Mr. Jarlath Feeney:

I thank the Chair. We are very pleased to be here on behalf of Free Media Ireland, FMI. FMI is a representative body established two years ago by the publishers of free newspapers in Ireland. Our objectives are to promote the interests of our members, being those who publish free newspapers, and to pursue joint advertising and commercial opportunities. Our members have a combined weekly circulation of 225,000 copies and an estimated readership of close to 1 million people.

At FMI we believe in the power of free media as a means of informing and engaging the public. We are committed to producing high-quality journalism and providing exceptional customer service to our business and advertising clients. Our income is derived completely through advertising, similar to most commercial TV, radio and online media. We very much parallel how they operate in that we are free to the consumer. This business model, which provides free content to readers and generates income through advertising, is the future of print media. We believe that engaging content on matters of local importance is the reason people read our newspapers. We employ professional journalists and editorial staff who operate to the highest standards to produce this content.

We fully engaged with the Future of Media Commission and we will actively participate as a stakeholder in the implementation phase. We are speaking about the future models that might operate and State supports. We believe that any State support should be directed at supporting journalism. Funding could support our members by maintaining and strengthening our journalism capability to ensure that strong and professional journalism continues at local and regional levels.

To divert for a moment to consider what those supports might be, as they are under discussion, we acknowledge the formation of Coimisiún na Meán. This is a very important step in looking at all media and how they might be supported in line with the recommendations that have been accepted by the Government from the Future of Media Commission. We reviewed the meeting held in November with other media. What is common to all media is journalism. It is the one common denominator, whether broadcast, print or other medium that might be used.

This is at the centre of what we do but it is also the challenge. The combined effort of all journalists throughout the country is what supports democracy and also ensures its integrity through reporting, questioning and holding to account. I think everybody has accepted this. There is not an argument about that. It is a question of how this continues. All of this is true for all reporting done by newspapers, radio and online services throughout the country. The journalists employed have a deep and passionate commitment to the truth and getting both sides of the story, fact checking and following up. What kind of a news media landscape would we have without this commitment to real journalism?

As to what supports might be considered, during Covid, we had the temporary wage subsidy scheme, which worked well for many businesses. We are just putting that up as an example because a similar scheme could be directed specifically at journalism costs to support the employment or continued employment of journalists. We are talking about professional journalists who have been trained and inducted into the journalism business properly. Such a scheme would offer some type of subsidy towards the cost of journalism and journalists' wages. This is one idea. Of course, the EU copyright directive is in progress. It is no secret that big tech has hoovered up a lot of the advertising revenue that traditionally went to local media, yet big tech media rely a lot on the journalism that originates from organisations such as ours to complete the searches the public make. Seeing that rebalanced in some way through the EU copyright directive is something we would see as important. At the previous meeting in November, Deputy Flaherty made a suggestion about a voucher scheme. This is something else that may be considered as an opportunity to support businesses to promote themselves, not only online but also through local media, be it print or radio, by purchasing through this voucher scheme. It is something worth considering.

We were struck by the comments made by the representative from DCU's journalism department about accuracy and rigour being important. We fully subscribe to that. We also very much subscribe to her comment that if journalism is supported then it needs to be accessible to all. None of this should be put behind a paywall if the State is supporting it. Those are just some of our ideas. We are confident that our model will remain strong. We are confident about our future and that we will continue to be the leading print media model at the local level throughout the country. We look forward to discussing these points in further detail and answering any questions members of the committee may have. I thank the committee for its time.