The Victorian government’s plan to book one page of print and digital advertising in more than 100 regional news outlets each week for six months is a commendable move that will contribute in the short-term to easing the cash crisis in public interest journalism, made acute by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is fantastic to see action at varying levels of government to assist news operations in weathering the current economic storm,” says PIJI Chairman Professor Allan Fels.

“As we encourage government to look at long-term policy solutions to help public interest journalism exist into the future, the Victorian Government’s plan is not a magic bullet, but it will certainly go some way towards ensuring that we have something to save when the threat of COVID-19 is no longer hanging over our heads.”

Yesterday the Federal Government announced it will move to enforce a mandatory code with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to force digital platforms like Google and Facebook to pay for the content it uses created by news outlets.

The Public Interest Journalism Initiative has been calling on all levels of government to inject $100 million in public service advertising, focussed on regional and local news, as well as the temporary introduction of tax deductibility for news subscriptions, during this pandemic.