Australia’s public interest journalism sector is bleeding as small publishers wait on the government for promised financial support.

A four-year, $180.5 million News Media Assistance Program (News MAP) – supporting News Bargaining Incentive measures – was announced last December, but access to the cash is still awaited.

A report by Public Interest Journalism Initiative PIJI says many news publishers are struggling as the industry awaits movement on promised government measures, with politicians “on opposite ends of the political spectrum” united in calling for urgent action.

Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young told PIJI the news media industry was “at a crossroads”, with Meta’s refusal to pay for news content and Google’s more gradual withdrawal from deals with publishers highlighting how the News Media Bargaining Code is not working as intended.

“Good quality, trustworthy news is more important than ever, particularly on digital services and across the digital sphere,” she said.

“We’re really staring down the barrel… of a very hard time for media and news companies unless something is done. I suspect that without further action from government, we will see more journalists’ jobs lost over the next six to 12 months.”

Among those impacted by the delays has been the Local & Independent News Association, which had to make a direct approach to secure an extension of grant support until next June. LINA executive director Claire Stuchbery had urged members to write asking communications minister Anika Wells to intervene as an “end-of-financial-year cliff” threatened the group’s future.

Hanson-Young (pictured) says while the sector copes with delays in implementing the News Bargaining Incentive, another major battle – AI tools “scraping, stealing and then using” journalists’ work without sharing profits – has emerged. “Obviously we need to make sure these big tech companies pay for the content that they’re making massive profits off, whether it is public interest journalism or other types of creative content,” she told PIJI.

She said Greens were still waiting for details of the News Incentive, but wanted to know whether it was “just a short-term fix”, or would allow for a medium to long-term investment in public interest journalism.

Stressing its importance, Stuchbery commented to PIJI that while international, national and state news was important, but people also needed to know what is going on in their own communities, with people saying to her that “it’s easier to find out what Donald Trump had for breakfast than it is to find out why there’s an ambulance at the bottom of your own street”.