Who gets to tell Australia's story?

Australian news Media diversity 2026 NBI Transparency

A visual story about Australia's News Bargaining Incentive

Scroll to see how it works ↓

SMBA6005 · Australia 2026

Media diversity

One voice

Different communities bring different stories and priorities.

Journalism needs resources

Large team More reporting capacity

and

Small team Less reporting capacity

Who can keep reporting?

A newsroom with fewer people has less capacity to cover everything its community needs.

2021

News Media Bargaining Code

Digital
platform

Bargaining

News business

Platforms and news businesses were pushed to negotiate commercial deals.

2026 · News Bargaining Incentive

A new incentive for commercial deals

Very large digital platforms face a charge on Australian digital ad revenue. Spending on Australian news can reduce that charge.

$250M

Below thresholdAbove threshold

$250M+

Australian digital ad revenue

Above this line, the News Bargaining Incentive applies.

Digital platform→2.75%→Charge

2.75%

NBI charge

A qualifying platform can incur a charge based on relevant Australian digital advertising revenue. Earlier proposals said 2.5%. Parliament enacted 2.75%.

Two ways to respond

Qualifying news support Spending that counts can reduce the charge

or

Pay

Pay the charge Goes to the News Journalism Payment Scheme

The design makes paying for Australian news the cheaper option.

Who must the spending reach?

1

News business group

Eligible spending must involve at least eight Australian news business groups. The boxes show breadth of participation.

How much can one group count for?

Group 1

0%Other groups100%

0%

One group max

A single corporate group can account for no more than 25% of the NBI offset amount. Other groups are needed for the rest.

Where can the money go?

The system creates a charge. Support can offset it. Charge revenue can also fund news journalism payments.

Digital platform

↓

Qualifying news support or charge

↓

News Journalism Payment Scheme

↓

Eligible news organisations

↓

Journalists → the public

Our analysis

Capacity

A large organisation can have more resources

Range of voices

A broader ecosystem can include more organisations

Scale and diversity measure different things

More money can support journalism. More participants can broaden perspectives.

Where did the money go?

Amount?

Recipient?

Allocation?

Method?

Verification?

Money?

Right now, much of this is not public

Publishing a number helps. Publishing how the number was calculated makes it easier to check.

Disclose→ Independent review→ Public report→ Broader participation