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ground rules: The panel is supposed to lay out the ground rules for deciding which organizations qualify for tax breaks and charitable status -- measures that Ottawa has chosen to help sustain the news industry as it struggles to transition to the digital economy, according to Rabble. That's why it's sobering to read the just-released Digital News Report, a comprehensive study of media trends conducted by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, and based on data from almost 40 countries and six continents. Support rabble.ca today for as little as 1 per month!What the federal government calls its Journalism and Written Media Independent Panel of Experts hasn't had time to meet yet, but already there is evidence that Ottawa's 600 million plan to help out the news industry is misguided and not likely to work. Ottawa has chosen to direct its aid to three key initiatives a new refundable tax credit that will subsidize the salaries of reporters and editors hired at newspapers that qualify as professional; a new non-refundable tax credit to encourage Canadians to subscribe to digital news outlets; and charitable tax incentives for not-for-profit journalism. Despite the efforts of the news industry, researchers found only a small increase in the numbers paying for any online news -- whether by subscription, membership, or donation. According to Digital News Report, the outlook on all those fronts seems to be bleak. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.