More than 50 newsrooms and independent journalists across Australia have received funds from the Facebook Australian News Fund.
As part of the funding, 54 recipients will be awarded a total of $5 million. This includes local and regional newsrooms and independent journalists across Australia serving communities such as First Nation people, LGBTQI+, and regional.
2SER, Australian Associated Press, IndigenousX, Shepparton Adviser, Bundaberg Today, National Indigenous Times, Shepparton Newspapers, Ninti Media, Saltgrass Podcast, and The Royal Institution of Australia are among the recipients.
“As part of our investment in Australian news, we wanted to ensure that smaller, regional, rural and digital newsrooms were supported,” says Andrew Hunter, news partnerships lead for Meta Australia.
“Funds are going directly towards public interest journalism as well as projects to help newsrooms grow and diversify revenue streams. We think it’s essential that these newsrooms are economically sustainable so they can continue to tell the stories of their communities.”
The Facebook Australian News Fund is a $15 million three-year investment. It is provided in the form of two funds, the Newsroom Sustainability Fund and the Public Interest Journalism Fund which are both administered through Meta’s partnership with the Walkley Foundation.
Recipients are selected by an independent external judging committee nominated by The Walkley Foundation. Applications were reviewed against the funds’ eligibility criteria, which included whether or not the project contributed to the news organisation’s long-term viability or provided a public benefit.
News outlets that have content licensing agreements with Meta were not eligible to apply for the funds.
“Money is going directly to the projects across Australia that our judges considered the most worthy during a rigorous arms-length assessment process,“ says Shona Martyn, CEO of the Walkley Foundation.
“We received a total of 169 applications in this round. During the stringent judging process, budgets proposed by the applicants were analysed line-by-line. By offering partial funding to some projects, we ended up funding more applicants than originally envisaged.
“The two judging panels were looking for real need, creativity and detailed plans that could be guaranteed to deliver. The diversity of the successful applicants and the spread of awards across Australia is both encouraging and inspiring.”
The Newsroom Sustainability Fund will allocate $2.5 million, in grants of up to $250,000 to fund regional newsrooms and digital-first publications. Funding will go towards innovation and revenue-generating projects, such as subscription paywalls and membership program development.
The Public Interest Journalism Fund, will also allocate $2.5 million, in grants of up to $120,000 to small, regional publishers and independent journalists to fund news projects of public interest value and to encourage media diversity.
See the complete list of recipients here.
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