Away with Free Newspapers!
Austria’s media policy has been marked by stagnation for years. Not just since the rise of the turquoise “brat pack” – academically polished, smart, from bourgeois or aristocratic backgrounds, youthful in appearance, but all too happy to reach into the old drawer of sleazy media preferences. Particularly striking is their internal image strategy of "message control" while clinging to outdated models of media patronage that have long been known in media-savvy circles.
The stubborn persistence in outdated concepts is now scandalous. For decades, a handful of media oligarchs have had the country in their grip – with press subsidies for trash, circulation figures used as wildcards in the game of outrage-driven content. This normalizes corruption, coercion, and paid opinion journalism as subculture. Those familiar with the media sector have known this for years. Those critical within the media scene know it firsthand. Those who adapted either rose in the ranks or grew bitterly cynical. The precarious remainder of critical, independent journalists are now viewed under the lens of “everything is controlled / propaganda / lying press.”
It’s time to remove free papers from public space – and to ask Wiener Linien what they gain from letting public transport be littered with long-format ads, cat photos, and sensationalist clickbait.
Strengthen Non-Commercial Media – Stop Corruption!
Nowhere else in Europe is the commercial media sector so lavishly cross-subsidized with taxpayer money on top of its advertising revenue. The same outlets loudly calling for an end to public broadcasting fees (GIS) are dipping deeply into the public funding pots of the Communications Authority Austria and generously benefiting from the Private Broadcasting Fund – which has been more well-funded than ever since the turquoise-blue coalition.
This redistribution from the public to private-commercial interests remains a largely unspoken media-political secret. Commercial radio and TV outlets receive €20 million in funding, while 14 non-commercial radio stations and community TVs must share a mere €3 million – that's 7 times more money from GIS fees for commercial than for non-commercial broadcasting.
Cut Advertising – Increase Media Funding!
To recover from both internal and external reputational damage, Austria urgently needs a modern media policy. The converging forces of dominant market players and data-hungry social media empires can only be addressed by strengthening non-commercial media and network policy.
A non-commercial media policy must now be top priority. Media diversity and democracy are not achieved through appeals and moralistic slogans. Through reallocation, however, real change becomes possible: those who put an end to clientelist ad spending free up resources to finally bury outdated habits for good.
Best regards,
Ulli Weish (Managing Director, ORANGE 94.0)