COUNTRY Press Australia wants candidates at the upcoming Federal election to support a policy demanding a fairer share of government advertising be allocated to regional and local newspapers.
There is an overwhelming need for the next Federal Government to do more to address the challenges faced by producers of essential public interest journalism, and for the government to do so more swiftly.
It’s extremely disappointing to our industry to see major city-based media entities and overseas owned tech giants such as Meta receive such a significant share of government advertising, especially when the government openly recognises the role our papers play in our democracy.
And it is even more alarming when you consider these same social media platforms provide a haven for mis and dis information, for mistruths, and for scams that have caused great distress to many vulnerable Australians.
More than 240 regional and local papers that are part of Country Press Australia have rightfully earned a high level of trust within the communities they serve, and that social media platforms cannot offer the same levels of truth, integrity or accountability that local media does.
With the Federal election now less than four weeks away and papers focused on the issues that matter most to local communities, it is also important to realise that local papers continue to provide a beacon of truth for local issues and candidates, and in many cases the local paper is the sole provider of hyper-local place-based public interest journalism.
Our papers have an important responsibility to report on local candidates and issues, to hold candidates and government organisations accountable and to be a voice for local communities in regional, rural and other local communities across Australia.
Local papers generally rate highly for trustworthiness compared to other news sources, with many studies confirming people tend to trust local news more than national or social media because it is closer to their communities and less influenced by political or corporate agendas.
Here in Australia, research by the University of Canberra’s Digital News Report has consistently found that local newspapers are among the most trusted news sources, yet our government continues to direct tens of millions of Australian taxpayer dollars to overseas-owned social media platforms that don’t operate to the standards we expect of local media and of ourselves.
Country Press Australia has called on the next Federal Government to adopt a policy that reflects the Victorian government model of an average one-page per week of government advertising in all eligible regional and rural newspaper as part of a raft of policies that also include tax credits for journalist labour costs and funding for cadet journalists in regional and rural areas.
Country Press Australia has briefed both major parties on the policies it believes need to be incorporated into reforms to better support public interest journalism in this country.
If our politicians truly value the important role of local newspapers, then they must also do more to ensure that this overdue support is delivered as soon as possible.
