November 12, 2025.
For years, legacy news organizations in Canada have received hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies, but that support has failed to stop a steady collapse in revenue, public trust, and relevance. Governments keep pouring money into models they can predict and control, favoring print, radio, and television outlets with aging audiences while experimental ventures such as KlueIQ are left without support. Most funding programs demand conformity to old standards, discouraging risk and innovation, even though these traditional formats now attract a shrinking audience, primarily those aged 55 to 65.
Media owners have become adept at memorizing the playbook that guarantees government subsidy, refusing to admit that their own business models are broken. The result is a cycle where innovation is seen as a threat, not an opportunity, even as audiences drift away and digital engagement replaces static consumption. Instead of pivoting, mainstream media clings to the past, ever more dependent on public handouts.
Some of the deepest resistance to change is cultural. Many journalists actively distrust technological innovation, especially AI, even as it becomes essential for research, audience engagement, and sustainable business models. Recent calls, like Thomas Baekdal’s push for blocking AI search engines, reflect an industry-wide anxiety about losing control, when the real risk is irrelevance. The persistent fear among journalists is that the machines will take over; the reality is that the audiences already have, and they’re demanding new forms, formats, and functionality that only technology can deliver.
Why AI and Interactive News Are Critical
- Discovery and Engagement: Interactive models, AI-assisted reporting, and gamified news platforms turn passive readers into active participants, providing immersive experiences that build trust and habit where old formats now stagnate.
- Efficiency and Reach: AI’s ability to analyze vast data sets, automate verification, and personalize content means that more accurate, relevant, and compelling stories reach more readers, faster.
- Transparency and Trust: Smart algorithms can show how news is gathered and presented, help combat misinformation, and rebuild public confidence, especially among younger, digitally native users.
KlueIQ stands at the intersection of news, gaming, and artificial intelligence, offering readers a way to investigate, interact with, and truly understand nonfiction events. It represents not just an evolutionary step, but a necessary leap, away from failing legacy formulas toward a new paradigm where engagement, learning, and participation are central.
Despite constant government support for the status quo, it’s projects such as KlueIQ that hold the promise of reviving nonfiction: fostering curiosity, empowering critical thinking, and connecting communities in ways that static news never could.
Until governments, funders, and media leaders embrace risk, welcome creative disruption, and invest in models that serve tomorrow’s audiences, the journalism abyss will only deepen. KlueIQ and similar ventures show there is a way forward: one built on interactivity, intelligence, and true engagement. The industry and its regulators must ask: Are they ready to invest in the real future, or will they keep bailing out the past?
KlueIQ isn’t just a new business model: it’s proof that the nonfiction story is far from over. Now it’s time for journalism itself to catch up.