Brussels, 29 November 2021
Dear Dace [Melbarde – MEP],
Ladies and gentlemen,
It is a pleasure to welcome you today to the second edition of the European News Media Forum.
I began regular exchanges with the media industry at the outbreak of the COVID pandemic, and in preparation for the Media and Audiovisual Action Plan which is now in full swing.
Today, I want to look at the media landscape, go through the challenges, and set out our agenda to address them.
COVID-related financial impact
Unsurprisingly, our first challenge has to do with the effects of the pandemic.
We have seen how the pandemic has affected the media markets unequally.
As online platforms were growing, the traditional news media sector, which includes the printed and online press, radio, and audiovisual services, has been increasingly under pressure.
Take advertising. In 2020, TV suffered a drop in advertising revenues of 10% on average, and publishers up to 80%.
Meanwhile, the overall revenues of online competitors increased by over 20%. In some markets, like Italy, big digital platforms already generated 80% of online advertising revenues, and the gap has widened.
This downward trend is a great challenge for all professional media, and in particular local and regional media. They are mostly print formats, their digital transition is costly, and they find themselves under immense financial pressure.
As revenues go down, jobs are cut, and with it the capacity to produce quality content, and to nurture democracy.
Consumption trends and shift in business models
Second, the financial difficulties of Europe’s media are driven by changing consumption patterns. We only have to look at how people consume news these days.
In a major market like Germany, 37% of people consulted printed news once a week in 2018. They are now only 26%. Meanwhile, more than half (54%) of Europeans consult news from their smartphones.
This means that revenue models have to change if we want to seize new opportunities to monetise content online.
And we know that the potential of reader revenue online is substantial. At the moment, around 15% of people in Europe pay for online news, but the figure is on the increase.
Membership and subscription models, as well as the use of smart paywalls, donations or one-off payments can deliver good results. We have seen successful launches of online subscription campaigns, like the one of El Pais, in Spain.
Next to new reader revenue streams, some publishers are also joining forces to test common online advertising platforms. These can prove to be viable alternatives to retain both revenues and data.
I welcome that today’s discussions will touch on these business innovations.
Challenges to media freedom and independence
The third development I want to mention has to do with threats to media pluralism and independence.
These threatscan take diverse forms such as government interference, politicisation of public media or a heavy concentration of media capital in a handful of owners.
The financial weaknesses I have outlined can expose media organisations to being taken over by larger groups.
This explains, in part, the ongoing trend of media consolidation. While media consolidation can be welcome from the viewpoint of businesses resilience, it can also pose issues of editorial independence, especially when owners or board members are active in several industries. How, for example, could a journalist freely investigate a matter in which his or her owner has vested interests? How to ensure a plurality of views if journalists are invited to caution, or made redundant, for the sake of synergies ?
And let’s look at political interference. The allocation of state advertising has been used to favour companies that display government-friendly views.
Finally, I want to mention another factor undermining media pluralism. It has to do with potential barriers to operate across borders.
Our internal market is an opportunity for you to sell your content, to reach wider audiences.
But we know ofdivergences of national rules which may impact you. When media companies face uncertainty or arbitrary restrictions to enter or operate on a given market, this can discourage investments or their continued operation on the market.
And altogether, it is our media independence and pluralism which are at stake, together with the quality of public debate and public accountability.
The importance of a well-functioning internal market for media companies
All these threats come with a paradox: as income was hit during the pandemic, people’s appetite for quality information shot up. European citizens have been looking for reliable information like never before, on the radio, on TV news or established newspapers, and overall trust in traditional news sources increased.
We have to respond to this demand and ensure that citizens can access reliable, quality and independent information, including online.
The European Media Freedom Act
To address these concerns, the European Commission will present next year a Media Freedom Act.
Its purpose will be to ensure the integrity and independence of the EU media market.
In doing so, we want to boost media pluralism and improve the resilience of the sector as a whole.
We want to act against all types of unjustified interferences in the activities of our media companies.
We need to make sure that there are media pluralism safeguards, including online, so no one grows too big to care about public debate.
The European Media Freedom Act will also contribute to making our information space more secure. This is a matter of European sovereignty: as you may have heard me say on multiple occasions, everything is geopolitical. Information, far from being an exception, is a textbook case of interferences from hostile foreign actors.
The Act will build on the revised audiovisual media services directive and will complement the Digital Services Act package and the recent reform of copyright rules. In doing so, we are building a truly comprehensive media policy for the digital age.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I will be very honest: with the European Media Freedom Act, we will walk a fine line. And we want to walk this line together with the industry, civil society, and with Member States and their regulatory authorities.
We will soon launch a public consultation and we want to hear from you: what do youidentify as necessary to safeguard your independence? Where do you encounter barriers or restrictions in your operations? How can we best help you fulfil your vital role for our democracies?
An agenda for innovation
And these questions lead me to today’s Forum, which is highly relevant to media independence and freedom.
While the Commission can help provide the right regulatory framework and a level-playing field, it is for the industry to move forward.
It is for the industry to innovate, to achieve its digital transition and come up with relevant business models to achieve financial – and therefore editorial – independence.
It is for Europe’s media outlets and professionals to develop the formats that work and joint efforts to offer citizens across the Union quality and reliable information.
And you can count on me to be at your side.
We are working with the European Investment Fund, private investors and foundations to test new models of financial support.
We are rolling out a media data space and a virtual reality coalition to foster collaboration and innovations, so Europe does not miss the boat of future technological developments, such as data analytics and virtual reality.
And we will continue to support newsrooms which collaborate on data and training, and enter in value-adding partnerships.
Partnerships like the one I am happy to announce today. With the financial support of the Commission, 16 national press agencies from all over Europe will join under one roof to create the European Newsroom.
This first-ever pan-European newsroom space will allow journalists to report jointly on EU affairs and promote a spirit of collaboration back at home.
With this new step, we are reinforcing Europe’s information space, and increasing citizens’ access to quality information.
This shows, ladies and gentlemen, the potential of working together as an industrial ecosystem, as a continent, to overcome challenges that we face.
I wish you fruitful discussions.
Thank you.