02 Informed


News Update


New fund for public interest news


• bespoke and masterclass support from news, journalism, public engagement and digital experts • London-based and regional workshops across the country • Support from sector and business experts. Valerie Mocker, who leads the Future


Up to £100,000 grants for community news initiatives will soon be available from the Future News Fund. Te fund, established by Nesta, will be divided into two tracks, one supporting projects that test new ideas for sustainable public interest news, the other providing structured support for start-up businesses generating public interest news. Nesta, which was established with a


£250m lotery endowment, launched the fund as a response to the Cairncross Review. One of its findings was that already disadvantaged communities had suffered most from the decline of local journalism. Projects that could be funded include: • support to build and test a specific idea • prototype/deployment funding to understand the potential impact of proposed solutions


Rates rise in the lowlands


Dutch freelance fees will significantly increase as a result of a court victory. Photographer Ruud Rogier and writer Brit van Uem, supported by their union NVJ, brought the case against DPG Media. Te freelances argued that the rates


they were paid (€42 per photo and €0.13 per word).were not consistent with the Netherlands’ Authors Rights Law. Amsterdam’s District Court agreed, and ordered that rates should rise to €65 a photo and €0.21 a word.


Te judgment will benefit around 5,000 freelances who work for regional newspapers. Tey will also be entitled to claim back pay from January 2018. Amsterdam-based NUJ NEC member Tony Sheldon told the council that van Uem’s testimony in court had been particularly moving. “She sobbed that she would not work for a newspaper that thought paying journalists €15 an hour was fair.” Mogens Blicher Bjerregård,


president of the European Federation


News Fund, said: “Access to reliable, accurate and high-quality public interest news is a key part of a functioning society [but] at local level [provision of such news], has collapsed. Te solution is not to simply put more money into existing journalism, but to completely transform the way that public interest news is created, distributed and sustained for future generations. Any organisation that has an idea to support sustainable public interest news, should visit the Nesta website and get their application in by 8 December.” General secretary, Michelle Stanistreet, is on the advisory board for the project. Separately, the NEC voted to back another Cairncross recommendation, the creation of an Institute For Public Interest News, ‘modelled on the Arts Council’. Te paper adopted by the NEC noted that were the Arts Council’s annual budget of £947m, deployed supporting news initiatives, it would transform the media, much as Lotery funding has done the arts.


of Journalists said: “We applaud the courage and persistence of the photojournalists and the support of their union. Tis decision has importance beyond the Dutch borders. Professional photography is key for the quality and trust of the press, but without fair remuneration photojournalists cannot survive.” Te rates set by the court represent an absolute minimum rather than a reasonable advisory rate for the entire market, but there has definitely been a breakthrough in the market for regional and local titles in particular.


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