The Public Interest Journalism Initiative welcomes today’s news that the Australian Government will introduce stronger incentives for large digital platforms to invest long term in Australian news media.

“Public interest news in Australia has been hit by a series of overlapping economic shocks in recent years” explains PIJI CEO Anna Draffin.

“These shocks have resulted in over 500 news market changes in five years, including the closure of 183 outlets. Regional Australia has been disproportionately impacted, accounting for 61% of these changes. There are now 27 local government areas without any local digital or print news.”

“The Australian community would be the big loser if Meta or any other digital platform were to block news from their social media or search engines. A democracy cannot function without a healthy news sector. We know this is an urgent priority for government to address, amid fast moving Gen AI.”

“There is obviously still detail to be worked out, but the News Bargaining Incentive looks to unlock much-needed, long term investment in public interest journalism across this country.”

“PIJI looks forward to working with the Government to help shape the design of this new incentive, and to maximise its impact for public interest journalism at all levels and for the benefit of all Australians.”