The latest Reuters Institute and University of Oxford report on media in Australia and the world has been published – and it’s bad news for almost all the media – and to some extent the reading public.

In a comment on the Australian part of the report Sora Park of the University of Canberra said: “it is a critical time when audiences are in need of quality news, yet the news ecosystem continues to shrink. Australia now has 29 local government areas with no local news publishers, TV or radio servicing the local community.

Print media has been hit hardest due to declining advertising revenue and rising print costs.

“Government departments are cutting back print advertising and instead rolling out campaigns on social media. In 2023, the Victorian Government announced they would cease all metropolitan print newspaper advertising”, Park said.

Meanwhile currently local, State and Federal Governments spend only about 1% of their advertising budget on regional news.

The situation has been exacerbated by Meta’s decision to pull back from news and pulling back about $70 million from the major companies. Google and Meta combined are likely to pull about $200 million in support by the end of the year.

Park points out that Google and Meta’s combined Australian advertising revenue was $8.3 billion in 2023 – more than half of all digital ad revenues.

Park also highlights the significant shift in the media landscape as AI permeates newsrooms “prompting traditional news outlets reconsider their approach to the technology as the industry grapples to use it effectively and safely.”

News Corp Australia is currently producing 3,000 articles a week using AI. Sadly, they seem to be training it on their own archives – fortuitously purged of previous progressive thoughts from decades ago.

Meanwhile, no doubt much to the chagrin of LNP MPs and Murdoch media, the most weekly used media outlet is ABC TV and radio with 36% of respondents nominated.  The ABC was followed (in declining order ) by Channel 7, 9, 10, SBS radio and TV, Sky News, Commercial FM radio news, regional or local newspaper, BBC News, The Australian, Herald Sun , Daily Telegraph, Prime7, Commercial AM radio news and WIN TV – and dead last was Fox News.

Some good news for Murdoch media was that their online portal – news.com.au – shared top spot for online news weekly use although ABC news had a higher regular usage during the week.

The ABC and Murdoch were followed by the online news services of Nine, 7, Guardian Australia, The Australian (6% visited it’s site at least three days a week compared with the ABC’s 17%), BBC, SMH, Herald Sun, MailOnline, SBS, Courier Mail, The Age, Daily Telegraph and The New Daily.

The report said TV and print media consumption continue to decline. In line with this trend, Australians are increasingly accessing news across digital devices. The research found that 21% paid for online news and 40% listened to a podcast in the previous month.

Perhaps the most significant finding was that trust in news overall was just 40%.

“Trust in news dropped by 3%, reaching its lowest point since 2020. It has fallen most amongst women. The top trust factors were ‘high journalistic standards (81%) and ‘transparency’ (81%). Public broadcasters such as ABC and SBS are the most trusted sources of news surveyed, along with regional and local newspapers,” the report said.

In terms of which outlets had most trust the ABC topped the trust list followed by the Australian Financial Review.

The ABC was not the least distrusted with SBS, BBC News, and regional or local newspaper also scoring less on the don’t trust scale. Nevertheless, every Murdoch outlet scored higher on the don’t trust scale than the ABC.

As for the top social media, messaging and video networks Facebook was the clear leader for news and for any purpose. Facebook Messenger was rated fifth for news but 51% for any purpose.

Facebook’s ranking on news was followed, in order, by YouTube, Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), Facebook Messenger and TikTok.

The Australian media has always been less than perfect. At various times it has been xenophobic, racist, war-mongering, propagandist and deeply biased.

Ironically, things began to pick up a bit way back in July 1964 when the first edition of a new kind of national daily was launched to join the other nationals – the Daily Commercial News and the Australian Financial Review. Australia could do with something similar today.