Our Opinion – Community newspapers

The news that $1 million of taxpayers’ money is to fund journalists working for private and public media businesses has been greeted with anger by a number of community newspapers, including Local Matters, publishers of Hibiscus Matters and Mahurangi Matters.

The scheme, announced in the Labour-led Government’s recent budget, is a one-year trial. It was negotiated between the Government and the Newspaper Publishers Association (NPA), Radio NZ (RNZ) and NZ On Air – there was no consultation with the Community Newspapers Association, representing independent local papers around the country.

It will see eight reporters cover local government issues with their stories made available to NPA members – essentially the paid daily newspaper industry, including large organisations such as Fairfax and NZME – as well as publicly funded RNZ and all other media, including community papers.

The trial is founded on the fallacy that coverage of local issues is in decline and these publicly funded journalists are needed to bolster reporting in areas that NPA members struggle to cover. This paper and other small independent papers like it prove that wrong. We prioritise coverage of local government meetings and issues. Attending meetings, such as those of our local board, often held after hours, is part of the community service that a local paper offers – becoming the eyes and ears of residents as issues that affect them are discussed by elected members.

One reason mentioned in the justification for this trial is that larger regional papers, such as those owned by Fairfax (Rodney Times and North Shore Times, for example) lack the resources for such local coverage. This is frankly laughable, given the number of journalists on those papers compared with smaller papers, like ourselves, with one or two reporters. Rather than resources, it is a question of priorities. Those businesses simply did not see the benefit in paying their journalists to attend those local government meetings. Now the public will pay them to do so.
How to fund journalism in the digital age is an ongoing discussion. This trial seeks a way forward, but did so without seeking input from the independent papers at the coalface. That is a shameful omission, given that local government coverage is at the core of the trial.