The decline of news coverage produced by professional journalists — the “mainstream media” — isn’t new; it is been the inherent tendency in media for 25 years, accelerating aggressively in the previous decade. Which makes it even more interested that Canada’s chattering classes, including policymakers, professors and journalists have not paid more attention to the likely effects for democracy.

For it is increasingly clear, predicated on research being undertaken primarily in America, the flight of capital to the newest international media giants stands to transform political conversation with only a minor activity in joining the dots, in ways that may give any democrat pause.

However, the reality remains, globally, in several instances are losing the fight and media businesses are fighting to monetize this bloated readership. On the advertising side, the digital giants have proceeded beyond eating the lunch of legacy media, to feeding off its sickly body — shortly to be a carcass, in the speed things are going.

In Spain this past year, lawmakers attempted to compel Google to pay publishers for listing their content on Google News. The organization quickly took the service offline throughout the nation, which cost publishers readers — only how many remains a matter of disagreement — but cost nothing that is Google whatsoever, such is its global power and reach.