Best practices for for-profit news businesses

Incorporation

Incorporating your news business offers several advantages over a sole proprietorship, which is an unincorporated business owned by one person. They are:

• Owners benefit from limited liability.
• Ownership interests are easier to transfer.
• The life of the corporation can extend beyond that of the founder.
• Credibility is boosted in the eyes of partners.
• Financing and grants are easier to access.
• Tax rates are lower.

Here are more details on those benefits.

Limited liability

The most significant advantage of forming a corporation is the concept of limited personal liability.

A corporation is a distinct legal entity separate from its owners, which means it can own assets, incur debts, and enter contracts in its own name.

Therefore, incorporating safeguards the personal assets of the company’s directors and shareholders from the debts and legal obligations of the company.

Creditors (those owed money by the corporation) can access the company’s assets if it does not meet its financial or legal obligations. They cannot, however, directly pursue shareholders’ personal property or assets to satisfy the company’s debts unless a personal guarantee has been provided.

Easier ownership transfers

A corporation is a separate legal entity, and owners do not own its assets directly. Instead, they own shares in the corporation, which in turn owns the assets. This makes transferring ownership interests easier, which makes it simpler for your company to attract investments from venture capital firms and angel investors because it allows them to get in and out of an investment on pre-agreed terms without much complication.

Unlimited life

Another advantage that incorporated businesses have is that they benefit from an unlimited lifespan. When shareholders die, their shares are passed on to their heirs or are transferred via a sale.

Sole proprietorships, however, automatically dissolve when its principal passes away.

Credibility

Incorporating provides credibility to your business. Potential investors, lenders, readers and employees immediately know you are thinking longer term.

That said, incorporating a business requires additional cost and effort. A corporation needs to maintain a separate set of accounting records from its owners.

Corporations also pay annual registration fees and file separate financial statements and tax returns.

If your goal is to grow your business into a sustainable, long-term operation, incorporating is well worth the effort.

Corporate bylaws

If you are a for-profit corporation, you may also consider creating company bylaws, especially if you are not the sole director, officer and shareholder.

Corporate bylaws are rules a corporation uses to organize its internal management. They outline meeting rules, voting rights, and the policies and responsibilities of the corporation’s directors, officers, and shareholders.

Usually, a corporation’s directors formally create the bylaws at the first Directors’ Organizational Meeting.

Issues that can be addressed in the by-laws include:

• The company management structure. A simple structure consists of a president, treasurer, and secretary. A more complex management structure consists of a CEO, CFO, COO, presidents, and vice-presidents.
• The amount of notice necessary to call a meeting of the directors
• Whether directors and shareholders meetings permit remote communication
• When the bylaws go into effect

After creating the bylaws at the first meeting, the rules and procedures in the corporate bylaws will go into effect and guide the company’s internal management.

Best practices for nonprofit news organizations

A Nonprofit corporation is a legal entity that exists independently from its members and directors.

The primary purpose of a Nonprofit corporation is to operate with the intention of advancing its mission. While Nonprofit corporations can (and should!) earn profits, these funds must be used to further the objectives and purposes of the organization.

Nonprofit corporations are established in accordance with federal or provincial laws governing Nonprofit organizations. These laws provide a framework for the formation, operation, and governance of Nonprofit corporations.

Incorporation

When establishing a Nonprofit journalism start-up, you should consider whether to incorporate the organization federally or provincially. This decision depends on where the organization intends to operate.

Journalism organizations that primarily focus on serving their local community or province usually opt for provincial incorporation.

Federal incorporation is a good option if your organization plans to carry out activities in multiple provinces under the same corporate name. Federal incorporation allows your Nonprofit journalism organization to easily move its registered office across the country without undergoing the incorporation process in each province individually. This option provides flexibility and streamlines administrative procedures when operating in different provinces.

It’s important to note that even if your organization is incorporated federally, you may still be required to register provincially in certain provinces. Some provinces may have specific regulations or reporting obligations that apply to Nonprofit organizations operating within their boundaries.

For more on what to consider when thinking about being a for-profit organization or Nonprofit organization see LION’s article Nonprofit or for-profit — which model is right for your news organization?

Board of directors

When you register your corporation either as a Nonprofit or for-profit, you will have to identify the organization’s initial board of directors for your corporation.

The board is responsible for managing and overseeing the corporation’s activities and affairs and will play a vital role in the governance and supervision of your journalism corporation. Board members will manage its activities and ensure its objectives are met.

Remember that as your corporation grows and evolves, it may become necessary to elect additional directors or replace existing ones with new appointments.

Nonprofit bylaws

The board must begin drafting the bylaws at the first organizational meeting. This process can be simplified by referring to the Model by-laws – Not-for-profit corporations, which apply to a typical not-for-profit corporation.

Corporations Canada has also developed an online interactive tool called a By-law builder: not-for-profit corporations, which allows you to generate the by-laws you want by choosing provisions that meet the specific needs of your corporation.

Issues that can be addressed in the by-laws include:

• The date of a corporation’s financial year-end
• The corporation’s banking arrangements
•  The qualification requirements for board memberships
•  The process for appointing officers, as well as the rules regarding their qualifications and duties
•  The procedures for calling and conducting directors’ and members’ meetings
• The minimum number of directors and members required to establish quorum at meetings
•  The process for amending by-laws
• The rules limiting the modifications that can be made to the directors’ powers under the Not For Profit Act.

Best practices for tax compliance 

If you decide to incorporate your business, you will need a business number from the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA). This is a unique, 9-digit number and the standard way to identify your business.

For more on registering for a business number, visit the CRA website.

Registering for a GST number

As you set up your journalism start-up you might wonder when you need to collect the federal goods and services tax (GST) or, in some provinces, the harmonized sales tax (HST).

If your business earns more than $30,000 in gross income (what you earn before you deduct business expenses) during any 12-month period, you must register for a GST/HST number with the CRA.

Some business income doesn’t count toward GST/HST collection, including salary from a job, grants, and sales outside of Canada.

If you fail to file your GST/HST returns, the CRA won’t send you a reminder or a warning, and you could eventually face substantial fines.

The benefits of a GST number

Having a GST/HST number isn’t just about fulfilling your tax obligations; it also makes your news business eligible for entitlements such as input tax credits (ITCs). Not having a number risks leaving money on the table.

ITCs allow businesses to recover GST/HST paid on purchases of business supplies and contracted services. Everything, from fuel costs and shipping charges to commercial rent and telephone fees, is eligible for GST/HST recovery through ITCs, as long as you used that good, service or property for your business.

What exactly is a GST/HST number?

A GST/HST account number consists of your nine-digit business number followed by “RT 0001”.

You’ll use this number to file GST/HST returns, make remittances to the CRA, and signal to customers and the government that you’re legitimately charging and remitting taxes.

Businesses cannot claim ITCs from other small businesses or suppliers who do not have a GST or HST number.

Carefully recording your business spending—including noting the exact amounts for GST/HST throughout the year makes it easier to complete your tax returns.

How to get a GST/HST account number

The quickest way to apply for a GST/HST account number is through the CRA’s website. You can also call the business inquiries line (1-800-959-5525) or complete and submit a request form by mail or fax to a designated tax center.

Businesses in Quebec must register through Revenu Québec, which administers GST in that province.

Charging and collecting GST/HST

When it comes to operating a digital journalism business, it is important to note that Canadian businesses charge GST on digital goods and services like digital newspaper subscriptions, video downloads and ebooks.

GST remittances for the CRA can be filed quarterly or annually with the help of an accountant.

Do I have to collect provincial sales taxes (PSTs)?

Businesses operating in provinces with only the HST must register with the federal government and collect the harmonized tax.

However, if you sell taxable goods and services in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba or Quebec, you may be required to register with the respective provincial government to collect the provincial sales tax.

Check your province’s tax guidelines to determine what goods and services are exempt from PST collection and if your business must charge PST.

Provincial sales taxes are calculated based on the original price of the goods and services without including the GST in the calculation.

None of the Canadian territories have a territorial tax.

Nonprofit classifications in Canada

There are a few classifications of nonprofit journalism organizations in Canada, each of which offer different benefits. They are:

• Nonprofit corporation
• Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO)
• Registered Journalism Organization (RJO)
• Qualified donee

Your news start-up must be a non-profit organization to be classified as either a QCJO or an RJO. It must be a QCJO to be classified as an RJO and must be an RJO to be a qualified donee. Read below for more information.

Becoming a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO)

Becoming a Qualified Canadian Journalism Organization (QCJO) can offer your organization several benefits, such as qualifying for the Canadian journalism labour tax credit or allowing your readers access to the digital news subscription tax credit.

To become recognized by the CRA as a QCJO, you must be a Canadian corporation or trust founded and run by mostly Canadians and be based in Canada.

Your journalism start-up must create original journalism, and more than 50% of your content must be focused on general interest news, current events and reporting on democratic institutions.

Trade journals, travel magazines or organizations that produce content focusing primarily on industry-specific information, sports or entertainment news is not considered to be engaged in producing original news content for QCJO purposes.

Your organization must regularly employ two or more journalists who deal at arm’s length with the organization in the production of its content and who are not freelance journalists. The person that owns the corporation does not qualify as dealing at arm’s length and does not count as one of these employees.

For more information about the QCJO designation, visit the CRA website.

Becoming a Registered Journalism Organization (RJO)

If you are a Nonprofit journalism corporation and want to be able to issue tax-deductible receipts to donors, you must apply to become a registered journalism organization (RJO) under the Income Tax Act. This will allow your organization to receive “qualified donee” status, which is akin to being a charitable organization.

To become an RJO, your organization must first be designated as a Qualified Canadian journalism organization (QCJO). 

Criteria for becoming an RJO

Becoming an RJO allows your organization to operate free from certain tax obligations while providing potential donors with the incentive of tax deductions for their contributions.

An organization must meet all the criteria below to be eligible to register as an RJO:

• It must be designated as a QCJO.
• It must be a corporation or a trust.
• It must be constituted and operated for purposes exclusively related to journalism.
• Any business activities it carries on must be related to its purposes.
• All members of its board of directors or trustees must deal with each other at arm’s length.
• It cannot be controlled, directly or indirectly in any manner whatsoever, by one person or a group of persons that do not deal with each other at arm’s length.
• Generally, in any taxation year, it cannot accept gifts from any source representing more than 20% of its total revenue (including donations).
• No part of its income can be payable to, or otherwise available for, the personal benefit of a proprietor, member, shareholder, director, trustee, settlor or similar individual.
• It must be primarily engaged in the production of original news content.

For more information, see: Guidance on the income tax measures to support journalism

Compliance for a qualified donee organization

A qualified donee organization, such as an RJO, is responsible for all receipts issued under its name and registration number. It must account for the corresponding donations on its annual information return and in its books and records.

A qualified donee should never, under any circumstances, issue donation receipts on behalf of another organization or lend its registration number to another organization for receipting purposes. This may result in your receipting privileges being suspended and losing your organization’s registered status.

As an RJO, you must ensure that official donation receipts meet the requirements of Canadian law.

Books and records for RJOs

One of the main obligations of RJOs is to keep reliable, accurate and complete books and records that contain:

• Information that allows the CRA to verify the amounts that donors can claim for tax credits or deductions
• Information that allows the CRA to confirm that the entity meets the requirements for qualified donee status under the Income Tax Act
• A duplicate of each official donation receipt issued, containing prescribed information for the gift received

Books and records must be kept at the Canadian address that the RJO has on file with the CRA and must be provided to the CRA on request.

Books and records include, but are not limited, to:

• Governing documents (corporation, partnership, or trust document)
• Bylaws
• Financial statements
• Copies of annual information returns (Form T1000-1)
• Written agreements
• Contracts
• Board and staff meeting minutes
• Annual reports
• Ledgers
• Bank statements
• Expense accounts
• Inventories
• Investment agreements
• Accountant’s working papers
• Payroll records
• Promotional materials
• Fundraising materials

Books and records also include source documents, such as:

• Invoices
• Vouchers
• Formal contracts
• Work orders
• Delivery slips
• Purchase orders
• Bank deposit slips

RJOs vs. nonprofit organizations 

Benefits of being a QCJO or RJO

• Your business may qualify for the Canadian journalism labour tax credit, which is a refundable tax credit that is available at a rate of 25% of the total qualifying labour expenditures for a taxation year pertaining to eligible newsroom employees of a qualifying journalism organization.
• Your readers may be able to access the digital news subscription tax credit, which is calculated by multiplying the lowest personal income tax rate (15%) by the total of all amounts paid by an individual to a QCJO(s) in the year for qualifying subscriptions expenses up to $500.
• Organizations designated as QCJOs may request the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) determine whether the subscriptions they offer are qualifying subscription expenses for their readers.

The Local Journalism Initiative

The Local Journalism Initiative (LJI) supports the creation of original civic journalism that covers the diverse needs of underserved communities across Canada.

Funding is available to eligible Canadian media organizations to hire journalists or pay freelance journalists to produce that journalism.

 To be eligible for funding, an applicant must qualify as one of the following:

•  A press agency
•  A private news organization
•  A nonprofit news organization

 Private, non-community broadcasters and the CBC/Radio-Canada are not eligible.

Organizations must also operate in one of the following fields:

• Written press
• Community radio
• Community television
• Online news services

The applicant organization must also demonstrate that they:

• Are majority owned and controlled by Canadians
• Engage in coverage of democratic bodies/institutions and civic function 
•  Are edited, designed, assembled and published in Canada and directed primarily at Canadian audiences in Canada
•  Have completed at least one uninterrupted 12-month publishing cycle

The intention of the LJI is to ensure the content created under its grants receives the widest possible distribution and is freely shared with other news organizations invested in the creation of Canadian journalism.

Stories, photos and other content produced by LJI reporters are posted on the News Portal, managed by The Canadian Press on behalf of News Media Canada. News organizations can request a user account and password to gain access.

News organizations can use content produced by LJI reporters, regardless of whether they employ an LJI reporter.

Participating news organizations are subject to a Creative Commons license restricting the use of the content to editorial use and must adhere to basic journalistic standards.

The post Business structures and taxes for Canadian publishers appeared first on LION Publishers.

Here are some additional HR compliance matters to consider for Canadian publishers hiring their first employees.

Payroll compliance

Payroll compliance legislation in Canada ensures employees are treated fairly and that payroll taxes and deductions are paid properly.

This legislation defines employers’ rights and obligations and outlines the specific procedures for processing payroll. It includes things like minimum wage, overtime, vacation pay, and deductions. 

Payroll compliance legislation in Canada is continuously changing and evolving, so employers must keep updated to stay compliant. There are many ways to do this, such as following the Canada Revenue Agency on social media and by subscribing to CRA updates by email. 

The two main types of payroll legislation you need to pay attention to are: 

1. Provincial Legislation: Each province has its own labour and employment standards legislation, which outlines specific requirements for employers. These laws may cover areas such as minimum wage, work hours, vacation pay, and other entitlements. Requirements for deductions, remittances, and reporting differ in each province. 
2. Tax Legislation: Both federal and provincial tax legislation defines the taxes employers must collect from employees and remit to the government. These laws also specify deductions and remittances for employment insurance and pension contributions. Here’s an employer’s guide.

Registering for a payroll account with the Canada Revenue Agency:

Before you hire your first employee, your company must register for a payroll account with the CRA. 

A payroll account gives your company a unique account number that serves as an identification number when reporting and remitting to the CRA taxes, deductions and contributions related to your employees. 

For more information on setting up a payroll report and filing remittances with the CRA, click here.

Employers should be aware of any province-specific reporting requirements related to payroll taxes.

Payroll compliance processes: 

Consider hiring a payroll company, like ADP, to automate payroll compliance systems to simplify and streamline your processes. This will help reduce the possibility of making any errors.

Automated systems also facilitate the timely remittance of legislated deductions to government agencies, which often must be made quarterly. 

With automated systems, you can generate pay slips that comply with the relevant legislation. This ensures your employees receive clear and transparent information about their compensation. 

Regulations for Employee Termination

Complying with all applicable provincial and federal laws is important when terminating an employee. Here are the key regulations to keep in mind:

1. Notice Period: Employers must provide at least two weeks’ notice before termination. This ensures employees have sufficient time to make necessary arrangements.
2. Severance Package: In certain cases, a severance package may be required. This package includes additional compensation for employees upon termination beyond their regular wages. It is important to consult a lawyer to determine if a severance package is required. 
3. Documentation: Employers must provide employees with a Record of Employment (ROE) upon termination. The ROE is a document that outlines the employee’s earnings and employment history, which is necessary for the employee to be able to collect Employment Insurance. 

Payroll non-compliance:

Non-compliance with payroll legislation can result in fines imposed on the employer. 

Employers could also face civil liability for damages suffered by employees as a result of non-compliance. This can include compensation for financial losses, emotional distress, or other harm caused by the employer’s actions.

Statutory holiday pay

Canadian businesses must provide statutory or public holiday pay to eligible full-time and part-time workers.

Statutory holidays are days when most businesses are legally required to close, but they must still pay eligible employees as if it were a regular workday.

There are five statutory holidays recognized in every jurisdiction across Canada:

• New Year’s Day
• Good Friday
• Canada Day
• Labour Day
• Christmas Day

In addition to these national statutory holidays, each province and territory may have its own public holidays where businesses must pay their eligible employees holiday pay.

Holiday leave

Holiday leave, also known as paid time off, is accrued based on a percentage of earnings and varies by province or territory, as follows:

British Columbia, Alberta, Manitoba, Ontario, Northwest Territories, Nunavut:

• Vacation pay: 4% of earnings for the first five years of employment; 6% afterwards
• Vacation entitlement: two weeks after one year of employment; three weeks after five years

Saskatchewan:

• Vacation pay: 3/52 of earnings for the first nine years of employment; 4/52 afterwards. Saskatchewan has a vacation pay calculator to help with the math.
• Vacation entitlement: three weeks after one year of employment; four weeks after ten years

Quebec:

• Vacation pay: 4% of earnings for the first three years of employment; 6% afterwards
• Vacation entitlement: one day per month for the first year of employment up to two weeks if less than one year; two weeks after one year; three weeks after three years
• Employees entitled to two weeks of vacation may request an additional week’s leave without pay, which the employer must grant. This additional leave cannot be divided into several periods unless the employer allows it.

New Brunswick:

• Vacation pay: 4% of earnings for the first eight years of employment; 6% at the start of the employee’s eighth year
• Vacation entitlement: one day per month or two weeks of vacation yearly for the first eight years of employment; 1.25 days per month, or three weeks of vacation yearly afterwards

Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island:

• Vacation pay: 4% of earnings for the first eight years of employment; 6% afterwards
• Vacation entitlement: two weeks after one year of employment; three weeks after eight years

Newfoundland and Labrador:

• Vacation pay: 4% of earnings for the first 15 years of employment; 6% afterwards
• Vacation entitlement: two weeks if less than 15 years of employment; three weeks after 15 years

Yukon:

• Vacation pay: 4% of earnings
• Vacation entitlement: two weeks after one year of employment

Sick or unpaid leave

Every province or territory organises the number of days employees are entitled to unpaid leave, or unpaid sick days, as follows:

Alberta

• Employees are entitled to up to five days of unpaid leave.

British Columbia, Nova Scotia:

• Employees are entitled to three days of unpaid job-protected sick leave.
• In Nova Scotia only, sick leave can be used to care for a family member or for doctor’s appointments.

Manitoba:

• Employees are entitled to a 17-week leave for a serious illness or injury; otherwise, three sick days.

New Brunswick, Northwest Territories:

• Employees are entitled to five days of unpaid leave per year.

Newfoundland and Labrador:

• Employees are entitled to seven days of unpaid leave per year after 30 days of employment.

Prince Edward Island:

• Employees are entitled to three days of unpaid leave per year after three months of service. After five years of continuous employment with the same company, the employee is entitled to four days of leave, and the employer pays the first day.

Ontario:

• Employees are entitled to three days of unpaid leave per year.

Quebec:

• Employees are entitled to two days paid by the employer; an employee cannot be absent for more than 26 weeks in a 12-month period.

Saskatchewan:

• Employees are entitled to 12 days per year unpaid. In the case of a serious illness or injury, they are entitled to 12 weeks unpaid.

Nunavut:

• Employees accrue 1.25 days each month for a maximum of 10 days unpaid.

Yukon:

• Employees accrue one day per month of employment for a maximum of 12 days unpaid.

The remaining provinces don’t impose a sick leave entitlement on employers, instead leaving it to the company’s discretion.

Employees working for their employers for at least three months are protected against dismissal, demotion, and layoffs during an absence caused by illness. Depending on the province, this can be up to 17 weeks.

Employees on sick leave keep accruing pension, health, seniority, and disability benefits as long as they keep making their contributions, which obliges employers to keep making their share of the contributions.

Other leaves, such as parental and compassionate leaves, can be interrupted to take sick leave and resumed immediately after the sick leave ends.

Maternity Leave

Pregnant employees in Canada are entitled to a minimum of 15 weeks and up to 17 weeks (12 weeks in the case of a miscarriage or stillbirth) of maternity leave, which the government pays through the Employment Insurance (EI) program. The cash benefit is 55% of the employee’s average salary, capped at $595 per week. However, you can top up the employee’s allowance as an employer. In Quebec, the government payment is capped at $900.

To be eligible for paid maternity leave, an employee must have worked and accumulated 600 insured hours within the past 52 weeks. The length of maternity leave and threshold for eligibility varies by province and territory:

• Alberta, Nova Scotia: 16 weeks
• Ontario, British Columbia, Manitoba (after seven months of employment), New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador (after 20 weeks of employment), Prince Edward Island (after 20 weeks of employment), Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Yukon (after 12 months of employment): 17 weeks
• Quebec: 18 weeks
• Saskatchewan: 19 weeks, including an adopted child’s primary caregiver. It can be extended by an additional 6 weeks (for a total of 25 weeks) with a valid medical reason for not returning to work.

Paternity Leave

In Canada, there is no statutory paternity leave except in Quebec. In Quebec, employees are entitled to five uninterrupted weeks of leave. The Social Security authorities pay for the leave.

Five-Day Leave

In Quebec, biological and adoptive parents have the right to be absent from work for five days, with the first two days being paid. This leave is applicable for the birth or adoption of a child or a termination of pregnancy occurring after the 20th week of pregnancy. Employees are entitled to this leave regardless of the length of their employment. However, if the mother is already on maternity leave or the father is on paternity leave, they are not eligible for this leave.

Parental Leave

All parents, regardless of gender, are entitled to parental leave after the birth or adoption of a child. Both parents can take this leave simultaneously and are paid through the Employment Insurance (EI) program. The benefit amounts to 55% of the employee’s average salary, capped at $595 per week ($900 in Quebec). Some employers may choose to top up the leave pay to 100%.

The length of parental leave varies by province:

• Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island: 62 weeks
• Manitoba (after 7 months of employment), Yukon (after 12 months of employment): 63 weeks
• Ontario, Newfoundland and Labrador (after 20 weeks of employment), Nova Scotia, Northwest Territories: 61 weeks — 69 weeks if shared between parents in Northwest Territories
• Quebec: 78 weeks for biological parents, including paternity and maternity leave. In the case of adoption, each parent is entitled to 65 weeks.
• Saskatchewan: The parent who took maternity or adoption leave is eligible for 59 weeks of parental leave. Parents who didn’t take either maternity or adoption leave are eligible for up to 71 weeks.
• Nunavut: 37 weeks. Maternity and parental leave combined cannot exceed 52 weeks.

Parental leave must be taken within the first year of the child’s birth or adoption. To be eligible for paid leave, the employee must have been employed for at least three months and made EI contributions.

During leave, employees are protected from dismissal and have the right to return to their previous job at the end of their leave. Employment benefits, including seniority, continue to accumulate during their absence.

An employee typically takes maternity leave, followed by paternal leave. 

For more information, click here. 

Personal & family responsibility leave

Employees are entitled to a minimum of three days per year of personal leave after being employed for three months.

The following circumstances can be used for taking a personal leave:

• treating an injury or illness
• taking care of health obligations for any family member
• taking care of family responsibilities
• education obligations for any family member under the age of 18
• managing any urgent situation that concerns the employee or a family member
• attending their citizenship ceremony under the Citizenship Act

The duration may vary by province/territory, as follows:

• Quebec: ten days — the first two paid by the employer; the remainder unpaid
• Alberta, British Columbia: five days, unpaid
• Manitoba (after being employed for 30 days), New Brunswick, Ontario, Prince Edward Island: three days, unpaid
• Newfoundland and Labrador (after 30 days of employment): seven days, unpaid
• Nova Scotia: combined with sick leave, three days, unpaid
• Ontario: ten days of unpaid personal emergency leave
• Saskatchewan: no days available
• Northwest Territories: no days available
• Nunavut, Yukon: the leave not covered by the Labour Standards Act

Bereavement leave

Employees are entitled to a minimum of three days of bereavement leave following the death of an immediate family member or, in Alberta’s case, when a pregnancy ends other than in a live birth. Employees become eligible for bereavement leave after three months of employment. The duration may vary by province/territory as follows:

• Quebec: five days – the first two paid by the employer and the remainder unpaid; in the case of the death of an extended family member, one unpaid day off; 104 weeks if an underage child dies or if a partner, parent, or child dies by suicide
• Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba (after 30 days of employment): three days, unpaid
• New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan: five days, unpaid
• Newfoundland and Labrador (after 30 days of employment), Prince Edward Island: three days — the first day paid by the employer; the remainder unpaid
• Ontario: two days, unpaid
• Northwest Territories: three days if the funeral or memorial service takes place in the community the employee resides; seven days if outside the community
• Nunavut: the leave not covered by the Labour Standards Act
• Yukon: one week, unpaid

Compassionate care leave

Employees are entitled to unpaid compassionate leave to care for a family member who has a serious medical condition or is at risk of death, which varies by province/territory as follows:

• New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Labrador, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Yukon: 28 weeks within any 52-week period
• Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec, Northwest Territories: 27 weeks within any 52-week period (in Quebec, the first two days are paid)
• All other provinces/territories: eight weeks within any 52-week period
• The leave is paid by Employment Insurance at 55% of an employee’s average salary and is capped at $595 weekly.

Domestic violence & sexual assault leave

Employees are entitled to a minimum of ten days and  up to 26 weeks of leave, paid or unpaid, depending on the province/territory, as follows:

• Quebec: 26 weeks — the first two days paid by the employer if the employee hasn’t used their paid days entitlement for illness, accident, organ donation or to care for a loved one; the remainder is unpaid
• Federal jurisdiction, Saskatchewan: ten days — the first five days are paid by the employer; the remainder are unpaid
• Alberta: ten days, unpaid
• British Columbia: ten days — the first five days are paid by the employer and the remainder are unpaid; if necessary, up to 15 more weeks of unpaid leave is available
• Newfoundland and Labrador, Prince Edward Island: ten days — the first three days are paid by the employer; the remainder are unpaid
• Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, Northwest Territories: Two types of interpersonal violence leave exist. The first type allows employees to take either 10 consecutive or intermittent days in a 52-week period, as needed. The second type allows employees to take up to 17 weeks (16 in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, 15 in Ontario and Northwest Territories) in a 52-week period in one continuous stretch. The employer pays only for the first five days (three days in Nova Scotia).
• Nunavut: the leave is not covered by the Labour Standards Act.
• Yukon: the leave has been proposed but is not part of the Labour Standards Act yet.

Critical illness leave

Employees are entitled to time off in the case of a family member’s critical illness. The duration varies by province/territory as follows:

• Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories, Yukon: 17 weeks for sick adults, unpaid; 37 weeks for children, unpaid
• Alberta, British Columbia, Quebec: 16 weeks for sick adults, unpaid; 36 weeks for children, unpaid.
• New Brunswick, Nova Scotia: 16 weeks for sick adults; 37 weeks for children
• Prince Edward Island: 37 weeks for children under 18; not applicable to sick adults
• Nunavut: the leave is not covered by the Labour Standards Act.

Employees may be eligible for critically ill or injured children/adult benefits under EI.

Child death leave & crime-related child disappearance leave

Employees are entitled to a 52-week unpaid leave following a crime-related disappearance of a child and 104 weeks in the case of a child’s death. In New Brunswick, each leave is 37 weeks long. In Quebec and Saskatchewan, the leave for the disappearance of a child is 104 weeks. The Labour Standards Act doesn’t cover this leave in Nunavut.

Employees may receive financial assistance from the Federal Income Support for Parents of Murdered or Missing Children grant.

Leave of absence for members of Canada’s Reserve Force

Employees who have been working for their employer for at least three months are entitled to unpaid leave to assist the country in the following situations:

• An operation designated by the Minister of National Defence in Canada or abroad
• An activity set out in the Reserve Force Training Leave Regulations
• Canadian Armed Forces military skills training
• Training ordered under the National Defence Act
• Lawful duties ordered under the National Defence Act
• Service in aid of civil power under the National Defence Act
• Treatment, recovery, or rehabilitation from physical or mental health problems that resulted from service in an operation or activity listed in the Labour Code

The duration of leave may vary by province/territory, as follows:

• Nova Scotia: 24 months of leave in a 60-month period
• Alberta (if employed for 26 consecutive weeks), British Columbia: 20 days for training and as many days as needed for emergencies, unpaid
• Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Ontario, Prince Edward Island, Saskatchewan, Northwest Territories: as required by Canadian Forces Reserve, unpaid
• New Brunswick: 30 days for training and 18 months for other purposes
• Quebec: 15 days for training and 18 months for other purposes
• Nunavut: the leave not covered by the Labour Standards Act
• Yukon: 15 days for training and as many days as needed for other purposes

Other leaves:

Certain provinces have specific leaves for certain situations, as follows:

• Citizenship leave: one day off to attend a citizenship ceremony — applicable in Alberta (half-day off, unpaid), Manitoba (four hours off), Nova Scotia, and Saskatchewan
• Wedding leave: one paid day off (if the wedding takes place on a working day) by the employer on the employee’s wedding day; employees are also entitled to an unpaid day off on the wedding day of their immediate family or their partner’s immediate family; applicable in Quebec only
• Legal proceedings: Employees are entitled to unpaid time off for jury services and for acting as witnesses. The leave does not apply to those in lawsuits.
• Organ donation: In Ontario, up to 13 weeks of unpaid leave for employees donating organs or tissue. In Quebec, the leave is 26 weeks, and the first two days may be paid if the employee hasn’t used their entitlement to two paid days off due to illness, domestic violence, or to care for a loved one. In Saskatchewan, the leave is up to 26 weeks unpaid.
• Nomination or election: Nomination, election and candidate and public office leaves are unpaid for as many days as required. This type of leave applies to municipal, provincial, territorial, federal, school board, and band council nominations, elections, and offices in Saskatchewan only (must work for more than 13 weeks consecutively to be eligible).

Resources

British Columbia

• B.C. Business Corporations Act
• Information on B.C. Corporate Taxes
• B.C. Employment Standards
• WorkSafe B.C.
• Starting a business in B.C. 
• B.C. Provincial Sales Tax

Alberta

• Alberta Corporate Business Taxes
• Alberta Business Corporations Act
• Alberta employment standards rules
• Alberta Occupational Health and Safety
• Starting a business in Alberta

Saskatchewan

• Saskatchewan Business Corporations Act
• Saskatchewan Corporation Income Tax
• Saskatchewan Employment Standards
• WorkSafe Saskatchewan
• Saskatchewan Provincial Sales Tax
• Resources for starting a business in Saskatchewan

Manitoba

• Manitoba Corporations Act
• Manitoba Corporate Income Tax
• Manitoba Employment Standards
• Safe Work Manitoba
• Starting a business in Manitoba
• Manitoba RST (often referred to as PST)
  • Also, see TAXcess to apply for an RST number

Ontario

• Ontario Corporations Act
• Ontario Corporate Income Tax
• Ontario Employment Standards
• Health and Safety Ontario
• Starting a business in Ontario

Quebec

• Québec Corporations Act/Loi sur les sociétés par actions 
• Une société assujettie à l’impôt du Québec (Income tax information from Revenu Québec.not available in English as per the Charter of the French Language)
• Labour Standards in Quebec/Les normes d’emploi du québec
• Health and Safety Québec/Loi sur la santé et la sécurité du travail
• Starting a business in Quebec/Démarrer une entreprise au Québec
• Registering for GST and QST/Inscription aux fichiers de la TPS et de la TVQ 

New Brunswick

• New Brunswick Corporations Act
• New Brunswick Corporate Income Tax
• New Brunswick Employment Standards
• WorkSafe NB
• Setting up a business in New Brunswick
• Resources for businesses in New Brunswick
• New Brunswick Small Business Guide

Nova Scotia

• Nova Scotia Companies Act
• Nova Scotia Income Tax and Credits
• Nova Scotia Employment Rights
• Work Safe. For Life. Nova Scotia Small Business Safety Tool Kit
• How to set up a business in Nova Scotia
• Ready to register my business Nova Scotia

PEI

• PEI Companies Act
• Requirements for starting a business in PEI
• PEI Business Start-Up and Entrepreneurship in PEI
• Starting a business in PEI
• Employment Standards PEI
• Occupational Health and Safety Act

Newfoundland and Labrador 

• Newfoundland and Labrador Corporations Act
• Newfoundland and Labrador Corporate Income Tax
• Newfoundland and Labrador Labour Relations at Work
• Newfoundland and Labrador Occupational Health and Safety
• Setting up a business in Newfoundland and Labrador 
• How to start a business in Newfoundland and Labrador

Yukon

• Yukon Business Corporations Act
• Yukon Employment Standards
• Occupational Health and Safety
• Start a business in Yukon
• Doing business in Yukon

Northwest Territories

• NWT Business Corporations Act
• NWT Corporate Income Tax
• NWT Employment Standards 
• NWT Occupational Health and Safety
• Guide to start a business in NWT
• Business registrations NWT
• How to start a business in NWT

Nunavut

• Nunavut Corporations Act
• Nunavut Labour Standards Compliance Office
• Nunavut Occupational Health and Safety Regulations
• Seven steps to starting your business in Nunavut

The post Hiring and HR Compliance Considerations for Canadian News Businesses appeared first on LION Publishers.

Keeping compliant with Canadian laws and regulations

Understanding federal and provincial laws and regulations is important because it will protect your journalism business from inadvertently receiving hefty fines or facing legal action from your employees.

For example, employers can face fines for violating health and safety regulations under the Canada Labour Code or for violating overtime requirements set by the Employment Standards Act.

You should become aware of the following laws and regulations to protect your business.  

Employment/Labour Standards: Familiarise yourself with the labour laws in your province or territory governing employment conditions, such as working hours, wages, and leaves of absence. 

Occupational Health and Safety: Ensure compliance with workplace safety regulations in your province and territory to provide a safe environment for your employees.

The Canada Safety Office has a guide on Office Safety available for purchase on its website.

If you want to apply for the Canada Summer Jobs wage subsidy, you must demonstrate that you have implemented adequate measures to ensure the intern is aware of health and safety practices in the work environment, even if they are working from home. This includes offering training in the Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System (WHMIS). Several companies can be found online that offer WHMIS training.

Queen’s University offers a free health and safety checklist for those working from home.  

Human Rights: Understanding the human rights laws specific to your province or territory is essential for ensuring compliance and fostering a fair and inclusive work environment. These laws provide guidelines for promoting diversity, preventing discrimination, and upholding the rights of employees throughout their tenure with your news business.

These laws assert that every individual has the right to equal treatment in the workplace without facing discrimination or harassment based on prohibited grounds such as race, age, or family status. 

The concept of equal treatment covers all aspects of the workplace environment and throughout the employment life cycle, including recruitment, training, promotions, pay rates, performance evaluations, and termination.

Anti-harassment policies:

It’s important to create a workplace culture that prioritises mutual respect and ensures freedom from harassment. 

Failing to address instances of harassment can result in the employer being held accountable for their employees’ actions. To mitigate this risk, it is essential to have an anti-harassment policy and provide anti-harassment training to supervisors and staff.

An anti-harassment policy clarifies the rights and responsibilities of both employees and the organisation. It educates employees on what constitutes harassment, the reporting procedures, and available support. This promotes transparency and empowers individuals to seek support if they experience or witness harassment.

The Canadian Human Rights Commission offers a free template for employers creating an anti-harassment policy.

Employee Privacy: 

Understand your responsibilities for safeguarding employee personal information and be sure to comply with applicable privacy laws in your province or territory.

Balancing privacy with the need for relevant employee information is essential for maintaining a positive work environment. 

Regardless of legal requirements, creating a workplace culture that values and respects privacy contributes to employee morale, mutual trust, and overall business success.

Employee personal information encompasses various data, such as pay and benefits records, attendance reports, personnel files, video or audio recordings, web-browsing history, email content, and keystrokes. Be mindful of the sensitivity and confidentiality of this information.

Employee privacy laws are important in Canada because they protect employees’ personal information from being collected, used or disclosed without their consent.

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC) enforces the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA), which applies to businesses. Non-compliance with PIPEDA can result in fines of up to $100,000.

Here’s a brief guide to help you navigate privacy laws, obligations, and best practices in your hiring and workplace management. You can find many policy generators online, like this one. 

• Collect only necessary information for clearly identified purposes.
• Seek meaningful consent for collecting, using, and disclosing personal information. For more information on how to do this, see the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada’s Guidelines for obtaining meaningful consent.
• Even when consent is not required, be transparent about information practices, provide employees with meaningful notice, and outline policies that govern personal information handling.
• Use or disclose personal information only for the intended purposes unless otherwise consented to or legally permitted.
• Inform employees about how their information is collected and used, grant them access to their personal information, and allow them to challenge its accuracy and completeness.
• Limit access to employee information to those who genuinely require it.
• Maintain accurate, complete, and up-to-date employee personal information.
• Develop clear policies and procedures for collecting, using, and disclosing employee personal information. Update them as needed when introducing new programs or making substantial changes.
• If monitoring employees, ensure it is reasonable, proportionate, and minimally intrusive. Avoid unnecessary surveillance.
• When considering employee monitoring (workplace surveillance or activity tracking, for example), ensure it aligns with privacy rights. Assess privacy risks and implement mitigating measures. Unless exceptional circumstances arise, transparently communicate monitoring purposes, methods, and potential consequences to employees.
• Employees have the right to access personal information collected through monitoring. Establish practices to address access requests for access, privacy compliance challenges, and potential complaints.
• Implement physical, organisational, and technological safeguards to prevent unauthorised access or disclosure, including protecting against “employee snooping” incidents – where employees inappropriately access other employees’ personal information.
• Consent does not waive an organisation’s obligations under privacy laws. Even with consent, organisations must still comply with legal requirements and obligations related to accountability, collection limitation, and safeguards.

Keeping current

Staying up to date with HR trends and changes in labour issues is important. Regularly review and adapt your HR policies and practices to ensure compliance with evolving legislation. Canadian HR Reporter is a magazine that HR professionals subscribe to keep up with the latest regulations. 

Consider seeking legal assistance to understand and navigate specific requirements that may impact your organisation.

Many HR companies in Canada are available to work for your business on a retainer or a per-project basis, such as helping your business draft the necessary employee policies or conducting employee reviews. 

Building a successful journalism business in Canada is about more than just publishing stories and gaining an audience. It’s about conducting your business ethically, responsibly, and with the utmost regard for Canadian law and regulations, especially with respect to your employees.

The post HR Considerations for Canadian News Businesses appeared first on LION Publishers.

As a Canadian news startup preparing to hire your first employee, it’s essential to have a clear understanding of how full-time and part-time employment is typically defined in Canada — although there is no specific legal definition. This will help you establish proper employment contracts and policies.

Full-Time Employment:

Generally, full-time employment means working more than 30 hours per week.

Many employers in Canada observe an eight-hour work day with a 30-minute unpaid lunch hour. Therefore, a full-time week is 37.5 paid hours per week.

Full-time employees usually enjoy additional benefits not commonly available to part-time employees. These benefits can include health and dental coverage, profit sharing, or contributions to a registered retirement savings plan (RRSP).

The company may cover the entire health insurance premium or share the cost with the employee.

Hourly pay or salary?

Full-time employees can be paid by the hour, or you can offer a salary. 

If paid by the hour, the employees must be paid for overtime and receive statutory holiday pay, which is required when an employee works a nationally or provincially recognized holiday.

Salaried employees are not paid overtime. Even if they work 80 hours a week, their compensation will not change. Salaried employees are not paid for statutory holidays even if they work on those days. 

Typically, a company distributes a salary to the employee in equal or near-equal amounts for every pay period, which could be monthly or bi-monthly.

Part-Time Employment:

Part-time employment is usually less than 30 hours per week.

Technically, a worker can work up to 40 hours per week and still be considered part-time. The designation of full-time versus part-time employment depends on the employment contract and the employer’s policies.

Under the Canada Labour Code and provincial and territorial regulations, part-time workers must be paid overtime.

Overtime Pay

In most provinces and territories, the overtime threshold is generally 40 work hours per week. There are, however, exceptions in certain provinces. Ontario’s overtime threshold is 44 hours.  In Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, it is 48 hours. 

Any hours worked beyond the regulated hourly threshold in a single workweek are considered overtime hours and must be paid in accordance with provincial or territorial rules.

Typically, most Canadian companies do not offer health and dental coverage, profit sharing, or contributions to an RRSP to part-time workers.

Contractor or employee?

In Canada, determining whether someone is an employee or a self-employed contractor is crucial, as it impacts tax obligations and contributions to employment insurance and pension plans.

“Employers are responsible for deducting Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions, Employment Insurance (EI) premiums, and income tax from remuneration or other amounts they pay to their employees,” according to the Canadian Revenue Agency’s (CRA) online guide RC4110, Employee or Self-Employed?

According to CRA, the employer’s intent going into the employment relationship and the degree of control over the worker are important factors in determining whether you have an employer-employee or a business relationship.

Differences between employees and independent contractors

Volunteers and unpaid interns

Each province and territory has different regulations around volunteering and unpaid internships, so be sure to look into the rules where your business is located. Ensuring that volunteer work meets the specific criteria outlined by the law is crucial to avoid any potential fines and penalties.

For instance, in Manitoba, volunteering can only be unpaid if the work is performed for a charitable or political organisation, according to Manitoba’s employment standards laws.

The term “internship” is commonly used to describe on-the-job work experiences. These internships and other forms of unpaid training may be permitted in your province or territory if they meet certain conditions. For example, in Manitoba the training must be for a limited duration and approved by the provincial or federal government or a school board. An example of an allowable unpaid internship in Manitoba is a co-op placement required for graduation from a college program. Mandatory job-specific training must be compensated.

If you have an unpaid internship that does not properly meet the regulations of your province, a complaint could be filed against your company.

For example, an event planner in Winnipeg hired unpaid interns without proper provincial approval. Manitoba Employment Standards launched an investigation and determined the interns should have been paid for their work. The employer paid the owed wages, and the claims were closed. Further non-compliance could have resulted in a penalty.

When in doubt, seek legal advice to understand the requirements surrounding unpaid volunteering and internships. 

Note: Whenever possible, LION recommends its member organisations pay interns for their work.

The post Staffing Considerations for Canadian News Businesses appeared first on LION Publishers.

The post Assessing Opportunities: Aligning Ideas with Operations and Capacity appeared first on LION Publishers.

Here is the template. Create a copy to start your assessment.

The post Capacity Assessment Template appeared first on LION Publishers.

Defining organizational capacity and why it’s important

There are many definitions for organizational capacity, and most are industry specific. In the nonprofit sector, it often means the ability of an organization to deliver on its mission. In a governmental context, the focus tends to be on productivity and efficiency.

At LION, we define organizational capacity as a news business’s ability to meet its internal and external commitments with the resources it has. 

For the purposes of this definition, those commitments could include:

• Content commitments, like publishing a particular amount of content, on a particular cadence on a series of particular topics
• Audience commitments, like engaging with readers, viewers, followers, members or subscribers in a particular way for a particular reason
• Financial commitments, like paying expenses and meeting other financial obligations fully and in a timely manner
• Team commitments, like setting, modeling and upholding a particular team culture
• Management commitments, like supporting staff and contractors through check-ins/coordination, navigating challenges and ensuring professional development
• Organizational commitments, like setting and shepherding a strategic vision that matches your mission and builds toward sustainability
• Technology commitments, like providing the tools and tech that enable team members to do their work with as little friction as possible

And resources can include:

• Money
• Time
• People (staff and/or freelancers)
• Benefits and perks
• Structures, processes and workflows
• Training and documentation
• Individual support
• Team support
• Management support
• Opportunities for growth and development

In LION’s experience, news organizations that are overcommitted and under-resourced are those most at risk for burnout — or worse. That’s why understanding exactly what you can do with what you have is so critical. Here are some other reasons why understanding organizational capacity is important:

• It allows you to see exactly how your commitments align with your resources
• It allows you to better plan for the future by understanding where you can build — and where you might need to cut back
• It helps you better support yourself and your team
• It helps explain exactly why and where you or your team may be feeling burnt out or overcommitted so you can address problems at their source

We’ve also seen that the biggest drain on capacity for our members is editorial projects that require a lot of time and don’t always provide a lot of payoff. This is often the result of:

• Launching a news organization with a more ambitious editorial agenda than your team can realistically deliver
• Adding products, series’, features etc. over time but not eliminating any as they become less relevant or do-able
• Prioritizing projects based on relationships rather than impact
• Prioritizing splashy, high-effort projects that take more bandwidth than is available
• Not conducting audience research or measuring journalistic impact to understand what truly resonates with your audience
• Focusing on projects that don’t move the financial needle in some way
• Working with so many freelancers that managing/coordinating them takes time away from other crucial tasks

Here are some resources for addressing these issues:

• Conducting Audience Research
• Assessing Growth Opportunities
• Setting Organizational Goals

Understanding the work

The first and most important step in assessing your capacity is getting a clear, detailed understanding of where you and your team are spending your time and how long it actually takes to do the work you’re doing. This is critical because it requires that you make visible the often-invisible work that comes with running a news business. Here’s how:

Tracking projects/activities 

What are the main things your organization does? Perhaps you don’t think of them as “projects” — you might more accurately classify them as activities, processes, workflows or buckets of work. By this measure, your newsletter would count as a project, as would your ad selling workflow and, say, reader communication. And don’t forget internally facing projects! Updating your financial documents and managing your team also count as activities, because you spend time doing them. 

Write down all the tasks or activities that a specific project requires. Ask your team to participate to ensure you’re capturing everything. Here are a few tips to consider as you make this list:

• Differentiate between launching new projects and maintaining current ones, as the former takes much more time and deserves its own attention.
• Make sure you’re capturing the support work that goes into project execution, like creating and updating systems, measuring progress, setting goals etc.
• Don’t forget to include the important work of internal and external communication and coordination, like meetings, memos, emails etc.

For example, your list for selling ads might look like this:

• Research and update list of opportunities
• New client outreach
• New client meetings/phone calls
• Media kit updates
• Client cultivation and communication
• Rate card creation
• Pricing research
• Editorial calendar updates
• Team meetings
• Contract creation and negotiation
• Ad creation
• Ad placement and publication
• Troubleshooting
• Payment processing
• Tracking and reporting
• Client follow-up

We’ve created a template to assess your capacity here. 

Tracking time

How much time are you actually spending on certain tasks, and are you accounting for all the work that goes into the set-up and maintenance? For example, reeling in a major donor or landing a significant advertiser is not just a matter of taking a meeting and making a deal. It takes weeks, months and, yes, sometimes years to build that relationship and align on a plan. And that process likely entailed hours and hours of outreach to other donors or potential advertisers who may not have ended up signing on the bottom line, but required cultivation nonetheless. And what about communicating with your audience? Engaging with readers and members through your various channels requires being attentive, responsive and customer-service oriented. And that takes time you need to account for when understanding what it takes to do that work.

There are several time tracking apps that can make this easier (Clockify is another) as well as project management tools like Asana, Monday.com or Trello that can also be useful for tracking not just time, but progress. 

Tracking people

Now that you have a clear sense of what your activities are, it’s time to dig into who is doing them. Here are two useful frameworks for assessing roles and responsibilities.

• A RACI chart can be an effective tool for clarifying who is doing what. R stands for “responsible”; A stands for “accountable”; C stands for “consultant”; I stands for “informed” (we’ve found that for very small teams, everyone tends to be “informed.”) RACI charts work best when you need to articulate who is responsible for what work and can also help you gain clarity on people’s workloads to better understand where blockages or inefficiencies happen.
• A MOCHA chart allows you to dig even deeper into how the work happens. M stands for “manager,” O stands for “owner” C stands for “consulted,” H stands for “helper” and A stands for “approver.” These work best for slightly larger teams and highly collaborative teams who need to capture that teamwork on a more granular level. 

Create a RACI or a MOCHA chart for each of your projects and, once you’ve seen what each team member is responsible for, assign them a percentage for each project that captures how much of their overall time is spent on that project. It also ensures you aren’t duplicating work that others are doing, or vice versa. You’ll use this later when you’re assessing your organizational capacity.

Tracking effort and frequency

Not all activities take the same amount of effort, and it’s critical when assessing capacity to understand the mix of high, medium and low effort activities, as well as activities that are one-offs or ongoing. 

Before you start tracking effort, you’ll need to choose a period of time to track that makes sense for your organization. The most common time frames are by the week, by the month or by the quarter. Any time frame longer than that tends to be too hard to track. The shorter the time frame, the easier it is to wrap  your head around the work.

Once you’ve chosen your timeframe, revisit your list of activities and track your efforts during that timeframe by doing the following:

• Assign each activity a number between 1-3 to indicate whether it’s a 3 (high effort), 2 (medium effort) or a 1 (low effort). Then add up the numbers by project or person responsible. This will give you a big-picture sense of the labor that goes into everyone’s work, and you’ll be able to see at a glance where you and your team are spending most of your time. 
• To gain the most detailed understanding of your capacity, calculate the actual number of hours each activity takes. Group those activities by project or bucket of work and you’ll have a clear map for exactly how much effort you’re spending and on what.

Once you’ve tracked activities, people and effort, you might have a spreadsheet that looks something like this:

Do the math

Here comes the fun part. You’ve got all your data and it’s time to see whether you’re at, above or below your organizational capacity by doing the following:

1. Choose a project and add up all the hours it takes to complete within your chosen time frame. This is your “project demand.”
2. Calculate the number of people involved in that project by adding up the percentages you assigned earlier for how much of each person’s time is devoted to the project. This is your “total people.”
3. Multiply your “ total people” by the number of hours your team typically works in your time frame. Be honest with yourself. If your team members typically work 50 hours a week, then that’s your number — even if you wish it was 40. If you or they are working more hours than you’d like, you can play around with the number of hours later to see whether you could meet your project demand with fewer worked hours. This is your “potential capacity.”
4. Multiply your “potential capacity” by .8 to reflect the fact that no one can work 100% of the time, and everyone spends about 20% of their work time on miscellaneous tasks like responding to Slack messages, catching up on email, eating lunch or just chatting with co-workers. This number is your “actual capacity.”
5. Subtract your “actual capacity” from  your “project demand” to arrive at your ability to meet that demand. A positive number means the project requires more work than you have capacity for. A negative number means you have more capacity than the project demands.

It could look something like this:

Here’s another example:

Project A takes 60 hours per week and there are 1.5 people working on it who work 45 hours per week. 

The actual work capacity is 1.5 x 45 x .8 = 54 hours per week

The ability to meet your project demand is 60 — 54 = 6

That means you’re over capacity to do the work required for the project and would need to divert 6 hours of someone’s else’s time to cover the work or cut back aspects of the project to align with what your team can actually do. 

If you find you’re over capacity on one or more projects, we strongly encourage you not to respond by simply working more hours. Rather, we encourage you to plug into your equation the number of hours that you and your team should be working so you have a clear sense of exactly how much you’d need to cut back to get to a more balanced place. Remember, being overcommitted and under-resourced is a recipe for burnout. 

Map your effort to impact

Knowing exactly how much effort your work takes and whether you have the capacity to do it is critical to addressing burnout and planning for the future, but only if you act on that information as you build for sustainability. That means taking the important next step of mapping your capacity onto your goals. To do that, take the following steps:

1. Revisit your mission and organizational goals to see which projects best align with the future you’ve mapped out for your business and your community. Rate each one as either high, medium or low impact to capture whether they directly serve your mission and audience and if they move the needle on your long-term sustainability. Learn how to set high-level organizational goals here and to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals here. If you don’t already have a mission statement, here’s a resource for how to articulate one and why.  
2. Revisit your project capacity calculations and rate each project as either high, medium or low effort to capture the amount of work it takes to make them happen.
3. Create an Impact/Effort Matrix to plot out which of your projects or activities are reaping the greatest rewards and which may not be worth the effort. This will help you prioritize your work, but may also help with future management/personnel conversations to surface any mismatches (for example, you may think the effort for a particular task is low but the person you’ve hired thinks the effort is high.)

Your matrix might look something like this. Here is an editable template.  

Align your capacity with your resources

It’s decision time. If your capacity assessment has revealed a beautiful balance between your resources and your commitments, then you can go forth with the confidence that your workload is sustainable and continue to evaluate and grow accordingly. But if, in the more likely scenario, this assessment revealed some hard truths about what you can accomplish with what you’ve got, then it’s time to make some tough choices. 

The big, strategic question to ask yourself is whether you should be doing less or adding capacity. It’ll come down to budget and meeting your organizational goals. If you don’t have the budget to add capacity, then you must do less. If you have the budget to add capacity to help you meet your organizational goals, then do it! If you have the budget to do MORE than what your organizational goals are, then critically assess the organizational value of doing more.

If you need to do less:

• Eliminate or rescope high-effort, low-impact projects or activities. This may entail letting go of pet projects, things you’ve been doing for a long time or rethinking how to best meet your mission.
• Create a “Stop Doing” List to cut out work that doesn’t perform and free up your ability to focus on work that does. Here are some resources:
  • American Press Institute – How newsrooms can do less work – but have more impact
  • American Press Institute – How to stop doing work that underperforms: Advice from 4 newsrooms
  • Better News – Stop Doing list

If you need to add capacity:

• Use your capacity assessment to evaluate where to shift roles and responsibilities on your team so that you’re putting your resources toward the highest impact work.
• Create a Staffing Plan to assess exactly where a new hire would benefit your business the most. Here’s how:
  • How to Create a Staffing Plan

Assess your culture

Organizational capacity is never static. Resources, priorities and bandwidth are always changing, so it’s important to continue to keep tabs on how your news business is balancing its commitments with its ability to reasonably meet them.

A good way to stay on top of how much you and your team can handle is by measuring team health and bandwidth. There are many different frameworks you can use, or you can invent your own depending on your team culture. At LION, here are a couple ways (among others!) we aim to regularly assess our team’s wellbeing and bandwidth: 

• Each week, during an All Hands meeting, we ask each person to reflect on their week using a “Rose, Bud, Thorns” framing and to measure their emotional health through colors. “Green”: means they’re good; “yellow” means they’re struggling; “red” means they’re about to crash and burn. If anyone on the team is yellow or red, the whole team is yellow or red, and we make sure to talk about what we can do to help that person get to green. Here are some other Team Health Check ideas.
• We also created what we call a “Bandwidth-o-Meter.” Each week, team members give themselves a score that captures their reflections on their workload. Unlike the team health check-in, which is designed to measure how people are feeling, this metric measures how much work is on their plate. Here’s what the scores mean:
  • 1=I am under capacity and may be taking a breather or may be able to take on new projects or pitch in to others’ work.
  • 2=I am just under my capacity and may be taking a breather or may be able to help with others’ work as needed.
  • 3=I am right at my capacity and my workload is balanced and healthy.
  • 4=I am just over my capacity and may need to reprioritize or get others’ help.
  • 5=I am way over capacity and I have no balanced workload. Help.

If folks find themselves at a 4 for more than one week in a row, we strongly suggest they re-prioritize by either handing off some work or moving it to the back burner.

Once you get a sense for your team’s health and workload, revisit your team capacity assessment and adjust accordingly. If you find that your team is consistently yellow or red with a bandwidth of 4 or higher, then the theoretical hours they’re working per week aren’t really available or realistic  — they need time to rest or re-prioritize. Here are a few paths forward:

• Assess whether a team member is the right fit for their responsibilities. It might be that their assigned tasks and activities aren’t aligned with their skillset or experience level and they would benefit from some professional development or another role in your organization.
• Normalize asking and offering help across your team. Here are two resources that can help:
  • How to get the help you need
  • How to deal with feeling constantly overwhelmed
• Treat burnout as the industry scourge that it is and address it with intention and seriousness. Here’s a resource:
  • Addressing and avoiding burnout

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Here is the template. Please make a copy to start your planning.

The post Revenue Growth Plan Template appeared first on LION Publishers.

Here’s a step-by-step guide for how to create one. 

Ground yourself in your mission

Planning for the future can be stressful, and it’s easy to get off track or lost in the weeds. That’s why it can be useful to start by grounding yourself in your mission. This can serve as a North Star as you navigate your way forward. 

Here’s an example: The Breach brings together diverse collaborators to publish investigative journalism and analysis about political, social and economic processes in Canada with the intention of fueling social movements that can address crises, avert disasters and put forward a compelling vision of the future.

If you don’t already have a mission statement, here’s a resource for how to articulate one and why.  

Ask yourself: given your mission, are there any revenue opportunities that you would not pursue because they are not aligned with your values or your audience?

Identify your stage of sustainability

LION is in the process of mapping the stages of sustainability based on what we’ve seen across the independent news industry. It may be useful to articulate your current stage and consider what it would take to progress to the next one. The stages are:

• Ideation: You are developing a concept for a news business.
• Preparation: You are beginning to implement a minimum viable product (MVP) for a news business.
• Building: You are expanding your editorial offerings based on audience and market research while building a foundation for revenue and operations.
• Maintaining: You have had some journalistic impact and are developing your target audience, but are still seeking operational and financial stability.
• Poised for Growth: You have a clear target audience and your revenue and operations are stable. You have the internal capacity to do the work you’ve committed to in service of your organizational goals and mission.
• Growing: You are enhancing your editorial offerings to reach new audiences. Revenue is growing and you are building your team.
• Scaling: You have a stable audience and revenue base and are pursuing significant new revenue streams or audiences.
• Sustaining: You have achieved revenue stability across multiple streams, are having consistent journalistic impact, and have sustainable workloads and compensation for staff and contributors.

Once you’ve identified your current position, ask yourself: what type or amount of revenue growth would help you move to the next stage? 

Understand your revenue growth strategy

There are ultimately only a few high-level strategies for increasing revenue. Some of them are:

• Gain more customers. In the case of a news business, a “customer” could be a paying subscriber or member, a business that advertises, a donor who gives, a foundation that provides grants, etc.
• Gain more repeat or loyal customers. This could mean converting casual readers into members, a reader subscribing to two newsletters instead of one, or a donor giving a bigger gift.
• Keep more of your current customers. This could mean addressing churn by tracking, understanding and preventing when and why people unsubscribe, stop advertising, stop giving etc. 
• Add products. This could mean starting a membership program, branching out into events or monetizing a community calendar.
• Raise your prices. This could mean charging $12 a month for a subscription instead of $10 or upping your ad pricing.
• Grow your bottom line. This could mean cutting costs by entering into editorial partnerships that lower the cost of producing stories or automating tasks so they require less by-the-hour human-power.

As you start to assess potential opportunities, make sure to articulate which of these is your aim so you can ensure that your actions always point back to your strategy. So, for example, if you’re focused on getting more people reading your content, you’ll also need a plan to, say, leverage that for advertisers or convert them to subscribers. 

Assess potential revenue streams

Launching a revenue stream is hard. Launching one that doesn’t build on anything you already do is much, much harder. So think through what you’re good at. Do you provide nuanced, insider coverage on a topic that a lot of people are deeply passionate about? Then perhaps subscriptions are a great revenue stream to pursue. Or perhaps you’re amazing at engaging with your community and bringing people together. Then memberships or events might be a fruitful path. Make a list of things you’re good at and match them to a potential revenue stream. Here are a few revenue streams to consider alongside some pros and cons.

Know your financial position

It’s not worth creating a revenue growth plan if you don’t already have a solid understanding of your finances. You need to have a budget in place and be able to project your revenue and expenses or you won’t know where you’re starting from or where you need to go.

Once you know your financial position, ask yourself: How much revenue do you need to generate to maintain your current operations? What are your general growth goals? How much revenue do you need to generate to meaningfully grow?

Know your organizational capacity

It’s also not worth investing time in creating an amazing revenue growth plan if you don’t have the organizational capacity to pull it off. It’s important to gain an understanding of who on your team is contributing to revenue generation and how by asking the following questions:

1. Who are your team members? Include anyone (even part-timers and contractors) who regularly and meaningfully contributes to revenue generation. Also include anyone who might be able to contribute if their role or duties were shifted. If you’re wearing many hats, consider what things can shift off your plate so you can devote more time to generating revenue.
2. What are their key responsibilities as they relate to revenue? Don’t include every little thing. Instead, consider their high-level buckets of work, like “ad sales” or “funder outreach.”
3. How do they divide their time? Assign (or better yet, ask them to estimate) what percentage of their time is focused on which aspects of revenue generation. Here’s a handy chart for converting hours to percentages.
4. What is their current bandwidth and capacity? Are they working beyond what they can reasonably do and are perhaps burnt out? Or might they be looking to contribute more?
5. What is the maximum percentage of time they might reasonably devote to revenue generation, given their other responsibilities? 
6. What would have to change for them to devote more time to revenue generating activities? What would they stop doing?
7. What training or support would they need in order to increase their contributions or contribute in a new way?
8. What insights have surfaced as you think about this person’s capacity to work on revenue generation and how willing are they to invest their time in something new? 

A note: don’t assume you know the answer to these questions without asking the people involved. They know their work, their bandwidth and their interests best.

Evaluate Opportunities

Now it’s time for the fun stuff. You doubtless have a million ideas but aren’t sure if they’re likely to pan out. Give them both a gut check and a deeper look by going through the following steps.

Assess potential revenue

1. Understand the opportunity. Make sure you’ve researched what it is and how it would work. But don’t get bogged down in the details yet. For now, you just need to understand the general shape and potential of the opportunity.
2. Ensure it furthers your mission. If it’s out of alignment, out of scope or violates your values or audience trust, it’s a no-go.
3. Evaluate it from a market perspective. Is this a growth area that is likely to continue to provide opportunities, or is it a contracting area or one-off prospect given broader market conditions? Is there a need for this idea in your market? Are there others in your market who are doing it? Could you do it better or differently? Are you the right organization in your market to pull it off? How do you know? Don’t forget that these questions also apply if you’re seeking to increase support from foundations or major donors, as these areas are also subject to market forces and success requires that your goals are aligned with their priorities.
4. Evaluate it from an audience perspective. Do the people who would engage with this idea actually want it? What evidence do you have (like surveys, interviews, data) that this is the case? Don’t assume you know what people want! There is too much on the line to make decisions that aren’t informed by data.  Here’s how to conduct audience research.  We’ve found that using a Jobs To Be Done framework is incredibly useful when thinking through ideas from an audience perspective. Here’s a quick example.
5. Evaluate it from an expertise and capacity perspective. Do you or the people on your team have the knowledge and experience to hit the ground running with this opportunity? If not, would the time spent developing knowledge and getting up to speed pencil out? Is your team in a good place to take on something new in terms of bandwidth, workload and mental/emotional health?
6. Evaluate its revenue potential by doing the following:
   1. Calculate the size of the total population that could possibly engage with this opportunity. What is the largest possible number of people or entities in question? If you’re looking to expand your local advertising efforts, this would be the total number of local businesses in your market. If you’re looking to create a membership program, this is the total number of readers/viewers/listeners in your market. 
   2. Narrow it down by the slice of population you would target. If you’re looking to increase local major donors, how many have or are likely to give to a mission like yours? If you’re building a restaurant guide, how many local restaurants might be interested in advertising to your publication’s demographic?
   3. Now estimate how much of that population would actually engage with this opportunity. How many businesses would actually advertise? How many members would actually pay? How many donors would actually give? Be realistic and conservative here. Do whatever research you can to understand typical conversion rates or rules-of-thumb for the opportunity you are assessing. You don’t want to build your plans on overestimations. That said, it can be difficult to estimate with accuracy given all the variables. Here are a few starting points:
      1. The marketing Rule of 7
      2. Membership metrics
      3. Newsletter conversion rates
      4. Prospect ratios
      5. Sales statistics
   4. Calculate what the people or entities would pay for this opportunity. What does an average ad or sponsorship cost? What is the price of a subscription? What is the average gift? What do your competitors charge? What do similar products in similar markets look like?
   5. Get to a final number by multiplying the population that would actually engage with the opportunity by the amount they would pay. So it might be that there are 1,000 people in your target membership demographic who would pay $10 per month for a membership. That means this revenue opportunity could add up to $120,000 a year. It’s important to note that that number will unlikely be static, as some members will undoubtedly stop being members. So you’ll want to factor in your churn rate.
7. Prioritize ruthlessly. You likely will need to pick one strategy and engage with only it. This may mean choosing between a major donor strategy or launching a membership program — at least for now.  Trying to do both will stretch your team too far, and make it harder for you to execute on your editorial mission. Ask yourself: will this generate the revenue you need? Will it move the needle enough?

Assess the full costs of the new revenue stream

1. Estimate the work this opportunity will take and how much employee time it would cost (aka the indirect costs or overhead). There are a couple ways to do this.
   1.  If there are people already on your team who will redirect their efforts completely or partially towards this project,  calculate the percentage of time they’ll spend on the work and multiply that by their salary and benefits to learn what your personnel expenses would be. 
   2. It might be easier to back into the above by estimating the number of hours this opportunity will take per week, especially if you are an un- or underpaid founder or are relying on volunteers to run your organization (note that we always advocate paying people who meaningfully contribute to your news business — especially you!). Here’s how:
      1. Make a list of all the tasks this opportunity will require, making sure to count things like communication, documentation and coordination, which are easy to forget but are crucial and take up a lot of time. 
      2. Estimate how many hours it will take to complete each task and add them all up. Remember, it’s better to overestimate so you’re getting a true sense of how much this will cost. 
      3. If you’d like to take it a step farther, assign an hourly rate to the work and see what it amounts to. As every news leader knows, sometimes time is just as valuable (if not more!) than money.
2. Estimate any direct costs associated with the opportunity. These might be additional staff members or higher hours for current staff (include benefits cost if applicable), tools/technology, consultant hours, subscriptions, fees etc. List them all, price them and add them all up. 
3. Do the math. When you add up all the expenses, do they justify the revenue you’re likely to generate? What are the opportunity costs of focusing on this opportunity instead of others? Would your time and resources be better spent elsewhere?

Assess your return on investment

A return on investment is a simple way to calculate the profitability of an opportunity. The formula is: Potential revenue – potential expenses / potential expenses. The result is a percentage that you can easily compare to the ROI on other opportunities. 

So if launching a sponsorships effort is likely to bring in $20,000 a year and it will cost $7,500 to launch, the ROI in the first year is $20K-$7.5K / $7.5K = 1.6 or 160%.

By contrast, if deeping your efforts around major donors is likely to bring in $20,000 a year and it will cost $3,000 in the first year, the ROI  is $20K-$3K / $3K = 5.6 or 560%. 

It’s important to note that ROI doesn’t take into account the passage of time. Perhaps the costs of an opportunity are largely up front, and it will cost much less to maintain. You wouldn’t expect a high ROI in the first year under those circumstances, but you can plan for the initial investment in time and/or money. You will also want to consider how the opportunity might – or might not – scale. Perhaps raising $20,000 from donors represents a saturation of the market, or maybe it’s a foothold in a longer-term strategy.

You can always turn to budget modeling to determine when an investment will start paying for itself and become truly profitable. Dive into that process here. 

Set Revenue Goals

Now that you’ve done all the work of assessing an opportunity and understanding why it might work and what it would take, it’s time to decide on your growth plan and set some goals. 

These should be specific goals that move your news business forward and contribute to revenue growth. Learn how to set organizational goals  here and how to set specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound (SMART) goals here. These are presented as high-level organizational goals, but the thinking can be applied to revenue goals as well.

As you consider your goals, map out exactly what it would take and what it looks like. What has to happen for you to reach this goal? How will you measure progress and success? 

Here’s an example. Let’s say your SMART goal is to identify and apply for at least four grants, for a total of at least $100,000, from at least two existing funders and two new ones by the end of September. In order for it to happen, you’d need to:

• Build pipeline documentation to track targets, contacts and application dates
• Prioritize at least one morning per week for prospecting and outreach
• Attend at least one major industry conference to meet target funders
• Develop a reusable boilerplate from past grant applications to reduce grantwriting time
• Plan for a slower publishing cadence to ensure you have the time to focus on this goal

And you might measure progress by:

• Tracking each stage of your pipeline, knowing that you need 3-4x conversations with funders to net an invitation to apply (emails, meetings, follow ups, invitations to apply)
• Tracking the number of grants submitted
• Tracking the total potential grant dollars

Now give yourself a cold, hard reality check. Are your goals reasonable given what it would take to achieve them? Should you pare back your expectations or pursue other goals that may be equally strategic but more in reach? And even if your goals seem within reach, are they truly contributing to your business’ sustainability or might you reconsider how they connect to the bottom line? 

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