With regional publishers across the world reeling from the disruption to the advertising sector caused by Covid-19 the Australian government has launched the Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund.
The 2020 Round of the Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund will provide up to $5 million in grants to regional and metropolitan publishers and content service providers of public interest journalism. Publishers and content service providers can apply for a grant of up to $400,000 to help stabilise their financial position and increase their revenue, so that they can operate on a sustainable basis in the medium term.
A core objective of the fund is to encourage innovation and experimentation in digital journalism. Tony O’Regan, the managing director of Schistrockmedia, a company which supplies a world class digital platform for small publishers says this is the perfect opportunity for regional publishers to develop their digital strategy.
“Our platform is tailor made for the specific requirements of regional and small publishers,” said Tony. “Our solution enables local publishers to build and publish a mobile application and a web application, and get them to market in record time. We have over 20 markets across Australia and New Zealand using the platform.”
Tony says the platform is mobile first and licensee’s are having unprecedented success in engaging their local community via mobile apps which deliver a new revenue stream. “Our system has advertising built into it which enables the publisher to control their inventory and sales, creating new revenue. It also enables supporter revenue via third parties,” said Tony.
More information on the LIMA (Local Independent Media Application) platform is available here. Information on the Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund is here.