A new national study from the Canadian Journalism Foundation makes one thing unmistakably clear: Canadians still want local news — they just aren’t getting enough of it.

A remarkable 88 per cent of Canadians say they are highly interested in news about their own communities. That’s a near‑universal desire to understand our communities better through the lens of local journalism. And yet more than half of respondents say the issues that matter most to them receive too little coverage.

As a news publisher, this is the part that concerns me – and I’m sure concerns all media owners and editors.

At the national level, affordability and the cost of living dominate reader concerns. The issue was most often identified as a top concern by 61 per cent of Canadians, followed by health care at 49 per cent and jobs and the economy at 30 per cent.

The study also dismantles the myth that traditional news sources have been abandoned. That’s because 79 per cent of Canadians still turn to at least one traditional news source every day. Community newspapers are used daily by one in four Canadians. That’s millions of people choosing local reporting over isolating, online algorithms.

This also backs up the City of Kawartha Lakes’ findings through their 2026 Jump In platform poll on how city residents stay connected. Other than city information platforms, reading the local newspaper and magazine, followed by online media, were the top ways residents got information about the municipality.

And here’s the part that should make policymakers and advertisers sit up: 32 per cent of Canadians now pay for at least one news provider. People are willing to invest in journalism when it reflects their lives and their communities.

In Kawartha Lakes, we’ve seen firsthand how deeply people care about council decisions, healthcare challenges, affordability pressures, and the stories of neighbours trying to make life work.

The CJF study is a reminder that our citizens want more local news. They’re actively looking for it. They’re willing to pay for it in many cases. If big corporations can’t figure out the formula for success, then nimbler, smaller independents will.

For years, the narrative has been that local news is in decline because audiences have drifted away. But this study flips that on its head. The audience is still here, but maybe we need to tweak our local coverage and emphasize healthcare, affordability, and the economy even more than we do now? We have the elements of success in place – community-driven stories – to get better.

I am always interested in direct reader feedback on our coverage, both here and in Kawartha Lakes Weekly. Reach out directly at roderick@lindsayadvocate.ca and share your thoughts as a brief letter to the editor. What do you like in our coverage? What do you want to see more of?

Knowing what matters to readers is where better coverage begins.