Two swathes of government cash have been announced from a Labor commitment of $5 million to support regional publications.

Federal communications minister Michelle Rowland was at LINA’s inaugural conference at the end of last month to confirm its $1.5 million for what it calls “micro news publishers”.

And at the same time, her department was pushing the “$5 million” from which the cash comes and the $105,000 per cadet it represents towards the cost of employing “up to 56 new cadet journalists in 38 regional newsrooms across the nation” through the first round of the its Journalist Fund.

Last Friday Rowland was a welcome guest speaker at the Local and Independent News Association’s first conference, receiving applause from a packed room of digital news publishers and supporters.

She told the 50-plus group, representing more than 80 mastheads, “created by locals for locals, your coverage connects people around the issues that interest and impact them. You promote participation, improve local governance and fill gaps in local news coverage.

“To this end, I want to acknowledge the important work LINA does to support and boost independent news.”

Part of an Albanese Government Budget commitment, the $5 million allocation is being provided “in partnership with selected regional news organisations”.

Under a co-contribution arrangement, new journalists are funded for two years with $150,000 per cadet, of which successful grant recipients contribute 30 per cent.
A second round – supporting First Nations regional media organisations to employ First Nations cadets – is underway, with the department consulting with Indigenous Community Television, Koori Mail, National Indigenous Times and Torres News to support engagement of five First Nations cadets.

Applicants have already been approved by Michell Rowland’s department of infrastructure, transport, regional development, communications and the arts.
In a statement last week she said it was delivering a fund that “implements lessons learned from a previous cadetships programme announced in 2018, following an independent evaluation by ACIL Allen”.

Fund design changes include “a more generous funding package per cadet” and paying more to recipients earlier, “so that they are set up to succeed”, and with consultation to ensure the department engaged early and strategically with stakeholders.

In a statement last week, the programme referred back to “its key election commitment of a $29 million local news and community broadcasting transition package” to bolster the industry – known as the Regional and Local Newspapers Publishers Program – which the Journalist Fund grant programme is said to complement.

Rowland says the government is committed to supporting public interest journalism and media diversity, and “fostering cadet journalists is key to the sustainability of regional media organisations”.