Vice was founded in Montreal in 1994, but has been headquartered in Brooklyn since 2001)
- The Dominion
- Rabble
- CanadaLand (might be time to give Jesse Brown some money. Is media criticism the same as building a media business?)
I’m not even sure what a media empire looks like. People still want content. And content needs distribution. It feels like the majority of distribution in Canada is controlled by a small number of players:
- Postmedia
- Torstar Corporation
- Rogers Media
- Corus Entertainment
- Astral Media
- St. Joseph Media
- Now Communications
- Blue Ant Media
- DHX Media (thanks @johntoryT0 for the correction)
- plus more
I still don’t really understand the economics of distribution and monetization of traditional media. But this seems like a start to understanding about the Canadian landscape. In 2014, there was a lot of VC money (yes, yes, VC dollars is not the only metric of success) going into journalism companies (I really like the CB Insights description of fat content companies): Buzzfeed, Vice, Huffington Post, First Look Media, Pando Daily, Vox and others. Canada seems to be stuck in the online properties of traditional media outlets.
We produce interesting/engaging content including YouTube stars:
I want to build a better understanding about content creation, distribution and monetization in Canada. Where should I start?
/me goes to spend more time consuming CANADALAND.