Medienhaus Wien yesterday presented a 91-page study in which the daily newspaper advertisements placed by the federal government and ministries in 2020 were analyzed. Conclusion of the political scientist and managing director of the media company, Andy Kaltenbrunner: “In the previous year 2020 the advertising policy of the federal government in the daily newspaper market got conceptually out of hand.”
Tabloids benefited, while publishing houses that focus on sales and new online payment models were clearly disadvantaged. The study is based on the data published by the regulatory authority RTR from the transparency database as well as various subsidies such as press subsidies, (Corona) special subsidies or private broadcasting subsidies.
In 2020, the government placed advertisements worth around 33.5 million euros with daily newspaper publishers. The three largest profiteers by far from the placement of advertisements were the “Kronen Zeitung” (8.4 million euros), “Österreich” /oe24.at (5.2) and “Heute” (5.5). The tabloid sector thus accounted for more than half of the advertising expenditure. The seven federal state titles (OÖNachrichten 1.3 million euros) received around 25 percent of the total advertising amount.
Converted to the number of readers, it shows that the ministries spent 8.22 euros per reader on advertisements for the media group “Austria” (OÖNachrichten 2.98 euros). This range “is in need of discussion from our point of view,” said Kaltenbrunner.
The analysis of the Medienhaus Wien comes to the conclusion that the state media funding 2020 contradicts the internationally common objectives of promoting diversity, which is based on defined quality criteria. Individual market participants would be favored with “very arbitrary placement of advertisements according to non-transparent criteria”.
This fact becomes even more explosive because public investments from advertisements are becoming more and more important. The free newspaper groups have already generated between 20 and 40 percent of their sales with revenue from the public sector.
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