The digital giant says it will provide
The jobs are to be posted immediately and reporters are expected to be in place by the fall.
"The stories that will be created by these journalists will be, of course, administered and managed entirely by CP editors for the benefit of our customers and so this will add a significant new volume of stories from different regions across the country," said CP president
"So I think it's a real win for journalism, it's a real win for young journalists starting out in their careers and a huge value for our customers to be able to get new content at no additional charge."
CP agreed to participate in the project only after ensuring it will promote the development and growth of Canadian journalism without influence from
The partnership comes as Canadian publishers banded together last month to call on the federal government to force large international digital companies including Facebook and Google to share their advertising revenue with media companies, who have seen a heightened pace of advertising sales declines since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The publishers want
"For us at
"To my knowledge, this will be the first time where we're partnering with a news organization to create effectively new roles to build capacity for local news reporting across the country and we're really excited to be a part of this."
Reporters hired under the
Articles will include a credit line on the bottom that says the content was funded by the fellowship, an element designed to ensure transparency with both clients and readers, Kirk said.
The initiative emerged last year when
The two parties intend to evaluate the program to determine if it will be extended beyond its initial one-year period.
The new revenue stream is welcome at a time when advertising sales, shrinking for years for CP's clients in traditional media outlets, have been hit even harder by the economic downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, said Kirk.
He said although
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