State Support for the Daily Press in Europe: A Critical Appraisal

Abstract

This article compares the subsidy schemes of the daily press in Austria, France, Norway and Sweden. In those countries, financial subsidy schemes to daily newspapers seek to balance the objective of promoting economic competitiveness in the national media grid with the wider objective of securing plurality of titles and diversity of views. This article locates financial subsidies within a broader framework of press regulation, looks into the instruments of public press intervention in the four countries and critically examines the results to safeguard economic competition and press diversity. In contrast to the Anglo-Saxon minimalist approach to press regulation which rejects the interventionist approach to providing cash injections to newspapers in need, the continental-style authorities in Austria, France, Norway and Sweden adhere to a public policy of granting subsidies to their press, according to which the democratic and political function — namely to guarantee that citizens have access to information, are accurately informed and actively take part in the political process — is promoted. However, public austerity programmes, increased commercial competition, shifting audience tastes of newspaper readers and the inherent weaknesses of the current instruments have forced all four countries to rethink their subsidy schemes. This article argues that government policies that aim at engendering economic opportunity and prosperity of daily newspapers, editorial pluralism and diversity of opinion need to respond adequately and effectively to these pressures of changing market conditions, which not only endanger the normal functioning of the press market but also a public service culture of newspapers.