While trying to read this paywalled article from Andrew Coyne titled "The best thing the government could do to save the media is to stop trying to save the media", I landed on a webpage with the same title which featured the article's contents verbatim, but attributed to "Harry Miller". Trying to follow the link to the page supposed to provide information about that guy yielded a broken page. The article featured little attribution to The Globe and Mail.
The About Us page of Canada News Media (or "CanadaNewsmedia" or "Canadanewsmedia"―just the about page uses all 3 forms) only offered a couple paragraphs of uninformative marketing speak. A 5-minute web search didn't find any more genuine information about it. According to HypeStat, the domain was created in December 2017. And indeed, the Wayback Machine shows it has been copying The Globe and Mail and others for more than 5 years.
So what's my take? I believe Canada News Media is no more than a cheap, rogue, half-broken website blatantly violating the copyright of the sources it copies, profiting thanks to abundant clickbait.
Having now read the article, I must say it's highly ironic that I could read it from free from an illegal website which has been operating at the expense of journalists and readers for years, when the government is putting ridiculous efforts into sucking Bad Big Tech. Coyne's article starts:
Indeed, how much better informed would we be if―rather than entering a public fighting show against giants and common interest, artificially favoring a few lucky media―our government focused on the boring enforcement of existing, rational legislation, protecting all media against theft, and accessorily protecting everyone against misinformation as a bonus?
Update (July 2024)
On 2024-07-05, KNP was the target of a pseudo-SLAPP about this story. In a remarkably poor attempt, 7 emails were sent by 5 different email addresses, all Gmail accounts. All 7 emails had the exact same contents:
I am writing this to let you know that I am authorized to file a legal lawsuit in court against your website for defaming my client "Jonesjonzzzy "spreading misinformation. Personal details are doxxed without permission and baseless allegations. The allegations includes defamatory accusations without providing any proper evidence which is clear violation of DMCA act.
The Illegal Link Is Given Below:
https://www.philippecloutier.com/blogpost215-What-is-Canada-News-Media-canadanewsmedia-ca-And-the-sorry-state-of-Canada-s-news-media
The article is also sharing private informations of my client by sharing his photo,address and place of work which is causing deep concern to my client and his whole family.
Therefore, I request immediate removal of this defamatory article from your website.
The numerous factual errors and general nonsense made me think it was generated by an artificial stupidity, but the poor writing rules even that out.
As sad as this may initially, the irony of crooks profiting from copyright violations trying to take advantage of the DMCA makes it hilarious.
Canada News Media has now removed the specific violation denounced by this post. The problematic URL now redirects to a completely unrelated article (but the Wayback machine can still attest the violation).
So what's my take now? I guess Canada News Media is a cheap, rogue, half-broken website blatantly exploiting authors (by copying their works) and trying to intimidate its critics, profiting thanks to abundant clickbait.
"Jon Smarts" seems to be associated with the dead domain bestoflifecentral.com.