Independent media grapple with how — and if — to apply AI

Jeanette Ageson had no idea how to answer the question. 

Publisher of Vancouver-based independent news outlet The Tyee, Ageson hesitated a moment before responding to a question on whether her newsroom should be using AI.

“I’m not clear on it myself. I’m frozen right now. I don’t know whether this is a good thing or if it’s a bad thing and I should fight it,” she said.

News publishers around the world are responding to generative AI in radically different ways, Ageson explained. 

In some cases, newsrooms are creating two separate versions of their websites — one for humans and one for AI to scour. More often, newsrooms in Canada do the opposite and attempt to block AI from their site entirely.

An October 2026 study conducted by Montreal-based AI consultancy Chateau Mojo found that seven in 10 Canadian news sites block AI crawlers.

“I’m not sure what the best thing is for publishers to do. We want to be providing value to our readers,” said Ageson, “but we also want to be protecting our copyright and have the right to earn the revenue that we need to pay our staff.” 

This dilemma is particularly tricky for The Tyee, she added, because it’s non-profit, so she worries about being able to sustain her team and have readers become paid members.

In a room full of publishers gathering at Ottawa’s Global Centre for Pluralism for Press Forward Canada’s Future of Independent Media Summit last week, many were “frozen” like Ageson about whether to incorporate a technology riddled with misinformation into a field predicated on communicating truth.

Can all journalists embrace AI the same?

Representatives from independent organizations across Canada — such as Toronto’s The Local and Montreal’s La Converse — sat around tables to share their experiences with generative AI so far and their plans, if any, to use such tools or not. 

But before the event even began, Ageson offered a thought that framed the titular question differently.

“The New York Times is publicly suing OpenAI, but they also have an internal AI team that is figuring out how to innovate with it. It’s unevenly split. The big publishers have the resources, time, legal teams and a body of content to engage in those negotiations,” she said.

Bigger publishers, she added, can afford — in both money and time — to make licensing deals with AI companies because they can also afford to sue them.

In 2024, a coalition of major Canadian news organizations sued OpenAI for theft, though none had made any prior deals with the company.

Despite the possibility of OpenAI breaking an agreement, some smaller publications are trying to embrace the technology anyway.

OpenAI’s first news deal in Canada came in September 2026, when Sault Ste. Marie,  Ont.,’s Village Media announced a partnership called Open Door. 

It opened the question of whether independent journalists can embrace AI the same way big publishers can. 

Mack Male, the co-founder and CEO of Edmonton-based Taproot Publishing, isn’t sure, but agrees with Ageson.

“It’s very uneven. We can’t all sue OpenAI. Even some of the medium-sized publishers who are doing that don’t have any expectation that they’re going to win,” he said. “For small publishers like us, it’s just not in the cards.”

Moving forward, slowly

Male has more than a decade of experience working in computer science, so he’s more positive about incorporating AI into his newsroom. He said that the more constructive stance for media organizations would be to determine how to work together effectively.

“We’re one of the earlier publications to put out a policy around AI. We got some resistance from some of our readers when we did that initially. Other people didn’t care,” he said.

When developing Taproot’s AI policy, Male said the publication carefully considered when to disclose use and what might be off the table completely, such as image generation. 

But because Taproot has a culture of experimentation, Male said that his reporters approach AI with an open mind.

“I know that one of our reporters feels more strongly about the environmental, economic and negative impacts of AI, but not to the point where it’s like, ‘all AI is bad.’ Those things can be true at the same time,” he said, noting that his team is still “trying to find that balance.”

Vicky Mochama, a journalist and Press Forward’s executive director, said she feels a mix of skepticism and hopefulness about the technology.

“We know publishers are seeing losses in traffic. So, this is an opportunity for independent media to put their stamp on the conversation and say, ‘Here’s where we are, here’s what we need, and here’s what best serves our audiences,’” said Mochama. 

Ageson, who helped plan the Press Forward event, said the gathering was  intended to help uncertain journalists like herself decide exactly that. 

Some already seem to know exactly where journalists should stand on AI. 

Senator Andrew Cardozo, who delivered the event’s opening address, is one of them. As he spoke, he cited concerns about Canadian data sovereignty.

“We need to be in control. It’s not something we can think about the next five or 10 years. It’s right now,” he told the crowd.

When he surveyed the room, only a small handful of the 50 or so attendees raised their hands in support of incorporating generative AI into their newsrooms. 

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