AAP SUBMISSION TO THE SENATE INQUIRY ON MEDIA DIVERSITY AAP thanks the Senate for the opportunity to make a submission on the Inquiry into Media Diversity in Australia. What is a newswire A newswire is essentially a wholesaler of fact-based news content (text, pictures and video). It reports on politics, business, courts, sport and other news and provides this to other media outlets such as newspapers, radio and TV news. 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 newswire agencies to bring international stories to a domestic audience and also to take domestic stories out to a global audience. Newswires provided by news agencies 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. In general there is a price for a defined number of circulation – be it printed papers, recipients of TV or radio broadcasters or digital recipients. 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.1 ​ This co-operative business model has been practically accepted world-wide since the founding of the Associated Press (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 2 platform technologies”. ​ Historically, sharing the costs of newsgathering was one of the key ideas behind ​ ​ news agencies. A news agency would collect and edit news and then sell to its clients, who would re-edit it 3 and sell it on to their own clients. ​ Recently there have been examples of larger media conglomerates ​ especially, leaving this model for competitive reasons. Putting pressure on the agency by ending their business relation weakens the newswire itself and enhances the pressure on the smaller media because they are depending heavily on the newswire-supply. We can track those effects in all markets with heavy media concentration like Switzerland or Finland. Australia, with its strong media groups leading to far-reaching media concentration, is another striking example. 1 Peter Kropsch, President and CEO of dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur Group, Hamburg, Germany ​ 2 “The Future of National News Agencies in Europe: Executive Summary”, London School of Economics and Political Science, 2019, ​ 3 Ibid. ​ 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. A 1945 Daily Telegraph showing the front page story carrying an AAP byline of the Nuclear Bombing of Hiroshima, Sydney, Thursday, March 5, 2020. (AAP Image/Dean Lewins) AAP’s newswire is a 24-hour news service which provides breaking news and sport, coverage of state and federal politics, court reporting, photography and world news and sport through overseas partner agencies. 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 Canberra, plus New Zealand. AAP is the only Australian media organisation with a permanent presence in New Zealand. AAP subscribers are provided with around-the-clock, high-level content which they replicate on digital platforms, in print, or through broadcast channels. 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. Former Australian Associated Press (AAP) Editor John 'JC' Coomber (far left) covering the cricket in the Port of Spain in Trinidad in 1978 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. AAP Images 45,814 Partner Images 1,553,231 Downloads of Images from AAP Photos site 95,086 Screengrab from AAP’s Newsroom platform AAP was facing closure in March this year. Its closure would have resulted in the loss of tens of thousands of stories and images each year covering all aspects of Australian life. AAP was saved by a small group of philanthropists and, as a result, is now a not-for-profit news organisation, owned by no-one, and dedicated entirely to covering news and sport around Australia and the globe for all Australians. AAP is still what it always has been, independent, trusted, reliable and accurate. Labor MPs hold up signs in support of Australian Associated Press (AAP) during House of Representatives Question Time at Parliament House in Canberra, Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (AAP Image/Lukas Coch) AAP’s news comes in the form of words and images. 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. AAP currently offers more than 150 subscribers over 220 text stories a day across news, politics, finance and sport. AAP also offers over 400 domestic images and more than 10,000 images from international ​ partner agencies each day. Historically, AAP has also produced approximately 20 pieces of news video content each day. All of this content requires a great deal of expensive human and technical resources. AAP’s content is used by over 400 outlets across Australia (see Attachment B). AAP’s stories and ​ ​ images are licensed for publication on hundreds of websites in Australia, including half of the top news sites in the country, it is print​ ed in major newspapers through metropolitan and regional areas, and it is ​ broadcast across radio news bulletins around the country. AAP has a shared audience of millions of Australians who consume AAP’s news daily in various formats. The AAP Photo Archive and Image Service The AAP Photo archive started in earnest in the year 2000. The Sydney Olympics formed the foundation for what was to become a trusted and valued asset in the AAP canon - a visual documentation of Australian life and our history, our images help tell the story of Australia. From humble beginnings (around 10,000 images were filed in 2000) the image archive has grown over the years to contain just under 1.7 million photographs. In 2019 alone, our photographic team filed nearly a quarter of a million images. Often, AAP will be shooting content alone at political announcements or press conferences and, therefore, only AAP will be providing a historical visual record of the event. AAP has access to both staff photographers and an experienced network of freelancers across ANZ, at one time, AAP was one of the largest employers of photographers in Australia. We pull from this team of dedicated and specialist photojournalists to ensure the best possible coverage for news and sport. AAP has high standards of metadata and caption information to make the content searchable and accessible on public and private Digital Asset Management systems. Our public and private filing systems are proven to facilitate speed, accuracy and quality content for clients. Our customers range from traditional media companies to corporate, political, charitable and educational establishments, all of whom rely on AAP to capture images to help tell their stories. As well as our editorial relationships, AAP also delivers assignment photography for a key sporting body in Australia to ensure there is a visual record of their games and associated events. AAP also uses our images to illustrate our own articles. This powerful combination of our content means that time-poor and smaller publications can rely on AAP to generate a complete story for their publication. The AAP text and image package ensures that a regional newsroom can depend on AAP to cover and deliver a story in a finished format that means they can focus on stories in their own region. Newswires’ critical role in the creation public interest journalism Journalists, photographers and staff from Nine's The Sydney Morning Herald and Australian Financial Review hold signs in support of staff at newswire Australian Associated Press (AAP) outside Nine's offices in Sydney, Tuesday, March 3, 2020. (AAP Image/Joel Carrett) The news and media industry would be adversely impacted by the discontinuance of the Newswire and would be unlikely to replace the lost content and information with expensive original content and journalism. When AAP was thought to be closing in March, a group of news and media businesses, including the public broadcasters, convened to consider if they could pool resources in the absence of an independent national newswire.