Should governments fund journalism as a ‘public good’?

What you are about to read is controversial. But let me allay fears by stating that I pen this with a very sober mind. And as you read this, I want you to reflect in the same way. This is not just a theoretical question, but one that requires us to be pragmatic.

Where do I start?

The sad reality of the matter is that journalism is ailing. The slow death of journalism was occasioned by the arrival of the internet in the 1990s and later by the arrival of big tech companies like Google and Facebook, which all altered the communications landscape for good. The adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and its algorithms is a sickening headache for media owners. Across the world, media houses have been downsizing, with the crisis exacerbated by advertisers’s decisions to move their money online. What a tragedy.

Digital takes over

Botswana's research output is low and there are no available statistics on the declining fortunes of the media business. However, throughout the world, figures point to a crisis of epic proportions. Although somewhat debatable, it is clear that for every crisis, there is a need for policy intervention.

I was privileged to be part of a panel discussion organised by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA)-Botswana chapter in June during the launch of the African Media Barometer Botswana 2023, analysing the Botswana media landscape. The report noted that the media remains partially free despite challenges like laws that inhibit freedom of expression and opportunities for the future.

Meanwhile, much of the discussion focused on the diminishing media business.

Mmegi managing director, Titus Mbuya, argued that it might be time for governments to consider subsidies for media businesses. On the other end, I bemoaned the proliferation of digital publications – the mushrooming of online publications as both a blessing and curse.

The convergence of digital and traditional media has proved both disastrous and perhaps also what the doctor ordered to challenge the status quo in today’s fast-paced era where adoption of technology is at an all-time high and accessing news is just a click away.

Growth overview

However, this has had a negative bearing on the media, which traditionally leveraged all advertising without much competition. Now, coupled with a lack of resources to run newsrooms, the inability to make investments in cutting-edge technology has rendered journalism a dying profession in most parts of the world. While some may argue that journalism needed to re-invent itself to survive or for sustainability to occur, the fact of the matter is that digital has taken over the world of communications in this so-called fourth industrial revolution (4IR) and the next revolution may even be the last straw that broke the camel’s back.

According to Statista, revenue in the digital newspapers and magazines market worldwide is projected to reach US$40.23 billion in 2024.

The figures show a growth trajectory for consumption of digital media, with an estimated market value of US$44.54 billion by 2029.

Further, the number of users is projected to reach 1.6 billion by 2029. Statista recorded that user penetration remained at 17.7% in 2024 and is estimated to increase to 20.4% by 2029. Additionally, globally, the US is anticipated to generate more digital revenue (US$16.430.00m in 2024). This demonstrates a great shift where digital and online platforms currently dominate readership and are set to expand in the foreseeable future.

Traditionally, print and broadcast media contributed a great deal to information dissemination before the advent of new media. By this, the fall of journalism is by large attributed to digital technologies. Historically, advertising occurred through traditional media in the form of radio, broadcast television, cable and satellite, print and billboards.

Scholars Anthony Utulu and Ogidi Odun, in their co-authored research paper titled 'Is the New Media Superior to Traditional Media for Advertising?' argued that although new media alter human information dissemination, it is not superior to it but an extension of it, especially in developing countries. “Adverts are produced to introduce new and reintroduce old products to consumers with the sole aim of persuading them to buy. Broadcast stations also advertise their products for customers (media users) to get abreast of their old and/or new products (programmes), using both traditional and new media platforms."

The paper established that low internet connectivity, disrupted power supply, damaged digital equipment maintenance and low income to access new media have hampered its utilisation in parts of the Global South, including developing or poor countries.

“If the information needs of the world’s largest population, that is, the people in the rural areas of developing countries, are to be met, there is still a need for traditional and new media to co-exist for some time to come. Both media should work together and make use of each other’s comparative advantage to confront unfolding events in the global business environment.”

Death of print media

In April, the editor-in-chief of the South African-based News 24, Adriaan Basson, complained about digital platforms.

News24 Media appeared before the competition commission to give evidence on the matter in what he termed big tech’s “devastating impact... on our newsrooms and journalism.” Basson argued that in the heydays of newspapers, advertisers were the biggest supporters of freedom of expression and independent media in South Africa. He stated that back then they could hire staff and travel the country, covering different stories.

“In the 2000s, with the advent of the internet, more and more advertisers moved their money online. This was completely understandable; advertisements had to follow eyeballs, and most of the reading public was moving away from print to computers and mobile. Our journalism did the same; large teams of reporters started working in a digital-first environment,” he noted.

He said that for a few years, they salvaged the online advertising pie. Nevertheless, he maintained that year-on-year, the slice got smaller until it was smaller for the entire media fraternity to share.

“Because of their sheer scale, the global digital platforms made it much cheaper for advertisers to reach millions of eyeballs. We had to make another plan,” he underscored.

In order to survive, in August 2020, News 24 introduced a subscription service imitating global newsrooms.

To this end, he said, readers were asked to pay a nominal fee to access 3 000 articles a month, ranging from investigative journalism exposes to business, lifestyle and sports journalism.

Sadly, Media 24 has publicly disclosed its intentions to close five newspapers with 400 jobs on the line.

Over the years, Botswana has suffered the same fate. The country’s biggest publication, the Botswana Gazette, decided to go digital.

Many others went the same route.

At the moment, there is a mushrooming of digital publications. Although the increased platforms are a positive in so far as this democracy and holding power to account are concerned, like in the case of South Africa, they will fight for the smaller digital market.

In the US, research shows that between 2008 and 2020, media jobs plunged from 71 000 to 31 000.

Why should governments fund journalism?

In light of this cruel reality, Patrick Walters, an assistant professor in the department of journalism and mass communications at Washington and Lee University, made a case for journalism to be funded as a “public good” like roads, schools, and bridges in the US. Walters, a former reporter for the Associated Press, argued that journalism is worthy of taxpayers support. He argued that as a public good, Americans ought to understand that the “crisis” and “collapse” of journalism in the last decade was due to the disintegration in the free market. He noted that a growing number of people have called for government-funded journalism although there are those opposed to it. He reasoned that government funding of media in US begun in 1792 with subsidies being offered to postal newspapers.

Walters further contends that support could be introducing tax credits that people could use to support news outlets, granting media houses tax-exempts like churches and public schools or designated tax revenue from big tech companies could be used to support independent media overseen by a corporation for public communication.

He said a board overseeing such funding would be publicly appointed.

“This would help build the infrastructure of state-supported journalism rather than something that could devolve into a state-run propaganda arm.”

Moreover, an article authored by Victor Pickard and published by the Centre for International Governance Innovation dubbed 'In the Digital Era, Journalism should be Considered A Public Good', conceded that the old advertising model is never coming back.

As I have argued, the media crisis is now a policy issue that would require governments to intervene in order to save the dying profession.

I have argued that journalism, like any other contributor to the economy, needs to be aided by policy for it to survive. Whether that would entail a media fund for start-ups, tax incentives, subsidies or generally a media-specific development bank, whatever is needed would have to be implemented across nations. Media sustainability faces growing threats owing to digital platforms, and the need to innovate would require capital injection for news outlets to keep up; otherwise, we should anticipate a situation where, in the next decade, most newspapers would have become defunct judged by the current situation.

Pickard wrote that “journalism’s move to digital formats – where ads fetch a fraction of the price of traditional print ads – meant that advertising revenues no longer support the level of news media they once did. Even at its height, this advertising-dependent model was never ideally suited to provide all members of society with adequate news and information. With Facebook and Google capturing the vast majority of digital advertising revenue, this model has irreparably collapsed.

"Today, even the staunchest defenders of the status quo must concede that the old advertising model is never coming back. Moreover, other business models, such as subscriptions, offer insufficient support for most news outlets beyond the largest national newspapers, news organisations with global reach, or strong niche outlets. For the most part, journalism’s commercial era is over. Yet local media institutions provide an essential public service that a healthy democratic society requires, regardless of journalism’s profitability,” he argued.

In the US, the neo-liberal paradigm that has dominated discourse to the effect that government intervention in the media would be suspect is being challenged through the interpretation of the Constitution’s First Amendment. But what does it really say? The thinking is that journalism requires public protection and investments to avoid market failure.

*Kabo Ramasia is a senior journalist and media scholar.

- Article edited and shortened due to space constraints.