Annual report | An interesting mission, a working business model
Press Its mission is to provide quality information accessible to all. If we are able to provide factual and serious information about the issues that affect you every day, it is thanks to all the actors who support us. As a result, our advertisers contributed to a 9% increase in advertising revenue, and 48,000 of our most loyal readers donated a total of nearly $7 million to our news media in 2022. So, as 2023 begins, we’d like to share with you. an overview of the past year as well as some of our achievements.
In 2022, our journalists covered the news in the country and around the world. They’ve been around for a long time to bring you several influencer stories, like our serious digital story on overdoses or our special issue on real influencers. Press accompanied you in your daily troubles. Thus, our extensive team of journalists dedicated to purchasing power comprehensively covered economic news, personal finance and the grocery basket. Purpose: To help you better understand the impact of the current inflation context on your life and make wise choices through challenging analyses, reports, files and guides.
In 2022, including new newsletters were created money and happiness and A positive angle. A new feature that allows you to quickly and easily find the main content of the day and week was also launched in our mobile application in the fall. Always keeping in mind the fact that everyone has access to quality information, we develop new initiatives to distribute our content to reach the largest audience and adapt to new information consumption habits.
With his own thoughts, Press allowing you to feed your thinking about our world. This year, we’ve added more diversity to our screens to reflect the mainstream ideas taking over the public square. Thus, new feathers joined our team, including Régis Labeaume, Maxime Pedneaud-Jobin and Mariana Mazza. Several feedback letters from our readers are regularly published to encourage discussion of ideas.
Our financial results
Without independent, commercial shareholders, La Presse thrives in a non-profit structure. Its profits are fully reinvested into the mission and organization. La Presse is a company that has completely changed in the last 10 years. We have implemented a model based on the diversification of our revenues, which aims to ensure our stability and growth in an ever-changing industry. Our revenue comes primarily from advertising and donations from individuals, foundations and corporations. La Presse also benefits from government programs available to all industry players, including editorial salary tax credits.
Our transformation has led us to make strategic choices that today allow La Presse to achieve a positive balance sheet for the third year in a row, which shows that our business model is working. As we have just completed the financial year, we expect to generate a net profit of $11 million*. In addition, we have established a reserve fund with an initial investment of $25 million in 2022 and plan to add approximately $12 million of our cash this year.
La Presse would like to thank its readers, advertisers, donors and employees who have contributed to its success. If La Presse is a profitable company that can reinvest in its mission, it is thanks to the great efforts of our teams and the proper management of costs associated with responsible decisions. This is also due to the increased competition in the advertising market as we continue to innovate to meet the needs of advertisers. And finally, it’s thanks to the core support of our donors, who contribute to giving this free access to the 4 million readers who connect to our platforms every month, or about 60% of Quebec’s adult population.
Donations
Since the launch of our charity program in 2019, 77,000 people have donated a total of nearly $21 million to La Presse. And in 2022, we benefited from the generosity of 48,000 donors, totaling $6.9 million. The entire La Presse team would like to thank all of its donors, whose generosity has given everyone access to in-depth reporting. Dear donors, thank you for your continued support. We couldn’t do it without you.
Advertising revenue
The good financial results that we bring you today are also due to the increase in advertising revenue, which is our main source of funding. Although the local media advertising market declined after the first three quarters of 2022, we saw 9% growth for the year.
These exceptional results demonstrate La Presse’s leadership in offering advertisers products that meet their needs and remain a leader in the digital market in Canada. We are grateful for the trust our business partners have shown in our brand and the seriousness of our information media, and we thank them for choosing to invest in local media.
The key to prudence
The 2022 surplus will mainly be reinvested in our reserve fund, which we have created to ensure the sustainability of our institution. History in the media environment allows us to estimate that the effects of a recession could cause our advertising revenues to decline by 15-25% over three to four years, depending on the extent of the crisis. Therefore, our goal is to accumulate a sufficient amount in this fund that greatly exceeds the current balance, to allow us to continue our operations without exposure to economic fluctuations or major technological changes that are increasingly complex and expensive to implement.
This strategy is similar to other media in the world, e.g watchmantoday it has a significant endowment of nearly £1 billion (C$1.7 billion), which allows it to reinvest in its content, increase its impact on society and secure its future.
Remember that La Presse is now flying alone in an industry undergoing profound change and a competitive environment dominated by web giants as well as major integrated players such as Rogers, Bell and Quebecor. Therefore, as a responsible company, it should increase its reserve fund without commercial shareholders and funds from these main competitors.
As we have done in recent years, we continue to demonstrate strong governance by treating all of our employees, including executives and members of senior management, with compensation based on comparable market medians for similar positions in Canada, for example. We also closely manage our operating costs, ensuring that a portion of donations are reinvested in our data mission each year.
Update on Bill C-18
Finally, it is important to consider the Federal Online News Act (C-18), which is inspired by Australian legislation. It aims to create a framework to regulate digital giants who profit from content they don’t pay for. The aim is to strengthen the balance of economic relations between news companies and online platforms, to strengthen our negotiating position against these large digital news intermediaries that dominate the market.
Bill C-18 has not yet been passed. Moreover, the subsequent negotiations will certainly be long and difficult. While we are realistic about the amounts we can achieve with this latest commercial agreement and the modest share they will take in our total revenues, it is important to add these new revenues to what we already have. After all, we and all the news media in the country have been waiting for them for a long time.
New Year
We start 2023 with the desire to surpass ourselves and bring you quality information for free. We want to continue to develop our content offering and products while thinking about key next steps for our organization’s success. To do this and meet the challenges ahead, we rely on your commitment as readers, donors and advertisers. You are the main pillars of our organization’s sustainability. Your continued support is essential so that we can continue to be a part of your daily life, informing you and feeding your thoughts.
*Excluding actuarial revaluations that have no effect on cash
