Government to support home delivery of newspapers, magazines with €450,000

The government will support media companies with a €450,000 crisis measure. Income lost on home delivery due to the emergency situation will be reimbursed to magazines and newspapers for three months.
Media companies which have had to reduce their home deliveries of newspapers and magazines as a result of an emergency situation can claim €450,000 in compensation over the next three months, which will help alleviate their loss of advertising revenue.
Media companies will receive support of €150,000 per month for more than three months. The government has not yet discussed any further support plans, Prime Minister Juri Ratas (Center) told ERR on Friday.
"The partial compensation of home delivery costs during the emergency situation stems from the need to guarantee that newspapers will continue to be delivered to people's mailboxes in rural areas," Finance Minister Martin Helme said on social media on Friday.
"We also agreed that media support cannot be limited to newspapers, but must be looked at more broadly, because advertising revenue has also fallen away from radio, for example," Helme wrote.
The Association of Estonian Broadcasters turned to the government this week as their prognoses indicate that the radio advertising market may fall 55 to 60 percent, or by 1.75 million euros, in the second quarter of the year. The association has requested assistance from the government in sustaining the sector.
Proposals by the broadcasters' association included exempting private broadcasting companies from labor tax liability and/or VAT from March through June.
The Association of Media Enterprises has also requested the government's assistance by having the VAT-rate for all media products reduced to 0 percent.
In March, the Association of Media Enterprises called for the state to compensate 40 percent of the salaries of employees in journalism. The government rejected the proposal on April 2.
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Editor: Helen Wright