For the once symbiotic relationship between social media and journalistic news, the two sectors now couldn’t be more divided. Economic tension exists between online platforms and digital news outlets as they compete for advertising revenue and audiences – with calls for regulatory intervention across the globe. While consumer enthusiasm for online content continues to grow and online advertising alongside it, news organisations, especially newspapers, are suffering from declining revenues.
This economic turn has led to shifts in regulatory practice in countries such as Australia and Canada. Both nations have frameworks designed to oblige Alphabet and Meta to pay for distributing online news.1 2 The promotion and distribution of journalistic news had originally been a core feature of Facebook’s newsfeed, including a specialised news tab. The platform employed its own writers and had arrangements with many of the world’s leading news outlets.3 Today, news is being deprioritised by Facebook’s algorithm and is completely unavailable in Canada – a decision made by Meta in part due to the new regulatory obligations.
With these shifts mind, the fact that news has become a diminished feature of the world’s largest social media platform makes it worth taking stock of what we might have lost. For the average Australian, social media is the most popular online distribution method for finding and consuming news4 5 6 and with over 16 million active Australian users, Facebook is host to the largest audience of the social platforms.7 The ramifications of diminishing news on Facebook are not only economic – they are also culturally and politically relevant to this large block of consumers.
Media diversity and digital intermediaries
Media, especially news, is discussed as having not only an economic value to society but also a democratic and cultural value.8 9 These values are intrinsic to how scholars think about media diversity, wherein shrinking or concentrated markets are assumed to be worse for consumers as they diminish the plurality of media voices. Studies into digital intermediaries for news – also referred to as distributed access – suggest that Google News users from the UK have broader news diets than off-platform readers.10 Is the same true of Facebook? If yes, what does a decline in quality journalism on the platform mean for culture, democracy and the media economy?
In my research, I am exploring the diversity of Australian news on Facebook. To do so, I developed a database of 657 active Australian print, digital and television news outlets which were available on the platform. The data expands upon a public dataset produced by the Public Interest Journalism Initiative mapping newsrooms across the country. This collection, which includes their regional distribution and ownership, was collated with a large representative sample of Facebook posts from these outlets from 2010 to 2022. The results show which top-level firms own which share of the pages, which regions are represented on the platform and the diversity of user engagement on the platform over the 12-year period. The early results of this study are both surprising and compelling.
Figure 1: Ownership and coverage among outlets owned by the main players on Facebook
Analysis of the ownership of news pages shows that News Corp and Rural Press collectively control nearly one third of the Australian pages on the platform. Combined with the ABC and Seven West Media, it brings the ownership to approximately half. Over 90 per cent of these pages cater to local markets, with the majority of metropolitan- and national-level pages being owned by the top five largest firms.
| State or Territory | Outlet share | Population share |
| Aus. Capital Territory | 1.2% | 1.7% |
| New South Wales | 34.4% | 31.8% |
| Northern Territory | 1.0% | 1.0% |
| Queensland | 21.3% | 20.4% |
| South Australia | 7.3% | 6.9% |
| Tasmania | 3.0% | 2.1% |
| Victoria | 22.5% | 25.8% |
| Western Australia | 9.4% | 10.4% |
Figure 2: Share of Facebook news pages (outlets) and population for each Australian state and territory
Another surprising result of this research is how closely, at a state level, the share of outlets reflect the distribution of Australia’s population (see Figure 2). These results are important when one considers the challenges regional communities face in accessing quality local news in Australia.
Figure 3: Top performing Australian news pages on Facebook from 2022 (longitudinally extrapolated)
This research also used engagement metrics to identify the top performing pages on the platform by year. Tracing backwards, the performance of the top players from 2022 shows significant market dynamism. With multiple stalwarts on the platform, for any given year the strongest performer could change. These results may be attributable to a variety of factors including changing consumer interests, alterations to algorithmic controls on the news feed or shifting demographics on the platform. Unsurprisingly, even though the majority of news pages on the platform are regional, all of the top players are nationally focused. Much more surprising is the extent to which late adopters, such as Daily Mail Australia or Sky News, have established themselves among the top performing pages. However, both outlets have extensive off-platform resources and being a late adopter does not appear to have impeded their ability gain a foothold.
Figure 4: Concentration of Facebook engagement from Australian news pages using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index for the years 2010-2022
Finally, figure 3 above provides longitudinal insights into the concentration of engagement metrics from Australian news pages using the Herfindahl-Hirschman Index over 12 years. The results show levels of concentration well below the classifications for concentrated markets and highly concentrated markets used by the US Justice Department.11 An outlier is present in this analysis for the year 2014, where the index rose significantly for that period. This result is attributable to a post that went viral, accumulating considerable engagement in a short period. Irregular results in this early year are indicative of the sparseness of the market at the time, with only a few established players and an audience base still in development. As such, one highly popular post was able to skew the trend seen in the graph that had mostly been consistent in the years prior and thereafter.
It would seem that news on Facebook is diverse. As the most popular gateway for online news consumers, this is significant
Platforms and pluralism
What do these results tell us about diversity in the Australia platform news economy and what are its economic, democratic and cultural implications? First, it would seem that news on Facebook is diverse. As the most popular gateway for online news consumers, this is significant and supports survey findings abroad regarding the diversity of news consumption on digital intermediaries. This added diversity is also of benefit to consumers as it promotes greater access and choice. Added diversity is also of democratic benefit as it allows for a more informed public sphere. From a cultural perspective, the large representation of local content is also important. As regional communities struggle to access quality news, Facebook offers a diverse choice that closely reflects population trends across each state.
All that remains is the question of economics and the financial value that platform-based distribution of news contributes. To this end, the data provides no insight. Engagement levels appear to favour national-level outlets, but they don’t account for revenue. Other research conducted by this scholar and others as part of the Global Media and Internet Concentration Project12 shows similar results to that of the Digital Platforms Inquiry.13 Newspapers have lost a dramatic share of their revenue as internet advertisers, such as Alphabet and Meta, are thriving. Television has also experienced some challenges but appears to be in a fairly stable position. While some of Australia’s largest news producers, such as News Corp and Nine Entertainment Co, appear to be successfully managing a transition to online advertising, the same cannot be said for the rest of the Australian news economy.
No matter how diverse the Australian platform news environment is, without economic sustainability the long-term viability of the industry is uncertain. The data shows that the current news environment is of value to consumers from a democratic and cultural perspective, but this needs to be guaranteed by a stable economic outlook for news producers. As Australian regulators and Meta approach their latest impasse, the risk of unintended consequences must be kept in mind. Sustainability is paramount, but solutions should recognise the benefits that platforms can add to diversity in a country with one of the most concentrated media markets in the world.
