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A thread about the Johnson government's subsidies to the press, which are funding advertorial material of the kind seen below. This deal was the fruit of intensive lobbying by the News Media Association (NMA), the club of big papers. @carolecadwalla @BylineTimes 1/
Their print sales and advertising were collapsing because of Covid-19 and, though these are almost entirely companies with annual turnovers over £100m, they demanded help. Ministers – John Whittingdale and Michael Gove in particular – could hardly wait to oblige. 2/
Also lobbying at the same time where hundreds of independent news publishers, most serving local or niche readerships, but when the £35m deal came, they were cut out of it. Only the legacy brands, which polls show the public strongly distrusts, are getting the money. 3/
In return for this, they carry public health and other government information – such as that advertorial puff for government policies in the Mail, and the wraparound shown below. Worth noting that the Guardian appears to be a beneficiary here. (Pic courtesy of Buzzfeed.) 4/
Staff at the Telegraph have been explicitly told that the twin aims of the deal, which the NMA tellingly describes as a 'partnership', are to provide health information and to 'ensure our country remains united during this emergency'. It is clearly a political subsidy. 4/
This subsidy, which benefits not only the billionaire companies but also the asset-stripping outfits (Reach, Newsquest, JPMedia) that have been wrecking our regional and local press for years, has never been the subject of any kind of public, political scrutiny. 5/
It has simply been dished out by one party to a group of big organisations almost all of which are vigorous political supporters of that party. It is the worst kind of unaccountable you-scratch-my-back corruption, shamefully wrapped up in public health clothing. 6/
And to repeat, the independent news publishers, the innovators and potential future rivals to these wealthy legacy brands, who undoubtedly needed the money more, are excluded, so if they can't cope alone they are being left to go to the wall. It's a cull. 7/
Press subsidy in the UK is not new. For decades, by political consensus, VAT on print papers has been zero-rated, which is worth hundreds of millions to the industry. Now, as an emergency measure, again to help the NMA papers, the Chancellor has extended zero rating to online. 8/
That too is probably worth hundreds of millions to them. So think of it this way: tax money currently paid by you and me and – for example – NHS employees, is subsidising newspapers owned by billionaires, while tax revenue the billionaires might have paid is simply waived. 9/
And this industry that we are all being obliged to support so lavishly in its time of need is, according to @Eurobarometer, the least trusted written press in Europe – and has been for nine of the past ten years. (End thread)
