Lifeline for journalism on behalf of robust democracy

When parliamentary concerns led to the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission inquiry into digital platforms, it showed Australia was working hard to get out in front of digital disruption. The recommendations in the ACCC report did not disappoint.

On Thursday the federal government announced its support for several of the ACCC recommendations to better protect and inform Australian consumers, address bargaining power imbal­ances between digital platforms and media companies, and ensure appropriate privacy settings.

In some respects the government succeeds, but not with respect to public interest journalism; the response is not enough — and not quick enough — to address the crisis in the burning platforms of public interest journalism.

Public interest journalism is dying before our eyes, particularly in rural, regional and suburban areas. As captured in the ACCC report, there are already news deserts, decimated newsrooms finding it hard to survive day to day, and thousands of lost journalist jobs.

In the places still with some local media, the gathering of local content is often replaced by syndicated stories that don’t cover what’s happening in local institutions such as councils and courts. Australians are becoming more likely to know what’s happening with Brexit than in their own back yards.

A major lesson of digital disruption is how fast it can affect or even destroy industries. Delayed action often means there is nothing left to protect or preserve; such is the pace of change.

The media has seen its advertising “rivers of gold” flow to platforms such as Google and Facebook, draining the revenue that traditionally kept different areas of journalism afloat.

The government is right to address the power and economic imbalances affecting commercial interests, but it’s also vital to recognise the importance of protecting the public benefit derived from public interest journalism.

One needs only to look at the impact of the journalism surrounding the banking royal commission, and numerous other royal commissions and industry inquiries, to understand its role in a healthy democracy. The destruction of public interest journalism is a social, cultural, economic and democratic crisis.

Research by the Public Interest Journalism Initiative shows that 68 per cent of metropolitan suburbs and 45 per cent of regional areas have already experienced a very sharp decline in journalism. There are numerous suburban and regional newspapers that have closed around Australia, and more to come without quicker or substantial action.

If the government is to meet the challenge of finding ways to alleviate this media market failure, it must act boldly and soon with anticipatory or precautionary actions, rather than lengthy deferrals and delays.

A range of initiatives — that includes encouraging innovative models — needs to be in play if we are to protect public interest journalism across the spectrum; whether it is carried out by large commercial players or smaller, localised broadcasting.

The government has adopted only one of several important ACCC recommendations that related to public interest journalism — to enhance the current regional publishers fund, albeit with a lack of clarity about whether this involves more funds.

It has decided not to make further changes to the tax settings to support public interest journalism at this time. But it will be tragic for local communities and their dwindling newsrooms if the government dismisses tax measures without conducting further study. Research released by PIJI last month points to the potential for tax rebates to return $380m to public interest journalism.

PIJI believes the ACCC too easily set aside one of the most promising means of supporting public interest journalism: a system of tax incentives for investment. We hope the government will pick this up for serious investigation, sooner rather than later.

As research commissioned by PIJI and conducted by the Centre for International Economics shows, tax incentives, similar to those offered for research and development in Australia, would reduce the marginal cost of investing in journalism and provide an effi­ci­ent means to stimulate public inter­est journalism in private enterprise. Tax incentives for investment have the merit of being universal in application and thus removed from perceptions or the reality of political interference. Grant schemes lack this advantage. Guardian Australia, for example, claimed it was “stiffed” for party-political reasons in the devising of the government’s existing system of grants for regional and small publishers.

A tax-based initiative would take advantage of infrastructure already in place, with compliance and monitoring systems already familiar to most firms. There would be issues of definition to sort through, but the experience with R&D tax incentives offers a guide and a way forward.

Such a scheme might go a long way to restoring some of what has been lost in Australia’s journalistic capacity, as well as setting foundations for a healthier future.

Recent survey work by Essential Media suggests there is public willingness to pay between $380m and $740m a year for public interest journalism — funding that could bring a flowering of new activity to the news deserts.

There were many pressures on the government as it compiled its response. The digital platforms lobbied, as did our main media companies. The public service restructuring announced last week, in which communications and the arts move to a new Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications, raises understandable concerns the govern­ment’s response will be subsumed in concerns about telcos, wires and fibre.

A bold and far-sighted look beyond the response to the ACCC digital platforms inquiry could do much to safeguard Australia’s cultural and democratic health.

Allan Fels is chairman of the Public Interest Journalism Initiative, a nonpartisan organisation conducting research, developing policy solutions and building a public conversation on the importance of this issue. Go to piji.com.au.