Two local newspapers will receive Commonwealth grants to help them keep printing through the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Manilla Express and Scone.com.au will each receive a $10,000 grant care of the Federal Government's Public Interest News Gathering program.
Member for New England Barnaby Joyce said the money would help fund "public interest journalism" in the region.
"Public interest journalism keeps our communities informed and connected, and it is especially important for people living in regional and remote areas," he said.
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Asked if the funding was likely to just prolong the inevitable closure of local media outlets, he said "I hope not".
Mr Joyce said the industry's woes had been caused by a loss of advertising caused by Google, Facebook and Twitter.
He backed a Federal government plan to force the social media giants to pay licencing fees for sharing stories published by traditional media.
"These people don't actually provide a service in the community that local media organisations do," he said.
"They don't have a bureau in parliament house, they don't support journalists or cameramen out in the countryside. So I think it's fair enough to say if you want to have the right to be a media organisation in Australia you either provide the resources that do what other media outlets are doing, or you pay licence fees so that they can do it for you."
The Commonwealth program will grant $20 million to television outlets, $12 million for radio and $18 million for publishing across regional Australia. A majority of publishers winning money will be small-to-medium businesses.
Applications were considered through a demand-driven process, meaning that organisations that satisfied the eligibility criteria, including the production and distribution of public interest journalism in regional Australia, were eligible for funding.
Neither news organisation attended the announcement by Mr Joyce on Monday afternoon.
The Manilla Express in May petitioned against a plan by Tamworth Regional Council to stop advertising community notices in the newspaper.