A New Deal for Journalism

"Acting now, by funding journalism, comes with a cost. But the cost of inaction is incalculably greater."

This report calls for immediate and sustained action from, and collaboration between, governments and other influential actors to improve the policy, funding, and enabling environment for independent professional journalism. It outlines the current landscape of public assistance and provides an evidence-based list of recommendations for policymakers to ensure the sustainability of independent journalism and the health of democracies everywhere. Recommendations range from direct and indirect financial support for news organisations to strengthening existing public media to fostering environments where press freedom and nonprofit newsrooms, in particular, can thrive.

This report was produced by the Working Group on the Sustainability of Journalism of the Forum on Information and Democracy in response to a worsening international crisis facing the economic viability of independent professional journalism everywhere. The working group's steering committee is chaired by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, director of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, and is composed of 17 international specialists.

As explained in the report, "Independent journalism is an essential force for democracy and open societies, but is facing an existential threat from a set of interlocking challenges that, in their scale, complexity, and systemic nature, is akin to its own version of the climate emergency. A hostile political environment at best, and an authoritarian resurgence at worst; declining revenues as a result of the move to a more digital, mobile, and platform dominated media environment; and fraying public trust has left journalism in a precarious state. The crisis facing independent journalism is of historic proportions, and it requires those with the power and foresight to act to confront this crisis with an historic response. The industry is experiencing a 'potential extinction event' as the certainties (chiefly the advertising-supported model) under which journalism operated for 40 to 50 years fall away."

The report is structured around four areas of government action:

1. Media Freedom: Ensuring the freedom that is a necessary precondition for genuinely independent journalism.
2. Funding: Enhancing the funding that enables the independent professional journalistic work by supporting independent private sector, public service, and nonprofit news media.
3. Environment: Creating a more enabling future environment for independent journalism in part through institutional reform.
4. Future: Highlighting solutions that point to a more sustainable future for journalism.

Each chapter looks at a range of policy interventions and collaborations that fall within the above four areas of action. These are accompanied by lists of recommendations for government and other involved stakeholders.

Some of the steps highlighted in the report are:

• Supporting private sector news media through indirect forms of support, such as tax exemptions, direct support specifically tied to investment in professional journalism and structured to prioritise local media and media serving minorities, and support for innovation, without tying these forms of support to increasingly marginal forms of distribution like print.
• Supporting public service media with a clear remit and ability to serve the public across all media, not just broadcasting, putting in place strong insulation from political pressure to ensure their editorial independence from government, sufficient funding to deliver on their mission, and a clear focus on serving those communities least well served by private sector media.
• Supporting the creation of nonprofit news media by easing the creation of journalistic nonprofit organisations, whether from scratch or by converting legacy titles, and creating incentives for both individuals and foundations to support nonprofit news media. Non-profit media are already making important contributions in some countries.
• Supporting independent news media globally by committing at least some official development assistance (ODA) to journalism in other countries, whether done bilaterally or through joint vehicles. This is because everyone benefits from stronger journalism outside of their countries due to the intertwined nature of the world.

Specific recommendations for action include, for example:

• Advocate that governments honour all their domestic and international commitments to fundamental human rights and close the implementation gap between treaties and the situation on the ground when it comes to freedom of opinion and expression, media freedom, and the safety of journalists.
• Ensure full transparency of media ownership as part of broader measures on transparency, anti-corruption, and financial integrity.
• Secure from governments a commitment to spending 1% of ODA on support for independent media and their enabling environment.
• Implement initiatives allowing quality journalism to be singled out and given a comparative advantage again, such as the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI), to restore confidence among all stakeholders.
• Support and adopt international measures for taxing digital platforms, such as the global minimum corporate tax rate proposed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).
• Establish support mechanisms allowing citizens to support media organisations of their choice (such as media vouchers, tax relief on subscriptions, or income tax designations).
• Structure the reflection on the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on journalism by including journalism and media as strategic sectors in national AI strategies and roadmaps.
• Instruct independent regulators in media, internet, communications, privacy, and competition to examine the interplay of privacy, digital ad markets, social media, and related fields.

As stated in the report, "The gravity of the crisis facing journalism is severe, but, if policymakers and decision-makers can find the political will and imagination to take these choices now, and to build on them over the next decade, we believe this has the potential to be an inflection point for the sustainability of journalism, and for the health of open societies everywhere."