Ms Sammi Bourke:

To add to that, when we talk about big tech, the EU copyright directive, how it can be implemented and how we can work with it, we are all looking at it from a publishers' perspective and asking how we can be remunerated for the content used every day by big tech companies. They get so much of the advertising income. It is hard for us to establish whether any of our discussions with big tech companies are fair. We are all under agreements in which we cannot discuss how we are remunerated or what exactly we are expected to give in our content. That is a challenge for us as an industry. There are concerns about what is fair and what content companies are willing to pay for or not. They are deciding on that. All content is being used. We have several products. The Irish Farmers' Journalis the main product in our stable but we also have The Irish Field, the Irish Garden Magazine, and Irish Country Magazine. They will pick and choose what products they believe are worth remunerating. However, content from all of our publications is used. It is difficult and we definitely need assistance from Article 15 of the EU copyright directive.

When we talk about different business models, we have a niche market, so we do not cover sports or courtrooms. We are talking to a local, niche, specific audience because we cover rural Ireland with the Irish Farmers' Journal. We see our role as being to assist farmers to ensure that agriculture survives in this country and is a profitable business. Our role is to help farmers to look at their business models, increase their performance and remain viable in the future. For us, a paywall model is critical to be able to continue to invest in our own products. An advertising model alone would not support what we do. The costs of our newsprint have increased significantly in the last 18 months, by about 150%. The costs of staff are increasing and maintaining staff is difficult.

Our business is transitioning and changing rapidly, so the expectations on our staff are growing. Journalists for the Irish Farmers' Journalused to need to be able to investigate, produce and file a story. They are now also expected to change that story so that it is suitable for online distribution, to look at if there is potential for a contest, whether they can produce a video and interview, and they also need to look after social media channels. There is a much greater expectation on our staff. We have to continue to look after our people to ensure that we can produce great content and serve our audience. Without having a paywall and expecting people to pay for our content, we would not be viable as a business.