Bundaberg Regional Council fails to disclose operating costs of its news website

Ratepayers are being denied transparency from Bundaberg Regional Council, which has declined to comment on how much its Bundaberg Now news website is costing the community and how much money it takes away from essential services.

Bundaberg Regional Council has failed to disclose operating costs of its ‘news’ website.

Bundaberg Regional Council has declined to answer exactly how ratepayer funds are being used when fronted with questions about the true cost of its Bundaberg Now news website.

According to the council’s main website, ratepayers are forking out $1.4million a year in marketing and communications costs for BRC, but it is not known how much of that goes into its news website, Bundaberg Now.

BRC has kept the true operating costs of Bundaberg Now a secret from local media since its inception in 2019, when newspaper, TV and radio journalists approached BRC for comment on its competing news outlet.

Some have argued that the council’s “free” content, which is not actually “free”, goes against the tenets of traditional journalism, which produces balanced stories and holds governments accountable.

Overnight, a Facebook user who appears to be council’s chief of staff and Bundaberg Now writer Michael Gorey, commented on a post about a NewsMail article published on Tuesday about the Federal Minister for Communications calling on Bundaberg Regional Council to close the ‘misleading’ website.

When a Facebook user quizzed Mr Gorey on the council’s budget for communications and marketing, Mr Gorey said running Bundaberg Now cost “$5000”, but further added that the $5000 figure was for “software to run the site.”

Bundaberg Regional Council has been asked to disclose the true cost to ratepayers its news website.

Bundaberg Regional Council has been asked to disclose the true cost to ratepayers its news website.

The BRC website also states that Bundaberg Now costs “$6000 per year”.

Mr Gorey did not include the rest of the costs associated with running the website, including the cost of hiring multiple journalists and content producers specifically working on content for Bundaberg Now and for staff who divide their time between other council communications material and Bundaberg Now.

The NewsMail tried to obtain clarity on behalf of ratepayers as to the exact cost for the community to read the articles and sent a number of questions to the Bundaberg Regional Council on Wednesday morning, including:

- How many staff are involved in the content creation of Bundaberg Now (including photographers, videographers, journalists, digital producers) and what are they paid?

- How does the council justify using ratepayers’ money to produce a news site that is competing with other non-publicly funded news sites? Especially given the Mayor’s statements about supporting regional journalism?

- Why won’t the council tell the people of Bundaberg what it spends each year on marketing and communication?

- Can you offer proof that the site costs $5000 a year to run? (as mentioned by Michael Gorey in a comment on our NewsMail Facebook page).

Communications manager Megan Dean responded to the NewsMail, “many of these questions have previously been answered” and “Council has nothing further to add”.

The ongoing mystery surrounding the real cost of Bundaberg Now (including software), domain, sponsored posts on social media, photographers, videographers, journalists, digital producers and IT maintenance has never been disclosed.

BRC’s website states that a figure over a million is spent on communications activities.

“The Communications team, which produces Bundaberg Now among its other duties, has 13 staff who work in various roles including internal communications and external marketing,” the website says.

“The overall budget this year is $1,419,359, including wages and including $250,000 for council advertising.”

BRC’s annual report for the year ending June 2021 also states $4,377,455 was spent on Executive Services and Communications, but a breakdown on exactly how much is going towards “Communications” has not been recorded.