State support for news: Why subsidies? Why now? What kinds?

Abstract

Subsidies in liberal democratic societies are a classic policy response to market failures, to inefficient industries and firms, or to desires to preserve domestic employment in the face of external competitors. They are a form of state economic intervention used in industrial policy to shore up existing industries or to promote new ones and in cultural policy to promote domestic objectives related to national artistic expression, identity, and facilitation of social and political development (Picard 2008b).