Judith Neilson's cash for journalism has mostly gone to established media

Mariam Cheik-Hussein
By Mariam Cheik-Hussein | 17 July 2019
 

Australia’s major news outlets won most of the first grants from Judith Neilson Institute for Journalism and Ideas.

The institute was established in November by the billionaire with $100 million to "celebrate and encourage" quality journalism in Australia and the world.

The first round of grants will be used by major publications to expand journalism across the region and invest in more diverse reporters. The level of funding wasn't revealed. 

Nine’s The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age will hire an Indigenous journalist and a trainee photographer to work across the titles.

The Australian Financial Review will reopen a South-East Asia bureau in Jakarta covering economic, trade, business and security issues in the region.

The Australian, owned by News Corp Australia, will use its grant to produce a series covering China’s transformation.

The Guardian also received funding and is using it to appoint a Pacific editor to strengthen its reporting of the region.

Other recipients include the ABC and Schwartz media, along with local businesses such as The Terrier in Victoria which will use part of the grant to help find a new funding model for its website.

The Institute says this first round of grants is a “learning process” in how to support journalism which has had its revenue from advertising funneled to digital platforms for years.

The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission has recently handed its report into the impact of digital platforms on Australian journalism to the government. It has not yet been released.

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