The Future of Media Commission held the the first of it’s series of thematic dialogues with stakeholders on Thursday, January 28th.

Representing NewsBrands Ireland, award-winning journalist Kevin Doyle discussed: “What should public service content look like in the future, and how can the media engage diverse, hard-to-reach, audiences, including younger people, with such content?”

The above presentation to the Commission was in addition to the formal submission sent by NewsBrands which called for the following supports to ensure the sustainabilty of the news publishing industry:

Reduce VAT to 0% on newspapers and digital news products, as is the
case in Britain and other EU countries.

Tackle the dominance of tech platforms in the digital advertising market.

Transpose the EU Copyright Directive which provides a legal basis in
Article 15 for publishers to negotiate payment for the use of their content
with platforms.This should be supported by mandatory codes similar to
those being developed in Australia.

Complete the long-overdue Review of the Defamation Act and reform
Ireland’s draconian defamation laws that support legal costs so punitive
they have the potential to put publishers out of business.
Ensure public service journalism is supported across all media.

Implement a Digital Tax, a portion of which to be allocated for training
and development of journalism

Provide subsidies for the distribution of newspapers.

Increase Government investment in advertising with news publishers.

The news publishing industry needs support now to ensure it can continue in to perform its critical role in providing fact-checked, reliable information to citizens, particularly at a time when such information is critically important.