The deal for Solstice Media to buy The New Daily from Industry Super Holdings is expected to be finalised by mid-December.
Paul Hamra, managing director of Motion Publishing, a subsidiary of Solstice Media, told Mediaweek that for the past year, the independent publication has been “managing its output differently” as it reduced staffing levels and contributors. Among the roles axed were eight editorial, one commercial and one production.
Hamra noted that the key to the sale would be for The New Daily to be integrated into the Solstice Media ecosystem of news and lifestyle websites to ensure “efficiencies in editorial, production, sales and distribution and the aggregated audience of the wider group.”
The New Daily was launched in 2013 and led by founding editor Bruce Guthrie. The publication received funding from Industry Super Holdings, which includes AustralianSuper, HESTA, LUCRF, United Super, First Super, and Cbus.
In addition to Industry Super Holdings funding, the publication stayed afloat with money coming in from Meta and Google due to the News Media Bargaining Code.
Like other public interest media outlets, Hamra said that the Meta payments were a “great injection of funding for our newsroom over a three-year period.”
“It also filled the deficits left by advertising downturns. Practically, it paid for the salaries of journalists, so without it, we could not afford to maintain those roles.”
Hamra said the Federal Government has not used the News Bargaining Code as intended, a tool to force negotiations between the platforms and news producers.
Instead, he noted the introduction of the Code triggered the tech giants to direct licensing arrangements with public interest journalism providers.
“The impact has been good, and we still have a licensing arrangement with Google. I think the onus is back on this government to actually do something about the media industry it says it cares about.”
Hamra said: “Either use the established instrument of the Mandatory Bargaining Code or find a way to support the importance of journalism in a democracy via one of the many proposals that have been put forward, i.e., a digital levy on platforms, tax incentive, or employment support for journalists.
“Doing nothing is now killing journalism in Australia – 1000 jobs have been lost in media since June this year. That’s not good.”
Looking to the year ahead, Hamra said the independent publication will become part of Solstice Media’s stable and a national brand alongside its state-based news and lifestyle websites.
“It has a subscriber base of 500,000 and a website audience of 1.5m monthly unique users (IPSOS). We have great first-party data on our audience – so we will be building on this, integrated with our other sites, and presenting a bigger, national engaged audience to the market.”
He noted that The New Daily will continue to write and grow breaking news, politics, business, arts, and culture under Solstice Media’s ownership.
Hamra added: “As a sector, it could not be a more important time for independent media. Independent, trusted journalism and information is vital.
“(Solstice Media) will continue to search for revenue and funding models that support this aim. I am confident that they are out there. There are a lot of people who support independent media.”
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Top image: Paul Hamra