This report is about the challenges facing public interest journalism in Australia and policy responses to its structural decline. It synthesises a roundtable of industry, government and academic participants, identifying priorities including platform regulation, sustainable funding and professional standards. Participants agreed addressing market failure requires evidence‑based policy focused on transparency, long‑term viability and media literacy.

This report is part of a long-running international survey coordinated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, an international research centre in the comparative study of journalism based at Oxford University. This year’s report contains positive signs for the Australian news industry.

This report presents the findings of a comprehensive study of the volume, patterns and nature of Australian journalists’ reporting of the COVID-19 global health crisis during 2020.