Tim Duggan, chair of the Digital Publishers Alliance and co-founder of Junkee Media, in an address the National Press Club, has outlined four proposals to address the crisis facing Australian publishers.
This comes just days after the announcement Junkee was forced to downsize its workforce and close its partner publication, Punkee, facing difficult advertising market pressures.
Duggan opened by identifying what he sees as the industry's primary threat: big technology corporations, which he likened to "predators".
"I was in the room when Facebook's global head of news flew in from America and threatened all the top media companies in Australia that if we didn't co-operate with them, they would be left holding our hands with our dying businesses in a hospice," said Duggan.
"Once they had lured the world's media into directing all their audiences to get addicted to social media through their secretive algorithms, Meta abruptly changed tack and now declares, with a straight face, that no one comes to Instagram or Facebook for news."
He pointed to recent studies showing Australians are among the highest proportion of people globally paying for digital-only news brands, adding that Facebook remains the most used platform for news consumption, followed by YouTube and Instagram, with TikTok growing fast.
Turning to search, Duggan described Google's relationship with the Australian news industry as different terms to socials.
"The other important platform, Google, has what I often refer to as a 'symbiotic relationship' with Australian media," Duggan said.
Duggan said Google needs publisher-created news content to keep its content and search results relevant, while the media needs its referral to remain profitable.
Yet, he linked Google's recent AI overview updates to a decrease in global referral traffic, a strain he said was spreading to the platforms' broader relationship with publishers.
"This is starting to break the symbiotic relationship where one side is taking more than it gives back," he said..
"Meta, however, are a different beast and have completely severed their social contract with Australians.
"Over two years ago they basically gave the Australian government and media industry the middle finger when they pulled out of the original News Media Bargaining Code that had taken years to legislate."
Duggan said the government was largely to blame for Meta's unrelenting pillaging of Australian media.
"Well, in the two years since spurning the Australian media industry the government has continued to pay Meta tens of millions of dollars to advertise government initiatives," he said.
"We don't know the exact number, but around $200 million has been spent by the government on digital media advertising channels in the two years since Meta ripped up their contracts with Australian media companies."
Duggan then turned to AI companies, grouping them in with big tech
"AI companies are, right now, stealing the content from every Australian news publisher, and re-selling it back to their users for a monthly subscription," he said.
"It's been estimated that Anthropic's Claude scrapes around 24,000 pages of content for every single solitary human referral that it sends back to publishers. That is what a broken eco-system looks like."
Duggan also criticised what he called government "paralysis" on the issue.
"The slow speed of government is being strangled by the fast pace of technology.
"There is also government paralysis when it comes to holding Big Tech to account around taxation and copyright," he said.
"When you have one part of a sector that pays their full Australian tax trying to compete with businesses that legally game the system by shifting their profits offshore, you need to close the loopholes, or the ecosystem will fail."
The last pillar Duggan identified as a threat to the Australian publisher ecosystem was the erosion of public trust.
"Our trust in news and institutions is eroding fast, and the line between what is true and what's not is blurring," he said.
"Generative AI tools are accelerating the spread of misinformation, from deepfake videos to doctored images and hallucinations.
"One report has estimated that only around half of what we see online is actually created by humans.
"Three-quarters of Australians say they are concerned about what is real and fake on the internet, the highest level of concern anywhere in the world."
Duggan linked this erosion of trust to Pauline Hanson's recent press address.
"When threats are made to abolish SBS and cut the ABC into tiny pieces, we should all take that seriously," he said.
"Removing a core information source for millions for Australians would have a devastating impact."
Duggan used the address to lay out four proposals to address what he described as the financial crisis facing Australian publishers, including a journalist tax offset, mandatory AI licensing arrangements, and a fair News Bargaining Incentive.
To save the industry, Duggan suggested "four big ideas".
"The first idea is that we need a Journalists Offset to allow media companies to offset some of their tax obligations against the salaries they pay their journalists," he said.
"The second big idea is not a new one. In fact, it's an idea that dates back to 1968 when the first iteration of the Copyright Act became law. And this idea is simple: the government needs to insist that AI companies enter licensing arrangements for the use of other people's content.
"The third idea is that we should keep all Australian government advertising dollars in Australia.
"Every year the government spends around $250 million advertising what it does, from public health campaigns to education about important issues.
"The fourth big idea is that we need a fair and equitable News Bargaining Incentive, and we need it now.
"The media industry has been patiently waiting for almost 30 months for a solution to this.
"So they are four big ideas to strengthen media that are practical, available and achievable: a tax offset scheme for journalist's salaries, enforce the existing Copyright Act, keep Australian government advertising dollars in Australia, and have a fair and equitable News Bargaining Incentive.
"Australian media is not just an industry asking for support, it is a civic infrastructure. If we want a healthy democracy, we have to protect the entire eco-system."
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