The Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) is an independent

Australian Australian(s) may refer to: Australia * Australia, a country * Australians, citizens of the Commonwealth of Australia ** European Australians ** Anglo-Celtic Australians, Australians descended principally from British colonists ** Aboriginal Aus ...

research and

public policy Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...

institute, established in

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

in 2018. It is a registered

not-for-profit A not-for-profit or non-for-profit organization (NFPO) is a Legal Entity, legal entity that does not distribute surplus funds to its members and is formed to fulfill specific objectives. While not-for-profit organizations and Nonprofit organ ...

charitable organisation that is focused on research into sustainability in the

news media The news media or news industry are forms of mass media that focus on delivering news to the general public. These include News agency, news agencies, newspapers, news magazines, News broadcasting, news channels etc. History Some of the fir ...

sector. It was founded by a group of university academics, including members of the Public Interest Journalism Foundation, and news media industry figures. It was established with philanthropic funding from the Susan McKinnon Foundation, Australian Communities Foundation and Hecht Trust.

Research

PIJI research focuses on three main areas: assessing media diversity; measuring public support and value of journalism; and evaluating mechanisms for financial support. In April 2020 PIJI launched the Australian News Mapping Project, an ongoing research project to track changes to the production and availability of news media. The project has attracted significant media attention as a source of independent information about Australian journalism. In 2023, the

Australian Government The Australian Government, also known as the Commonwealth Government or simply as the federal government, is the national executive government of Australia, a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy. The executive consists of the pr ...

funded PIJI to continue this project. Other research projects have proposed a public interest journalism rebate scheme and investigated philanthropic funding for news companies. PIJI also contributed to the development of the

News Media Bargaining Code The News Media Bargaining Code (NMBC, or News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) is a law designed to have large technology platforms that operate in Australia pay local news publishers for the news content made available or ...

Governance

PIJI's Board of Directors is chaired by Professor

Allan Fels Allan Herbert Miller Fels (born 7 February 1942) is an Australian economist, lawyer and public servant. He was most widely known in his role as chairman of the Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) from its inception in 1995 unt ...

. Its Board includes

Eric Beecher Eric Beecher (born ) is an Australian journalist, editor, and media proprietor. He is chair of Solstice Media and Private Media (Australia), Private Media, publisher of Crikey. Early life Eric Beecher was born around 1951. Career Beecher bega ...

, Richard Eccles, Leslie Falkiner-Rose,

Virginia Haussegger Virginia Haussegger, (born 21 March 1964), is an Australian journalist, academic advocate for gender equity, media commentator and television presenter. Haussegger presented ''ABC News (Australia), ABC News'' on ABC Canberra (TV station), ABC ...

Anita Jacoby Anita Jacoby, is an Australians, Australian television producer and journalist. Life Jacoby was born in Sydney, Sydney, Australia, the daughter of Right of asylum, political refugees displaced through the World War II, Second World War. H ...

and Mette Schepers. Past members of the Board include Professor

Glyn Davis Glyn Conrad Davis is an Australian academic and public servant. He served as the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet from 6 June 2022 to 16 June 2025. From January 2005 until September 2018, he served as vice-chancello ...

Adam Ferrier Adam Ferrier is an Australian psychologist, writer, creative strategist, and the founder of Thinkerbell. Education Ferrier holds bachelors degree in Commerce and Arts (Psychology) from Murdoch University, a Postgraduate Diploma in Applied Ps ...

, Karen Mahlab, Dr Sophie Oh, Grant Rule, Dr

Margaret Simons Margaret Simons (born 1960) is an Australian academic, freelance journalist and author. She has written numerous articles and essays as well as many books, including a biography of Senate leader of the Australian Labor Party, Penny Wong and Aust ...

, and Professor

Marilyn Warren Marilyn Louise Warren (born 1951) is a former chief justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria and lieutenant-governor of Victoria, Australia. Early life Warren grew up in the Melbourne suburb of Sandringham, and was educated at the Kilb ...

. Its research programme is overseen by a panel of academic experts including Professor Derek Wilding (Chair), Associate Professor Jason Bosland, Professor

Axel Bruns Axel Bruns (born 1970) is a German-Australian media scholar. He is a Professor of Communication and Media Studies at QUT Digital Media Research Centre, Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane, Australia, and a Chief Investigator in the ...

, Associate Professor Andrea Carson, Associate Professor Andrew Dodd, Professor Kristy Hess, Professor Sora Park, Dr Margaret Simons and Professor

Glenn Withers Glenn Alexander Withers is an Australian economist, policy adviser, and academic. He is an Honorary Distinguished Professor of Economics at the Australian National University and Visiting Professorial Fellow at University of New South Wales Can ...

. PIJI has a partnership agreement with the University of Melbourne. It has previously been partnered with the newDemocracy Foundation.

References

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External links

Official website
Think tanks based in Australia Organisations based in Melbourne