Media & Marketing
Regional newspapers are struggling to survive and want tech giants like Google to pay for the content local media creates,
These are troubled times for local newspapers, as the Covid-19 pandemic worsens an underlying slow rot in the regional publishing industry. According to Local Ireland, the representative body for 42 local newspapers, advertising revenue in 2020 decreased by more than onefifth and has fallen by up to 40% so far in 2021.
Covid lockdown and its effect on ad revenue is just the latest in a series of crises to beset regional publishers. The global recession in 2008 and the ongoing migration of advertising to social media and other online platforms have also taken their toll. Sixteen local paid-for newspapers have closed in Ireland since 2010 and employment levels are currently half what they were in 2000.
Bob Hughes, executive director of Local Ireland, is hoping that The Future of Media Commission (FMC) will defibrillate the ailing sector. Hughes took his role at Local Ireland after a career in local and regional journalism in England, the Press Association, ITN, Reuters, Sky and TV3.
The FMC was established by the government in September 2020 to examine the future of the media in Ireland. In its submission to the FMC, Local Ireland called for a reduction in VAT charged on newspapers and digital publications from 9% to 5%, and eventually to 0%, in line with the UK and several other European countries. It also wants government to introduce a digital tax to be levied on digital platforms such as Google and Facebook for using content that originates with regional publishers.
“In a typical month, Local Ireland publishers attract nearly 25 million page views,” says Hughes. “The question now is how to monetise this. Remuneration from the tech platforms for the content that we create, and that they monetise, is absolutely vital.”
Other measures requested by Local Ireland include a new media charge to replace the television licence fee. Local Ireland is also calling on the government and state bodies to advertise more in regional publications, and reform defamation laws to abolish juries and cap damages pay-outs.
According to Hughes: “Local radio was allocated €5m in two funding rounds to support its Covid coverage. We have had no such support from government, yet we provide an essential public service to our readers in the same market. Local press has not been included in many of the Covid advertising communications campaigns run in the national press, radio and television.
“Our publications are vital to the distribution of public service information, in particular to people in the 60-plus demographic range. Using us would broaden the reach of the government message, inform local communities and help our businesses.”
Hughes is also hopeful that a mooted new Media Commission, that would subsume the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland, could assist with a rescue plan for regional publishing. “We see the Media Commission as being able to offer news publishers the same kind of supports that the BAI provides to local radio stations to help with training, innovation, digital skills, diversity and all of the things that we are keen to develop in local news publishers.”