It’s Christmas in the workhouse, and smaller publishers are to get guidance on philanthropic aid as part of a package of assistance announced overnight.
The $153.5 million launch of the News Media Assistance Program (News MAP) has been accompanied by additional funding for community broadcasting.
Communications minister Michelle Rowland and indigenous Australians minister Malarndirri McCarthy announced the programme with a total of $180.5 million, releasing a “policy framework” to guide government intervention to support public interest journalism in Australia:
-a new expert advisory panel will provide advice on the design and targeting of mechanisms to support sustainability and capacity building, including attracting philanthropy;
-news agency Australian Associated Press gets a further $33 million over three years, “recognising its important role in supporting media diversity and providing high quality news”;
-grants totalling $116.7 million over four years from 2024-25 (and $1.7 million in 2028-29) will “support and build the sustainability and capacity of news organisations” so they can deliver public interest journalism and local news vital to Australian communities, including $17.6 million for the infrastructure, transport, regional development, communications and arts department “to support programme delivery”;
-included is $3.8 million over three years from 2025-26 for the development of a National Media Literacy Strategy, “co-designed with the media literacy research sector, education sector and communities, to better equip Australians to critically engage with news and media”;
-the government also commits to spending at least $3 million a year for two years for regional newspaper advertising.
The government says this is in addition to the $15 million already announced for the News Media Relief programme, and $10.5 million for ACMA to implement the Media Diversity Measurement Framework.
The announcement has been welcomed by the Local & Independent News Association, which has been campaigning on the industry’s behalf and consulting with government.
Executive director Claire Stuchbery said LINA was pleased to see the government “responding to feedback provided by the industry body and its member publishers to help address challenges to the sector and enable capacity building for an industry in transition.
“The News Media Relief Program provides much-needed, urgent funds to eligible news businesses in the very short term and the News MAP will transform the industry in the years ahead.
“Small and independent news publishers are a vital part of community infrastructure.
“While we have seen localised glimmers of hope in the transition to the delivery of news online, challenges to business models have made it really hard to make local newsrooms viable. This funding provides a little water to those greenshoots in the news industry, allowing space and support to build new models of news delivery that best serve our communities.”
She said the funding announcement is “very much a hand-up rather than a hand out” and LINA member publishers were ready to step up alongside colleagues at AAP and in the community and First Nations broadcasting sectors.
Senator McCarthy (pictured) said First Nations journalists, broadcasters and media were a “vital part of Australia’s media landscape”, and the government’s $12 million investment through the Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Program “recognised and supports their important work”.
The government will also committing an additional $27 million to back Australia’s community broadcasting sector, with $15 million through the Community Broadcasting Program (including $3 million to support community television), and $12 million through the Indigenous Broadcasting and Media Program to support the First Nations broadcasting and media sector.
The new funding “recognises and supports the services of over 450 community broadcasters who connect communities and amplify diverse voices, while the government continues work with the sector on the Community Broadcasting Sector Sustainability Review”.
Pictured: The 19th century George Cruikshank illustration of the classic workhouse scene