Political leaders across Victoria are being asked their views on the importance of local newspapers and their ongoing sustainability as part of an Australia-first research project.
The Victorian Country Press Association has engaged Deakin University researchers to examine the impact of the state government’s decision in 2022 to introduce the equivalent of a page of public awareness notices each week in most newspapers across rural and regional Victoria. The move attempted to provide some surety to the business model supporting local news in a challenging digital environment.
The Victorian government is the only state government in Australia to make this guaranteed commitment. The federal government has pledged a minimum $3 million of its advertising budget to support local newspapers as part of its new $153.5 million framework to support public interest journalism in Australia.
VCPA executive officer Peter Kennedy said the research project would survey political leaders at local, state and national levels across Victoria as well as local news proprietors.
Professor Kristy Hess said government public messaging was an important area to research because it differed from election advertising spending as it provided awareness about a range of issues from road safety to bushfire awareness, new infrastructure projects, and health messaging.
She said it was the first-time politicians had been surveyed about their perceptions of, and role in, supporting public interest journalism.
“Government and media are often uneasy bedfellows and tend to keep ‘distance’ from each other, when actually they share a symbiotic relationship,” Professor Hess said.
“Any form of government advertising should not buy favours of the press but it has been an important, unspoken revenue source for local newspapers for decades. A lot of this spend has shifted towards social media in recent years.”
Dr Alison McAdam said all tiers of government would be approached to be involved in the survey.
“We know some local governments, for example, produce their own publications rather than spend money advertising in a newspaper, so we want to understand that further,” she said.
