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AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATED PRESS SUBMISSION TO THE SENATE INQUIRY ON THE TREASURY LAWS AMENDMENT (NEWS MEDIA AND DIGITAL PLATFORMS MANDATORY BARGAINING CODE) BILL 2020 Australian Associated Press (AAP) thanks the Senate for an opportunity to comment on the Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020 (the Bill). ​ ​ The Treasurer has stated that “[t]he News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code is ​ ​ a world-leading initiative. It is designed to level the playing field and to ensure a sustainable and viable Australian media landscape. It's a key part of the government's strategy to ensure that the Australian economy is able to take full advantage of the benefits of digital technology, supported by appropriate regulation to protect key elements of Australian society. One such key element is a strong and sustainable Australian news media landscape.”1 ​ AAP supports the Bill in its current form as it assists ‘retail’ media, that is, news media who have a direct-to-consumer “News Source” (as defined in the Bill), at a time when the industry is in a state of deep and prolonged crisis. However whilst the Bill helps AAP’s retail media customers, it does not contemplate a critical pillar of competition and media diversity in the news media industry in Australia - namely wholesale providers of news. One of the most important wholesale suppliers of news content in nearly every country is the national newswire. In Australia, this independent wholesale newswire service is fulfilled by AAP, which has been covering the news continuously for over 85 years. It is critical for diversity and competition that Australia’s media continue to have access to a strong and sustainable wholesale news source. To be clear, AAP is not covered by the Code and will receive no direct benefit from its passage. While AAP supports the passage of the Bill, it will receive no support from the Code and, as such, it will need support from additional government policies designed to augment the Code in pursuit of the broader objectives outlined by the Treasurer and the Chair of the ACCC. In particular, AAP agrees 2 with Rod Sims’ statement that there is a “compelling” case for Government funding for AAP .​ ​ A strong and sustainable wholesale news supply chain is especially important for small to medium outlets who rely heavily on being able to source their news as part of a cost-efficient, pooled arrangement. For many of AAP’s customers, the cost of covering all the news from across the nation through with their own internal resources would be prohibitive. Without AAP, these customers would not be able to source high quality independent coverage and new entrants, like The Guardian, would find it difficult to enter the Australian market. The ability of all Australian media to access a strong wholesale news source has to be protected to facilitate competition and allow for a range of diverse voices. 1 Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020, Minister’s Second Reading, 8 December 2020 ​ 2 https://7news.com.au/business/media/compelling-case-for-aap-fed-funding-accc-c-1301456 ​ AAP was facing closure in March 2020. It would have resulted in the loss of thousands of stories each year covering all aspects of Australian life. AAP has been saved by a small group of philanthropists and, as a result, is now a not-for-profit news organisation (with charitable status), owned by no-one, and dedicated entirely to covering news and sport around Australia and the globe. AAP is still what it always has been; independent, trusted, reliable and accurate. AAP’s content is used by over 400 outlets across Australia. Its content is licensed by hundreds of websites ​ across Australia, including half of the top news sites in the country. It is printed in major newspapers ​ throughout metropolitan and regional areas, and is broadcast by radio networks across the country. AAP has a shared audience of millions who consume its news daily in various formats. Yet AAP will not receive any remuneration under the Bill for the significant cost of the creation of public interest news content. Whilst AAP’s news content surfaces on digital search engines and news aggregator sites, AAP does not itself operate a “news source” as that expression is defined in the Bill. The Bill is not structured to compensate wholesale news media. In order to truly achieve the objective of the Bill - namely to “help support the sustainability of the 3 ​ Australian news media sector” ​ - the Government must urgently consider additional measures to ​ assist the wholesale news industry such as the provision for an appropriate form of recurrent Government support for AAP. What is a newswire A newswire is essentially a wholesaler of fact-based news content (text and imagery). It reports on politics, business, courts, sport and other news and provides this to other print, broadcast, digital and niche media outlets. Often the newswire provides the only reporting on a subject and hence its decisions as to what to report play a very important role in informing Australians about matters of public interest. It is essential democratic infrastructure. A newswire often partners with other global agencies to bring international stories to a domestic audience and also to take local content to a global audience. Newswires have traditionally served as the backbone of the news supply of their respective countries. Due to their business model they contribute strongly to the diversity of media. Pricing is traditionally based on circulation figures. The bigger the circulation, the higher the price thus making the same newswire accessible for small media with less purchasing power as well as for large media conglomerates with strong financial resources.4 ​ Almost every democratic country has an independent national newswire; Associated Press (AP) in the United States, to the Press Association in the United Kingdom to Agence France Presse in France. Newswires provide an essential service in the media landscape. This co-operative business model has been practically accepted world-wide since the founding of AP in the USA in the mid-19th century. Newswire agencies are “among the oldest media institutions to survive ​ the evolution of media production from the age of the telegraph to the age of platform technologies”.5 ​ ​ Sharing the costs of newsgathering was one of the key ideas behind news agencies. A news agency would collect and edit news and then provide that content to its customers, who would 6 publish it to their own audience. ​ Recently there have been examples of larger media conglomerates ​ especially, leaving this model for competitive reasons. This weakens the newswire model by applying greater pricing pressure to smaller outlets who depend heavily on the wholesale supply of news. 3 Treasury Laws Amendment (News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) Bill 2020, Explanatory Memorandum, General Outline and Financial​ Impact 4 Peter Kropsch, President and CEO of dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur Group, Hamburg, Germany ​ 5 “The Future of National News Agencies in Europe: Executive Summary”, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2019, ​ 6 Ibid. ​ Alongside the passage of the Bill, the Government must address the sustainability of the wholesale media market. Failing to do so could jeopardise one of the most important mechanisms for ensuring that Australia retains a plurality of voices - small and large - and for facilitating new media entrants. The AAP Newswire AAP has been an integral part of the Australian media landscape for 85 years, providing the foundation of news content for newspapers, radio news and talkback programs, television news and more recently the digital versions of all of the above, as well as new market entrants. Around the clock, 365 days a year, AAP writes core news stories about areas of high public interest, including national and state-level politics and policy, court reporting and breaking news from across the country. AAP’s news comes in the form of words and images. Every day, AAP publishes over 220 stories ​ ​ and captures more than 400 images and supplies them to 400 plus media outlets across Australia, over 250 of which are in regional Australia. AAP’s news services are drawn from its own correspondents at ​ home and abroad, as well as from some of the world’s leading news agencies. This ensures a breadth of coverage which would not otherwise be available in Australia. Widely regarded as a last bastion of public information, AAP has built its reputation on providing untainted, reliable, insightful and well-crafted content including extensive coverage of, for example, courts and royal commissions. AAP also has a factcheck unit with a growing profile, due to its involvement in recent domestic and international political elections. The newswire has reporters based in every Australian state and territory, plus New Zealand, where AAP is the only Australian media organisation with a permanent presence. Of particular importance to subscribers is AAP’s ‘diary’, which shows upcoming major events, locations, AAP’s coverage plans and when the content will be published. This information is vital to small newsrooms where operators need to know as much detail as soon as possible so they can meet increasingly earlier deadlines. AAP’s coverage A snapshot of AAP’s output from 4 August to 4 December shows the significant number of stories and images provided to AAP’s customers over a 4 month period. AAP Content 4 August 2020 to 4 December 2020 AAP Produced Content 18,328 stories published in total 10,691 stories excluding updates Total Story count 27,865 total stories (excluding advisories) 17,741 unique stories (excluding updates) These figures include partner content.

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