This is a landmark week for local and independent media in Australia, with the first sector-wide fundraising campaign, supported by the Local and Independent News Association (LINA).
Below, we explain what this means for Croakey Health Media, our readers and supporters, and how you can help #SaveCroakey.
Dear Croakey readers and supporters
On 8 February, 2023, we wrote to the Minister for Communications, the Hon Michelle Rowland MP, advising that Croakey Health Media was in a perilous financial situation and that our operations were at risk.
We put forward a range of recommendations that would have been useful for CHM and other independent media organisations that are struggling. During 2023, we approached relevant government departments to request consideration for a small proportion of government advertising.
To date, we have not had a helpful response from government. And then the recent Federal Budget failed to deliver on our sector’s hopes for crisis support – this at a time when every new day brings yet more news of the devastating impacts of misinformation, disinformation and our toxic news and information landscape.
Croakey has been operating on a month-by-month basis since February 2023. As you might imagine, this has been really tough. At a time when our workload has been increasing, we have cut back on editor shifts and public interest journalism commissions.
We continue to have big ambitions for how we can value add to public debate about health matters, but each month for the past 16 months we have had to put much of our energy into addressing the question: how can we survive for another month?
We know from discussions with colleagues and other members of the Local and Independent News Association (LINA) that many others are also facing significant challenges.
We are sharing the details of our precarious financial situation in order to underscore the urgency of the need for support to sustain existing public interest journalism publishers. Civil society has an important role here, especially at a time when governments are failing in their responsibilities to ensure communities have access to diverse, reliable and relevant news sources.
This is a landmark week for the media sector in Australia; for the first time, LINA is hosting a collective fund-raising campaign, with approximately 33 members participating. LINA is donating up to $3,000 to match funds raised by each participating member.
Read more about the Our News, Your Voice campaign, in which LINA highlights the importance of building greater media diversity in Australia at a time when “anti-competitive business practices by media giants has led to the closure of local and independent newsrooms, sidelining diverse voices in the public discourse”.
This is a critical week
This is a critically important opportunity for Croakey Health Media, and we are asking for your support this week.
- Please consider becoming a regular donor, or making a one-off donation today
- Please share this link with your networks
- Please share our fund-raising materials, using #OurNewsYourVoice and #SaveCroakey.
In return, we are offering complimentary subscriptions until midnight on Friday, 7 June. Get yours here.
We are also inviting you to join us for our first #CroakeyDANCE, by Zoom, from 8pm AEST on Thursday, 6 June. Please register here, and send us your suggestion for inclusion in our public health playlist.
Finally, I would like to acknowledge and thank CHM directors: Co-Chairs Professor Bronwyn Fredericks and James Blackwell, Professor Megan Williams (immediate past Chair), and Alison Verhoeven (CHM Secretary) for providing such staunch support and guidance for our work.
Also warm thanks to David Morgan for generosity in providing probono accounting services, and to all members of the CHM team, who work so very hard towards our collective vision for independent public interest journalism for health equity and informed, engaged communities.
We hope you and your networks will join in supporting us.
Thank you,
Melissa Sweet
Editor-in-Chief
