Media ownership

Senate inquiry

On November 11, 2020, the Senate referred an inquiry into the state of media diversity, independence and reliability in Australia to the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee. The inquiry had been sparked by a strong community push to examine the issue of media diversity.

It should be noted that MEAA has a long-standing concern over the concentration of media ownership in Australia which has been exacerbated by mergers and acquisitions by the largest media organisations. In the first MEAA report into the state of press freedom issued in 2005, MEAA said: “When it comes to media ownership, government policy should have one goal: to protect and promote diversity… The experience in both Australia and overseas suggests that diversity of opinion, comment and news sources only results from diversity of ownership.”[i]

As a result of mergers and acquisitions, plus the deleterious effects of digital transformation on the media industry generally, media businesses have made massive cutbacks. Redundancies have savaged newsrooms, seeing the most experienced journalists leave and forcing those that remain to have their workloads massively increased — a fact worsened by the constant demands of digital deadlines and a decline in available resources as media outlets constantly seek savings. The digital transformation has also seen a decline in revenues as the available news audience fragments; and as audiences drift elsewhere, leading to falls in circulation and subscription income. And because audiences have shifted, advertising and the revenue that goes with it has had to follow.

With news media struggling and the industry becoming increasingly concentrated, there are the inevitable closures of businesses, reductions in services and a decline in the resources available to cover various news rounds. Rural and regional communities have been particularly hard hit by the loss of their local media outlets.

A handful of players

News Corporation is the dominant newspaper publisher in Australia. A detailed study by RMIT ABC Fact Check, released in April-May 2021 examined the breadth and popularity of News Corporation Australia’s media outlets, relative to their competitors.[ii] The study examined “reach” which it defined as the number of unique individuals who, for example, visited a website, watched a television channel or read a newspaper during a given period. The study utilised viewer and readership data for print, digital (including social media), television and radio from various sources, including survey organisations Roy Morgan and Nielsen.

According to the RMIT ABC Fact Check study: “At the last count, in 2016, [News Corporation Australia’s] share of circulation among national and capital city dailies was 65 per cent, and likely similar for regional papers. More recent data for December 2020 shows that print papers owned by News Corp commanded more than twice the total audience of those owned by [Nine Publishing].

““After deciding to turn many of its local papers into digital-only publications or cut them entirely, News Corp was publishing fewer than 20 hardcopy newspapers in early 2021 (and roughly 85 digital-only titles). The company owns seven of Australia’s 12 national or capital city dailies (58 per cent), a figure which, for simplicity’s sake, excludes weekend papers. In four capitals — Adelaide, Brisbane, Darwin and Hobart — News Corp’s papers face no local print rival.”

The rise of news on digital platforms has transformed the way audiences consume news. The Fact Check , looking at internet news operations, said: “Nine’s biggest traditional mastheads are individually more popular than those of News Corp. Measured by monthly readers, the combined reach of News Corp’s hardcopy and digital newspapers is only around seven per cent larger than Nine’s, despite owning twice the number of titles.

News Corp’s website news.com.au “ranks second to the ABC for monthly visitors, and its traditional newspaper brands are outperformed by digital-only offerings such as nine.com.au and Daily Mail online. In December 2020, News Corp’s news websites collectively reached 1.2 million fewer readers than those owned by Nine,” the study said.

In terms of News Corp’s television outlet, Sky News Australia, “attracts a significantly smaller audience than ABC News, the nation’s only other 24-hour news channel. And, according to one survey, the number of people who got their news from Sky was roughly a third that of either Channel Seven or Channel Nine.

“On social media, however, Sky has an outsized audience. In the second half of 2020, its Facebook posts were shared more often than any of the 65 accounts analysed by Fact Check, while news.com.au placed third, behind Daily Mail. On YouTube, its subscriber base far exceeds that of Channel 7 and Channel 9 and by March 2021 had surpassed ABC News, while its videos receive millions more views per month.

“Importantly, it is likely that a significant chunk of Sky’s YouTube traffic comes from overseas, given reports that nearly a third of its website traffic comes from outside Australia.”

Concentrated media ownership

MEAA remains concerned that the concentration of ownership in the hands of a few giant media corporations (when competitors and emerging businesses struggle to gain viable audience reach) represents a critical lack of genuine media diversity.

This is a press freedom issue in that it not only starves audiences of news and information because there are fewer journalists on the ground, but when only a handful of media outlets are available to report, there is less scrutiny of important issues. Worse still, when the conglomerates are finding business difficult, their cutbacks, redundancies and closures only exacerbate the problem. Fewer choices mean fewer voices.

MEAA’s concerns were realised in 2020–2021 as regional media was overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The regional crisis led to o hundreds of journalism jobs being lost as media businesses shuttered or closed never to reopen. (See the chapter examining the crisis in regional journalism.)

As the concentration of media ownership has quickened there is a perception that media organisations have become polarised in their news presentation.

It is this issue that was a spark for the Senate Environment and Communications References Committee’s Media diversity in Australia inquiry. The inquiry’s terms of reference charged it with examining the state of media diversity, independence and reliability in Australia and the impact that this has on public interest journalism and democracy.[iii]

MEAA’s submission

In preparation for making its submission to the Senate inquiry, MEAA conducted a survey of its Media section members. The survey was completed by 349 participants and on December 15, 2020, MEAA announced the findings. “There is deep concern among working journalists about the high level of concentration of ownership of Australia’s media, and the impact that is having on diversity of voices, employment opportunities and the decline of trust in journalism.”

But the majority have experienced some form of pressure, albeit it sometimes rare, to edit or self-censor their work to comply with the interests of their employer

“Along with the concerns about concentration of ownership, those surveyed identified the MEAA Journalist Code of Ethics[iv] as having an important role to play in restoring trust in journalism but had a low regard for the Australian Press Council and the Australian Communications and Media Authority.

“The level of concentration of Australian media ownership was clearly the issue of most concern for survey participants, with 26.9 per cent ranking it as the most important issue, followed by funding for public broadcasting (19.8 per cent), the state of local, regional and rural media (13.2 per cent), and public trust in responsible journalism (12.9 per cent). More than 92 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement that Australia’s media ownership is too highly concentrated, and a similar amount (94% per cent) agreed or strongly agreed that this was bad for democracy.

MEAA commented: “Despite great hopes that the internet would see a democratisation of the media and a diversity of media voices, the opposite has happened. We are seeing mergers, partnerships and consolidations that all amount to fewer voices, not more. Small, independent players have no hope.”

As one survey respondent commented: “Large corporate media organisations have little or no concern for smaller communities, their news and views and most importantly the relationship between the community and the local medias [sic] and its importance in day-to-day event reporting and the community’s history past present and future.”

Eighty-six per cent agreed/strongly agreed that the small number of media owners gave them too much influence over government decision-makers, and 85.7% agreed/strongly agreed that the highly concentrated media ownership was a factor in consumers and the public losing trust in journalism.

Almost 31 per cent of respondents said they had sometimes felt the need to edit or self-censor an article because of the commercial or editorial expectations of their outlet’s publisher/owner. But 32.4 per cent said they had never needed to edit or self-censor and 26.4% said this was rare.[v]

MEAA sought to address the survey respondents’ concerns. In its written submission to the Senate inquiry, MEAA called for the government to:

• “Amend competition and other laws to prevent mergers that lead to more harmful levels of media concentration.
• The Australian Government must urgently progress the Mandatory News Media Bargaining Code and extend the operation of the Public Interest News Gathering program.
• The Australian Government should review and adapt critical measures recommended in the UK and Canada such as: directly funding local news; offering taxation rebates and incentives; and part-funding editorial positions.
• Government assistance should be reset to ensure funding is available for new media organisations, as well as traditional media companies.
• Public Broadcasters must be funded in a way that acknowledges the need to provide comprehensive, high-quality cross-platform media content in all parts of Australia.
• AAP’s future should be sustained through regular, annual relief grants.
• Regulation of media content should be strengthened and overseen by a single entity.[vi]

On March 12, 2021, MEAA made additional comments by appearing at a public hearing of the inquiry. MEAA told the committee: “The current state of Australia’s media is unsustainable. There are too few voices and too much power is vested in these voices.

“New and credible ways of supporting the old media and the new media must be found in order to preserve the health and transparency of Australia’s democracy. Concentration of ownership, market failures and the grinding down of public broadcasters have combined to put our media sector in an extremely perilous place at a time when quality, reliable content is needed more than ever.”

MEAA noted that:

• media reforms over the past five years worsened the state of media diversity,
• journalism jobs continued to be lost in great numbers despite an appetite for Australian news content,
• coverage of critical areas of civic and commercial affairs continues to fall,
• the effectiveness of the News Bargaining Code is unknown, and
• notwithstanding the success or otherwise of the Bargaining Code, there are no evident support measures for small to medium or new media providers.

MEAA said the economic foundations of the Australian news media sector have been under challenge for some time. The efforts to address these challenges have concentrated on the survival of existing media organisations. Although MEAA strongly supported these measures, focusing on that alone would simply see diminishing returns over time. “We are concerned that unless there is a clear policy reset, journalist numbers will continue to slide.”

MEAA’s analysis over several years indicates that there are now fewer than 10,000 recognised journalists serving Australian consumers. “We believe their number has fallen by around 5,000 in the last decade.”

The impact is being felt everywhere, but most recently and pointedly in the regions and in the bush. “Along the way, we have seen critical areas of public interest — where journalism pricks and preserves public interest — like courts coverage, local council and corporate malfeasance — be taken out of play.”

To ensure quality and reliability across media, MEAA advocated for the establishment of a new and effective single regulator of media content, where community concerns are fairly adjudicated and where penalties are taken seriously.

“We have drawn the Committee’s attention to reforms in Canada and the UK. They are on a path to sustaining journalism and creating opportunities for new players and for those now battling to stay afloat… Australia will continue to fail the media diversity test if new players — small and large — find the barriers to entry too great, MEAA said.[vii]

The inquiry’s report

On December 9, 2021, the inquiry tabled its report. The committee’s findings were split along party lines. Labor and the Greens sought a judicial inquiry that would have the powers of a royal commission to examine media diversity, ownership and regulation in Australia. Their majority report found that “the current regulatory framework is not fit for purpose and significant changes are required”.[viii] “A judicial inquiry would have the capacity for a more comprehensive investigation, including compelling witnesses to give evidence, than can be undertaken by a parliamentary committee. Such an inquiry would also be conducted at arm’s length of all politicians to allow an independent investigation into media regulation and ownership.”

A dissenting report did not support a further inquiry.

[i] “Turning Up The Heat: The decline of press freedom in Australia 2001–2005”, MEAA, May 3, 2005 https://www.meaa.org/download/press-freedom-report-2001-2005/

[ii] “How large is Rupert Murdoch’s reach through News Corp in Australian media, old and new?”, RMIT ABC Fact Check, April 14 and May 2 2021, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-04-14/fact-file-rupert-murdoch-media-reach-in-australia/100056660

[iii] “Media diversity in Australia”, Senate Environment and Communications References Committee https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Environment_and_Communications/Mediadiversity

[iv] https://www.meaa.org/meaa-media/code-of-ethics/

[v] “Survey finds concerns about concentration of ownership and decline of trust in journalism” MEAA, December 15, 2020 https://www.meaa.org/news/survey-finds-concerns-about-concentration-of-ownership-and-decline-of-trust-in-journalism/

[vi] “MEAA submission to the Senate Inquiry into Media Diversity”, MEAA, January 19, 2021 https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/meaa-submission-to-the-senate-inquiry-into-media-diversity/

[vii] “Opening statement to Senate inquiry into media diversity in Australia”, MEAA, March 12 2021, https://www.meaa.org/mediaroom/opening-statement-to-senate-inquiry-into-media-diversity-in-australia/

[viii] “‘Dangerous monopoly’: Labor and Greens support judicial inquiry into media diversity and News Corp”, Amanda Meade, The Guardian, December 9, 2021 https://www.theguardian.com/media/2021/dec/09/dangerous-monopoly-labor-and-greens-support-judicial-inquiry-into-media-diversity-and-news-corp?msclkid=678a81a1b30811eca8647c693d5caf9f