COMMENT: Print media deserves fair play in funding debacle

Local Ireland, the association representing 42 weekly paid-for newspapers around the country, has noted the allocation of €2.58 million in emergency funding supports to local radio stations announced last Thursday.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland has now allocated more than €5 million to local radio stations to support Covid coverage under the Sound and Vision Scheme since the beginning of the pandemic.

Local Ireland, of which The Connaught Telegraph is a member, has no issue with the supports allocated to local radio.

But it is understandably disappointed that the Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael and Green Party-led government has failed to provide similar supports for local news publishers.

All we are asking for is a level playing field. Nothing more, nothing less.

We operate in the same local advertising market as local radio stations and employ just as many, if not more, full-time staff.

During the Covid crisis in 2020, our advertising revenues fell an average of 22% and tough decisions around cost reductions had to be taken as a consequence.

Despite this we have continued to significantly grow our readership and audiences online and deliver an essential service to our communities at a hyperlocal level that no other media can provide.

The government needs to bring forward creative solutions to offer specific supports to our industry.

Ninety one per cent of our advertising comes from local businesses, most of which have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Many have struggled to survive, so an immediate revival in advertising spend as the country reopens is far from certain.

It is clearly unfair that media businesses operating in the same market can receive support while news publishers cannot.

It is very wrong because it is supporting one sector of the sector to the detriment of another.

Our coverage of the pandemic, both in print and online, is as vital to our readers as local radio stations’ coverage is to their listeners.

Local news publishers have faced the challenges presented by the last recession and the huge migration of advertising to the major tech platforms like Google and Facebook but the crisis created by Covid-19 requires an exceptional response from government.

When Deputy Marian Harkin raised the concerns of the newspaper sector to Minister Catherine Martin in Dáil Éireann, the minister referenced the value of the local print media and the essential role it plays in ensuring quality and impartial information to their local communities.

In the context of specific supports to local print media, she spoke of avoiding the perception of any undue government interference or influence and, because of this, the funding of newspapers was a complex issue.

To her credit, Deputy Harkin described that statement as ‘an excuse and not a reason’.

The reality is that no newspaper worth its salt would take one cent in support from the govenment if it resulted in undue influence being imposed on it - and she should know that.

The issues at stake here are fair play and government credibility.