COVID-19 Hastening Spread of ‘News Deserts’ Across Australia: Media Union

Bundles of newspaper (Pexels/pixabay)

COVID-19 has seen “news deserts” spread further across Australia, as 100 news outlets were shut over the course of the pandemic—leaving local councils unmonitored and free from one layer of scrutiny.

A survey from the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA), also revealed that regional media outlets were under-resourced and offered little in terms of career progression for journalists.

According to the survey of 199 regionally based journalists based around the country, 82 percent of regional journalists earn under AU$75,000 per annum (US$53,800), while 44 percent make under AU$50,000 (US$35,870).

Around 64 percent said the resources at their outlet were poor or very poor, while 63 percent said opportunities for career advancement were poor.

A further 54 percent of journalists said they could not see themselves working in the field in the next five years.

“The slow decline of regional journalism in Australia must be arrested before it is too late,” Adam Portelli, media director at MEAA, said in a statement.

“Large parts of regional and rural Australia are becoming ‘news deserts,’ and critical areas where journalism preserves public interest—like courts and local councils—are no longer covered,” he said.

Portelli called the situation “devastating for communities” that rely on the local newspaper to keep them informed.

Professor Lisa Waller, associate dean at the School of Media and Communication at RMIT University, said the results of the survey were “timely” given the federal government was now holding an inquiry into the future of regional news media.

“The sector is under intense pressure and struggling to meet the news and information needs of regional audiences in some parts of Australia,” she told The Epoch Times.

“The old business model is broken and the question is how can commercial news operations afford to pay for quality journalism when advertisers have migrated to the tech giants (Google and Facebook). Philanthropy, membership schemes, government subsidies, and community ownership models are all being tried for regional newspapers but none of these works on their own,” she added.

Waller explained that government support would always be a facet of the industry.

“It has taken a few different forms over the years that people might not be aware of. This includes government advertising, which has been an important subsidy,” she said. “But in some states, governments have been moving away from advertising in local newspapers and instead advertising on social media platforms.

Prior to 2020, around 106 newspapers were shut over a decade, however, since the pandemic began, another 100 outlets have been closed.

The growth of digital advertising has been one of the biggest factors impacting the news media industry, with the previous “rivers of gold”—classified advertising—shifting from print to digital platforms.

The federal government has attempted to stem this trend introducing the News Media Bargaining Code last year to compel the tech giants to compensate news outlets for their content.

As a result, commercial networks Nine, Seven, News Corporation, and The Guardian, as well as public broadcasters the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Special Broadcasting Corporation, have all signed multi-million dollar deals with Google or Facebook.

Whether this can stem the struggles of the industry remain to be seen.

Meanwhile, other ideas canvassed by the journalists to stop the spread of the news deserts included ongoing government support for regional media (27 percent), and expansion of the Public Interest News Gathering program.

Only 1 percent of respondents supported relaxation of media ownership laws to allow for more mergers and takeovers.