From next month, public service campaigns covering everything from bush fire preparedness to health and wellbeing will exclude the Herald Sun and The Age, Shannon Molloy reported for Mumbrella.
The Victorian opposition has accused the Victorian Government of endangering public safety with Premier Daniel Andrews’ snap decision to cease virtually all government advertising in print newspapers.
Local council rates pay for local government to advertise in local newspapers. Whilst this revenue does help keep afloat regional newspapers and support their journalism it is also used, particularly in Melbourne’s suburbs, to prop up failing media ventures.
In some cases, a local government is paying to publish its public notices in multiple newspapers owned by different proprietors but published for the same geographic audience. Your rates at work.
Perhaps it’s time to consider a ‘pool’ or ‘shared model, given all government public notices are now available to taxpayers and ratepayers on state and local government websites.
However, we must acknowledge that particularly in the suburbs and regional areas that there are many people, particularly the elderly, who still rely on print information in newspapers. They don’t have ‘smartphones’ or ‘devices’, nor have access to (or know how t navigate) the internet.
Several non-government organisations, including the Council of the Ageing Victoria and Seniors Rights Victoria, expressed concern about the implications.
Tim Bull, the Coalition’s spokesman for disability, ageing and carers, told Mumbrella seniors will “suffer” as a result of vital information being stripped from their main sources of news.
“The reality is we have a number of seniors who do not own smartphones or a computer, and as they have done for decades, rely on the daily papers for their information,” Bull said.
Ending newspaper advertising “discriminates against older people”, he said.
Many people still rely on published information in print newspapers and should not be ‘left out in the dark either.’
But the question is, in 2023, long after print newspapers ‘missed the boat’ as their ‘rivers of gold’ dried up is there still a need for your council rates or state tax dollars to be used to pay for the publication of state government and local council notices in newspapers?
In 2023, the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments, and all local governments in Victoria make their public notices and news available online.
There will be a need for print publication, particularly for the elderly for some time.
Is there a need to still have your tax or rate dollars paying for council or government news and public notices to be published in newspapers?
