Local newspapers are an ‘essential service’. They deserve a government rescue package, too
Small newspapers across Australia are closing or going digital-only in the economic fall-out from the coronavirus pandemic. This is what we need to do to save them, explain Kristy Hess and Lisa Waller in this crossposting from The Conversation.
The coronavirus pandemic has spawned a lexicon of its own. We have had to quickly incorporate words like “self-isolation” and “social distancing” into our everyday language to navigate it.
“Essential service” is another one. In fact, it is one of the most commonly used and somewhat confusing keywords to emerge from our leaders’ press conferences. This is because it has taken on new significance and is being defined in particular ways.
So what constitutes essential news and information services?
Small newspapers closing and going digital-only
News Corporation has announced it will suspend the printing of 60 community newspapers in NSW, Victoria, Queensland and South Australia from next week. They will become digital-only products.
A terrible situation following the planned closure of AAP in June.
Next it will be regional and rural newspapers which are so valuable to communities, especially elderly folk.
This is a dire situation which cannot be reversed once the damage is done.
The Wentworth Courier is not an essential service.
This quote from the article – “Intervention is needed to protect these newspapers from disappearing altogether. Already, there have been calls for the government to tap into an existing $40 million innovation fund to support small and regional publishers through the crisis.”
The article does not mention what has been happening with this fund. Is this the fund that Nick Xenophon made a deal with the Government to buy a vote in the media reform legislation back in 2017?
Has this $40 million fund been just sitting in the piggy bank boosting the now lost surplus, or has the Government used some, or has any plans to use it
Exactly what digital content is being misappropriated by “digital platforms”? I found this article via Google News, and here I am, reading it. This accusation that Google and Facebook are stealing content and making money out if it is silly. Google makes money when people search for something they want to buy. Sorry that it’s better for people than classified ads, but that has nothing to do with content.
Newspapers never charged readers the full cost, it was subsidised by advertisers. You miss the subsidy. But don’t forget that the value of the content to the reader was based on the cost they paid, which was never very much. And a lot of the value for many people was entertainment, not serious content, and the internet does that much better.
Printed media owned by one local publisher is a lost cause, just as the telegram died out. I hope the effort to squeeze some more taxpayer subsidy fails.
As for the lessons of the pandemic: undoubtedly, one of the biggest lessons is how lucky we are to have the internet at home.