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A newly compiled public record shows four ownership groups took 53 percent of a $74 million taxpayer-funded subsidy grant now helping pay mainstream journalist wages.

The Albanese Government is part paying the wages of more than 2,000 journalists across 184 private newsrooms, with no obligation that outlets disclose the arrangement to readers.

The scale of the Journalism Assistance Fund was laid out this week when One News Australia compiled every recipient of the $67.6 million arrangement from the Department of Finance’s GrantConnect register in the first full public account of who took the money.

Communications Minister Anika Wells launched the fund in November. Publishers receive $39,000 for each full-time-equivalent journalist over three years, paid as a wage subsidy, with payments continuing until March 2028.

Grant agreements were already being signed when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese defended a rare national address in April as a bid to counter what he called misinformation.

“One of the things that’s occurred in recent weeks during this global crisis is the amount of misinformation that’s out there,” Albanese said. People “used to get their information from 7 or 9 or ABC or 10 or SBS… and there would be a consistency about it,” he added. “Now they’re getting it on their device. It’s telling them all sorts of things that aren’t true.”

Albanese added he could not “wish the world was back so that everyone got their news at 6:00pm or 5 or 7 when they watch TV at night or they all read their paper that they held in their hands.”

Two of the five networks he named — Seven and Nine — were, by then, drawing wage subsidies from his government. The ABC and SBS sit outside the scheme since they are funded directly by the Commonwealth.

Four ownership groups took 53 percent of the $74.36 million published on GrantConnect — the fund total once GST is included.

Nine Entertainment collected $16,126,110 across two grants, covering the subsidy on roughly 375 journalists. Seven Network and its West Australian and regional television arms took $11,329,890 combined. Australian Community Media collected $6,224,933, and the Star News Group network took $5,868,291.

Between them, the four groups publish some of the country’s best-known mastheads: Seven’s 7NEWS and The West Australian, Nine’s Sydney Morning Herald and The Age, and regional titles including the Canberra Times, Newcastle Herald and Illawarra Mercury, owned by Australian Community Media.

Subsidy Eligibility Rules

The grant guidelines bar any “foreign controlled Australian entity” from applying, which excludes News Corp’s Australian mastheads, Sky News Australia, Daily Mail Australia and The Guardian, all controlled from overseas. Rebel News, being Canadian owned, was barred under the same rule. None of them appears among the 184 recipients.

Myanmar Now, a donor-funded exile news agency whose reporting covers Myanmar rather than Australia, received $257,400. The Catholic Leader, owned by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, received $120,120.

The guidelines define “core news content” as content that “reports, investigates or explains” matters of public significance, and specifically exclude lifestyle, real estate, entertainment content and “opinion and editorial pieces” from funding.

Several recipients operate in those excluded categories.

Man of Many, a Sydney site covering watches, cars and style, received $368,511. The company behind sports radio network SEN received $248,820. Time to Roam, a caravanning and camping title, received $85,800. Limelight, a classical music magazine, received $111,540, and Elite Agent, a trade title for real estate agents, received $85,800.

A “Program Delegate” within the Department of Industry, Science and Resources decides who qualifies, according to the fund’s guidelines, which also state that the delegate’s decision “is final in all matters” and that applicants cannot seek a review.

The $67.6 million was fully committed within 28 days of applications opening on 21 November, with grants processed in the order received rather than on merit. The department has confirmed 185 applications succeeded but has not published how many missed out once funding was exhausted.

The One News Australia compilation flagged irregularities among some of the recipients.

Wire Media Group Pty Ltd, publisher of The Southern Wire, had its ABN registered two days before applications opened and went on to collect $85,800. Business News Australia Pty Ltd entered creditors’ voluntary liquidation five weeks after its $128,700 grant was published. Korean News Pty Ltd had its $39,000 grant approved in February; its ABN has since been cancelled.

Subsidy Disclosure Requirements

Nothing in the guidelines requires a funded outlet to disclose the subsidy to readers. The document specifies only what an outlet must say if it chooses to mention the funding — that support “covers part of the cost of employing journalists, but does not influence the production of specific content”.

Wells announced the fund at the Sunnybank office of the Chinese Herald in Brisbane. Her own media release noted the outlet had already received more than $78,000 under an earlier program. Two companies bearing the Chinese Herald name went on to collect a combined $879,450 in Journalism Assistance Fund grants.

“Quality, relevant news is essential for keeping Australians informed and connected,” Wells said at the launch, adding the fund was needed so “Australians telling Australian stories” could continue “backing Australian journalists in diverse communities”.

The Journalism Assistance Fund and the News Innovation Fund together make up $99.1 million in News Media Assistance Program grants, with the Journalism Assistance Fund accounting for $67.6 million of that total.

The $31.5 million News Innovation Fund offers grants of up to $9 million each. It closed for applications on 4 June and remains under assessment by the same department.

The wider News Media Assistance Program has also allocated $33 million to the Australian Associated Press, despite newswire services being barred from the Journalism Assistance Fund itself, and $10.5 million to the Australian Communications and Media Authority to measure “media diversity”.

New grant agreements appear on GrantConnect within 21 days of being signed.

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Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.