Another way to help fund journalism

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

Opinion

Google News Showcase launched in New Zealand in April last year, providing a new way for publishers to curate and share some of their top stories online and for more people to access the latest national, regional and local news from around Aotearoa.

A year earlier Australia passed legislation making Google owner Alphabet Inc and Facebook owner Meta Platforms negotiate content supply deals with media outlets — after talks with the big tech firms led to a brief shutdown of Facebook news feeds in the country.

Meta has not seen the need to extend these sort of arrangements to this country, while to its credit Alphabet Inc has. The search engine giant which handles over 90 percent of internet search queries globally has been reaching individual agreements with New Zealand media for content that helps Google generate clicks and advertising dollars.

Today The Gisborne Herald and seven other publishers, including Stuff, Allied Press and The Spinoff, have announced they are joining Google’s News Showcase programme.

It’s no secret that the business model of traditional news media has been turned upside down in the age of social media and by the proliferation of alternative news, sources of information and marketing platforms.

The Government recognised this and the need to provide short-term support for the sector during the Covid disruptions when it announced a three-year, $55 million Public Interest Journalism Fund in April 2020.

Since then the PIJF has provided seven rounds of funding for 73 projects, 219 roles and 22 industry development projects. It has been administered independently of the Government through NZ On Air.

The comment by a correspondent yesterday that New Zealand media “is largely bought off”, while a common refrain during protests such as those against Covid policies, shows a fundamental misunderstanding of how media operate, the arms-length administration of the PIJF fund and the  relatively small but significant part it has played in supporting at-risk journalism via a competitive process.

Most people making such claims want to see more alternative news that appeals to their worldview, which is ironic when there is a surfeit of this content available and traditional media already face a decline in trust in their news and brands; some of which relates to this same phenomenon. Another factor is extreme polarisation of politics in America, and increasingly elsewhere, and media outlets that pander to this and inflame it.

The Google News Showcase initiative is another way to support good journalism at a challenging time for media as well as society.