News Corp boss Michael Miller urges government to prioritise survival of mainstream media outlets

News Corp boss Michael Miller says while ‘government handouts’ might sustain smaller, digital outlets that don’t create news content, they would not help mainstream media in the long term.

Michael Miller, executive chairman of News Corp Australia. Picture: Liam Kidston

News Corp boss Michael Miller says mainstream media outlets are the “engine room” of the nation’s news industry, and must be the priority of the federal government’s push to protect Australian journalism.

“Australia is strong when Australian media is strong. To grow our country, Australians need a sustainable news media industry,” Mr Miller, the executive chairman of News Corp Australasia, told The Australian.

Mr Miller’s remarks follow the release last week of a government inquiry into social media which made 11 recommendations, one of which was for the government to develop a way to give money to publishers to “strengthen alternative income streams”.

But Mr Miller warned that “government handouts” – which might sustain smaller, digital outlets that do not create news content – would not help mainstream media in the long term.

“The government is at risk of abandoning the engine rooms of Australian news, which is where the bulk of the jobs are and where the bulk of important Australian stories are told,” he said.

“The parliament’s primary focus should be those deals Meta has walked away from.

“The best way to sustain these media outlets – including the ABC – is by reaching commercial outcomes with Meta and not through government handouts, which are unlikely to be enough to fund journalism as we know it.”

Communications Minister Michelle Rowland this month announced the government would release $15m in “urgent funding” for regional and community news outlets with revenue under $30m.

The government is still deliberating whether to “designate” Meta under the terms of the News Media Bargaining Code, after the Mark Zuckerberg-controlled company in February abandoned the “payment-for-content” deals it struck with Australian news media companies in 2021.

Mr Miller said Meta’s decision to walk away from the agreements had decimated Australia’s news rooms, and thus facilitated the online spread of dangerous content.

“More than 1000 people have sadly been forced to leave Australian media in the six months since Meta’s decision,” he said.

“Australians need a healthy local media to protect them from social media, and the misinformation and disinformation they spread.”

In June, in an address to the National Press Club, Mr Mller said global tech giants should be subject to a social licence that forces them to pay for news.

“The tech monopolies, ­especially social media networks such as Meta, TikTok and X, choose to operate outside our legal system,’’ he said.

Under the social licence plan, the federal government would be able to make the platforms liable for all content that is amplified, curated and controlled by them.