The head of Australia’s largest independent newspaper association has welcomed the release of a landmark Deakin University report into the future of country papers.

Country Press Australia president Andrew Manuel said the Media Innovation and the Civic Future of Australia’s Country Press report should be seen as a beginning and not an end, and that the report highlights the essential role local papers play in serving their communities and delivering civic journalism.

“This is arguably the most comprehensive study of our industry ever undertaken and the report stands as a beacon for government, for policy makers and for the community to take the appropriate and necessary actions to ensure newspapers can continue to play such a vital role.

“The study was done across the most tumultuous time the media industry has experienced, and local papers remain such an integral cog in regional and rural Australia, despite the hardships we’ve all endured.

“The report defines regional and rural papers as essential services to the community, and better support from government, and a better understanding from government around this is an important next step,” Mr Manuel said.

The Media Innovation and the Civic Future of Australia’s Country Press report has been a three-year Australian Research Council project, led by Deakin University, in partnership with Country Press Australia and RMIT University.

The report reiterates a parliamentary inquiry recommendation for 20 per cent of all federal government advertising expenditure to be allocated to regional and rural news organisations and highlights the need for a better understanding of the role regional and rural newspapers play as well as the need to provide more support.

The study included a survey into attitudes towards local papers and the respondents’ likes and dislikes, as well as interviews and interpretive focus groups with news editors, proprietors and key staff within the Country Press Australia network of more than 200 mastheads located at sites across Australia, including the Phillip Island and San Remo Advertiser.

The report calls for a review of the focus on digital reach in regional areas, with questions about the effectiveness of digital over local media when it comes to engagement with regional and rural Australians.

It questions an obsession with digital reach among major advertisers and government and says local papers’ strength lies in their rich levels of engagement with the distinct local communities they are an essential part of.

Local mastheads

Mr Manuel said people living in country areas remain passionate and engaged with their local mastheads, and the report highlights the need to better support local news, and equally, the pivotal role and responsibility of country papers to communities scattered across the continent.

“Our members continue to provide the local and civic news that readers crave more than ever, often as the only local media outlet serving a particular region. Coming out of the pandemic, many publishers have reported a strong revival in their readership, underpinned by a focus on hyper-local and unique news that has been a common denominator of country papers since their inception.

“Newsrooms in regional and rural areas can offer some of the most varied, fulfilling and interesting work to journalists, and it should never just be about country papers being seen as merely a steppingstone to a job elsewhere in the city,” Mr Manuel said.

“The attractions and affordability of a regional lifestyle are well known to those of us who live in regional and rural Australia, and we should never accept our way of life, or our careers as being in any way inferior or less deserving.”

Mr Manuel said Country Press Australia members would continue to innovate and adapt their businesses, and to seek ways to work together for a better media industry, but the need for more effective government support and understanding would be crucial to the long-term sustainability of country papers.

He also thanked Deakin University, RMIT and the Australian Research Council for the work that had gone into developing the report.