$50m for journalism

Wellington: The Government is preparing to announce a new contestable fund of about $50 million to support community journalism.

It will be run over several years by New Zealand on Air and will be funded from the Government’s Covid19 response and recovery fund, of which $10.3 billion is unallocated.

It is understood the Cabinet approved a funding package this week and details will be released shortly by Broadcasting and Media Minister Kris Faafoi.

NZ on Air already funds a $1 million pilot programme called Local Democracy Reporting which is run through RNZ and supported by the News Publishers’ Association.