Has the NBI undone itself?

Despite ongoing concerns about the NBI’s real-world effects both before and after its introduction to Parliament, the incentive’s intentions have generally been identified as a first step, given the ongoing impact of AI on Australian newsrooms.

Further to ongoing criticism of and advocacy for multiple iterations of the News Bargaining Incentive (NBI), reactions remain mixed following the bill’s introduction to Parliament on 13 August, with many industry members feeling short-changed by last-minute amendments.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese held eleventh-hour negotiations with Liberal Party Leader Angus Taylor to secure support for the bill, resulting in the restoration of a 25 per cent offset cap to a digital platform’s levy liability and several other conditions that some have called an appeasement to the major publishers.

As reported by Mumbrella, Tim Duggan, chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance, said the $150,000 eligibility cap for small or independent newsroom support falls “at the final hurdle”.

The industry association praised the incentive’s ultimate introduction to Parliament but noted its disappointment that the Labor and Coalition deal “will likely see the majority of small and medium-sized publishers remain uncompensated”.

In the same vein, the Country Press Association noted that small outlets remain vulnerable due to the changes and the ongoing monopoly of a handful of media conglomerates.

Australia reportedly has the second-highest concentration of news media ownership in the world, operating with just four major conglomerates.

In joint submissions during the bill’s consultation phase in May, the University of Canberra’s News & Media Research Centre and the News, Technology and Society Network from RMIT University said the proposed scheme did not adequately strengthen the breadth of public interest journalism.

Noting that deals with smaller newsrooms were not incentivised, the research wings recommended 15 per cent from the distribution funds to be put towards creating 200 journalism traineeships annually, as well as greater protections for community and independent newsrooms by removing the $150 000 eligibility revenue threshold.

While this threshold was not removed in the final draft, a dedicated grants program was established for smaller publishers or start-ups under this threshold.

Further, the final draft did address the earlier exclusion of professional networking platforms such as LinkedIn. The earlier absence of these platforms, as noted by the submissions, ignored “real-world news consumption patterns”.

However, numerous bodies continue to criticise the exclusion of generative AI systems within the NBI, with the general sentiment being that this creates a zero-click environment where news is obtained through AI posts or summaries, rather than on the original publisher’s website.

The government has suggested it will tackle AI’s impact on news and journalism separately, noting the recently announced Office of AI will ban AI models from training on Australian news articles without authorisation.

The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) has praised the NBI as a step towards rebuilding public interest journalism and strengthening the media sector, and ensuring the contribution from big tech.

MEAA chief executive Erin Madeley said: “The rise of social media platforms and years of policy failure have destroyed the business models that once sustained Australian journalism and led to tens of thousands of journalism jobs being lost over the past two decades.”

The union also praised the broader definition of journalism workers, increased support for regional media, incentives relating to smaller publishers, and the grant program that now includes employers of journalists, photojournalists, video journalists, data journalists, editors and producers.

Freelancers, who make up around a third of Australia’s journalism workforce, were also included; however, the union warned of remaining deficiencies.

“While the inclusion of freelancers is an important step forward, doing so without minimum rates or conditions could fund a race to the bottom and undercut quality,” Madeley said.

“In the past year alone, 67 per cent of freelance journalists earned less than the minimum wage, 81 per cent worked with no superannuation, and half reported that low pay and insecure conditions forced them to spend less time on fact checking, research and quality control.

“If taxpayers and platforms are being asked to support public interest journalism, that support must flow to employers who support quality journalism jobs.”

Madeley added that, despite receiving almost $29 million through the government’s Journalism Assistance Fund, media conglomerates have continued to enact mass redundancies, proving the need for accountability and transparency.

Regarding the additional support for First Nations media organisations, Madeley also said more must be done to ensure employment for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander journalists.

Swaab workplace relations lawyer Michael Byrnes said the News Bargaining Incentive is just one part of the employment equation for journalists.

“Internet platforms, particularly those associated with tech giants, have ‘eaten the lunch’ of traditional media outlets. As a result, the economic imperative to employ journalists and produce compelling content, once subsidised by advertising in various forms, has largely fallen away,” he said.

“While the NBI may help slow, but not arrest the decline in role availability, ongoing structural barriers in the sector mean media outlets need to be innovative and establish alternative revenue streams that are not reliant on a forced marriage with tech giants.”

Byrnes noted the ongoing balancing act between providing fair compensation for media content and limiting rent seeking by the legacy media outlets.

According to Duncan Fletcher, a partner at Kingston Reid, the most profound workforce effect will be in “regional and local newsrooms, where employers have spent the last decade grappling with declining advertising revenue, audience fragmentation and increasing pressure to do more with fewer journalists”.

In this way, Fletcher said the NBI has the potential to address cost-cutting measures and influence workforce planning, enterprise bargaining and redundancy discussions.

“Whether the NBI ultimately reverses the long-term trend towards leaner newsrooms remains to be seen. However, it represents a notable shift in policy focus,” he said.

“For the first time, the economic value of employing journalists is being recognised as a central feature of the funding model itself, rather than simply being an operational cost to be managed.”

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