The Walkley Foundation has named the 17 Australian newsrooms that will receive funding from the Facebook Journalism Project (FJP) Relief Fund, established earlier this year to assist publications during the coronavirus pandemic.
The newsrooms will receive between USD$10,000 and $60,000 to help maintain long-term financial sustainability and have been selected based on their need, public interest and impact.
Newspapers such as the independent Naracoorte News, Sunraysia Daily and Australian Community Media’s (ACM) Latrobe Valley Express are among the titles getting funding.
Money will be used across the newsrooms, many of which have faced declining advertising revenue due to the pandemic’s economic impact, to fund projects such as the development of digital strategies, introduction of video journalism, and the hiring of new staff.
“Local news is an essential service that is more important than ever as journalists strive to chronicle their communities’ responses to COVID-19,” says Andrew Hunter, news partnerships lead at Facebook Australia and New Zealand.
“The coronavirus has had a devastating effect on many of the rural and local commercial enterprises that pay for news by advertising. These funds will go directly to alleviate those losses and contribute to the sustainability of some of the newsrooms across Australia that need it most.”
Sunraysia Daily will also use funding to produce its centenary edition in October after the newspaper wound back its operations in May as advertising revenue dried up.
“Like all of us in the newspaper industry, the last three months have been extremely difficult under COVID-19, with our newsroom operating at reduced capacity. On October 16 this year, Sunraysia Daily will celebrate 100 years in publication,” says Jamie Lanyon, Sunraysia Daily director.
“This grant provided by Facebook will aid Sunraysia Daily to increase the hours available to our journalists, so they can focus on researching and compiling stories around our 100 years and we can produce a quality Centenary Edition of our newspaper, to be published in print and online and promoted via Facebook.
“We are very grateful for this grant, and look forward to being able to produce a Centenary Publication that we and our community can be proud of.”
The publications getting funding from the FJP Relief Fund: Central Coast Newspapers, Echo Publications, Fassifern Guardian, Geelong Independent, Gippsland Times, InQueensland, Latrobe Valley Express, Naracoorte News, Noosa Today and Southern Free Times, North East Media, North Western Courier (The Courier), Star News Group, Sunraysia Publishing Company, Tennant District Times, The Hilltops Phoenix, The Phoenix Group of Newspapers (The Canowindra Phoenix, The Forbes Phoenix and The Parkes Phoenix) and The Shepparton Adviser.
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