Canada
Canadian Media and Advertising Sector Contributes $22.6 Billion to GDP but Faces Critical Job Losses Due to Declining Digital Ad Revenue: The latest Canadian Media Means Business report reveals that Canada’s media and advertising sector reached a critical watershed moment in 2024. While the industry remains a silent economic giant, employing more people than traditional pillars like auto manufacturing and mining, it is navigating profound structural changes. Most notably, this volatility has triggered severe workforce contractions, resulting in a rapid and painful loss of jobs for journalists and editors.
“Foreign tech platforms are siphoning our ad dollars and starving Canadian media,” said Sarah Thompson, Project Leader, Canadian Media Means Business. “This industry is a massive economic engine, yet we are bleeding capital while the broader ad market grows. Canadian media demands sovereignty and investment, not surrender.”
The 2024 data show trends similar to those in 2023: Canada’s media sector is a major part of the national economy. However, it receives disproportionately less public financial support than other industries.
- In 2024, the sector’s total economic impact contributed $22.6 billion to Canada’s GDP.
- The industry supports 193,120 jobs across Canada, 73,120 of which are directly supported by advertising sales.
- According to Statistics Canada data analyzed in the report, there were 137,600 direct jobs in the media industries.
- This makes the media sector a significantly larger direct employer than auto manufacturing (129,000 jobs), mining (83,000 jobs), and telecommunications (76,000 jobs).
The report highlights that non-Canadian digital platforms now control nearly all domestic ad spending, which is the primary driver of the industry’s domestic decline.
- In 2017, non-Canadian digital platforms captured 76% of Canadian digital ad spending.
- By 2024, 94% of digital ad dollars will flow to foreign platforms rather than remain in the Canadian ecosystem.
- Conversely, every incremental $1 million invested in Canadian-owned advertising platforms yields an estimated 8.23 jobs and a $1 million contribution to Canada’s GDP.
“Think about it this way: for every $100 a brand spends on advertising in this country, $74 immediately leaves Canada,” said Thompson. “We are only keeping $26 to fund our own local news, our creators, and our jobs. We are losing control of quality advertising environments for Canadian advertisers to connect with customers and grow their businesses.”
Although the total number of direct jobs in the sector dropped only slightly to 137,600 in 2024, the composition of the workforce is shifting rapidly. Digital infrastructure and agency roles are growing, but traditional media and news roles are contracting.
- Jobs in Advertising, Public Relations, and other information services grew by a combined 2,500 positions.
- In contrast, newspaper, periodical, and directory publishing lost 1,800 jobs, while radio and TV broadcasting lost 1,100 jobs in just one year.
- Between 2019 and 2024, traditional media subsectors lost more than 11,000 jobs.
- Newspapers were affected the most, shedding over 30% of their workforce since 2019.
- Between 2023 and 2024, the news industry lost 1,000 professional jobs, specifically an estimated 600 journalist positions and 400 editor roles.
- Despite these losses, journalism remains a high-value sector; it contributed $1.16 billion to Canada’s GDP in 2024, and total labour income increased as the remaining workforce became more concentrated among senior staff.
The economic impact varies regionally, revealing a stark divergence. Ontario remained steady, generating $5.3 billion in direct GDP and supporting 41,220 direct jobs. Western Canada, on the other hand, saw a severe contraction: British Columbia, Alberta, and Manitoba collectively lost 5,310 jobs and $710 million in GDP over twelve months. Manitoba was especially hard-hit, losing 46.5% of its media workforce. In contrast, Quebec gained 1,950 jobs, proving that cultural protection policies can translate directly into economic resilience. Nova Scotia also emerged as a primary growth engine, with jobs rising by 95.5% to reach 1,310 positions, largely due to the expansion of provincial incentive funds.
