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Sharp,RJ (pgr)

April 21st, 2020

Solutions to the journalism funding crisis: what are they?

0 comments | 2 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

Sharp,RJ (pgr)

April 21st, 2020

Solutions to the journalism funding crisis: what are they?

0 comments | 2 shares

Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

The coronavirus health crisis and the economic destruction it brings in its wake is hitting services and business across the world. For the news media this is the latest, and possibly most intense challenge to its revenue and its business model. Yet, the huge increase in consumption of news seems to validate journalists’ claim that their work is vital to a functioning society. How can it be funded? This briefing by Rob Sharp gives a selection of ideas, policies and inItiatives. We’ll be adding to it on a rolling basis. Please let us know about other sources or reports we’ve missed.

 

The crisis facing news organisations worldwide is yet again imminent, exposing deep seated structural malaise. Adverting revenue is falling, staff furloughed, subscriptions under pressure. Though there has been a Covid-related spike in online traffic, it may not last.

Now Facebook and Google will be forced to share advertising revenue with Australian media companies, it was announced earlier this week. How should other countries follow suit in finding new revenue sources for the news media?

There is a longstanding scepticism towards media organisations – reported on by the LSE’s Truth, Trust and Technology commission in 2018 and underlined by recent surveys. In the UK, the furore last weekend around the Sunday Times’s paywalled investigation into Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s slow-to-act approach to Covid-19 is an example of a debate about the quality of news and what is worth paying for.

Solutions need to be found, and fast. What’s the latest?

 

Emergency funds

 

Long-term state subsidy

 

Tax big tech

 

Innovation

 

[This resource will be updated on a rolling basis. Please email Polis director Charlie Beckett c.h.beckett@lse.ac.uk or Rob Sharp r.j.sharp@lse.ac.uk with any contributions]

Rob Sharp is a PhD student at the LSE’s Department of Media and Communications and a Lecturer at the University of Sussex. 

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Sharp,RJ (pgr)

Posted In: Journalism | LSE Truth | Media | T3