Ms Áine Kerr:

The advertising model is broken for the journalism industry. We need to think about devising radically diverse models for the funding of journalism. The Deputy is right that, when it comes to public service journalism, we need to help to fund it. In this country that includes rethinking the television licence fee. As we all know, the mode by which we consume media has changed. We are the Netflix and Spotify generation. We need to think about taxes and subsidies that address this device by device mode of consumption.

On the model itself, we have to think about a system wherein people will understand why journalism is important and make a donation or contribution or become a member. That means that we will have to do a better job as an industry in amplifying the reasons. With that comes a new form of journalism that will be people-powered. It states less is more and that we are going to stop annoying people with irritating advertisements. Instead of having a lot of content that keeps people scrolling endlessly on platforms, applications and websites, the new form of journalism should give people a productive experience. That means giving them the right content and right format in the right amount of time that feels purposeful and productive. Right now all of the evidence shows that people feel incredibly overwhelmed by the amount of content online. They hide their digital footprints and turn off. There is, however, an opportunity. There are means for governments to ensure taxes incentivise and subsidise media. Perhaps there could be a tax incentive to pay a subscription or become a member of a media organisation whereby they could claim back the fee when making their tax return each year.

It also comes to funding it from the ground up to ensure that local journalism can survive. If we look across at the US desert, that is a phenomenon that increasingly, we will see across Europe. We must ask how can we fund local and public service journalism and ensure that there are institutions that can take the funding and distribute it to the media at large.