Star News Group owner and managing director Paul Thomas has been made a life member of both the Victorian Country Press Association and Country Press Australia.
The joint honour was presented “for his significant and unrelenting contribution to the newspaper industry over the past 20 years” at Friday’s VCPA conference at the RACV Club in Melbourne.
Paul is a fourth-generation newspaper man, following in the footsteps of his father Ian, grandfather Herb and great grandfather Albert who started his newspaper proprietorship in 1894 when he established the Violet Town Sentinel.
Albert relocated to Berwick in 1909.
Paul completed a Bachelor of Commerce and cut his teeth selling advertising for an aggressive suburban Melbourne newspaper group headed by Peter Boyle.
In July 1992, in his early 20s, Paul joined the family business and later became managing director and chairman in January 2000 of the then South East Newspapers, now Star News Group.
Paul joined the VCPA board on 23 November 2001 and served as president from 2010-12. Herb and Ian also served as VCPA president.
Paul joined the Country Press Australia (CPA) board on 1 July 2006 and served as president from 2015-17. He remains a director of both organisations today and has remained actively involved in both organisations and has been the driver of many initiatives during his time.
Long-time friend and colleague Bruce Ellen – owner and managing director of the Latrobe Valley Express and Gippsland Times in Sale – moved the motion, which was seconded by Warragul Gazette owner and VCPA president Andrew Schreyer.
Bruce said that in his time at VCPA and CPA, Paul had grown his empire of newspapers which started in South East Melbourne to other areas in Victoria, as well as South Australia and Queensland.
He said Paul’s contribution to the industry was only just gaining momentum.
In December 2017, the Turnbull Government directed the ACCC to conduct an inquiry into competition in media and advertising services markets, focusing in large part on Google and Facebook. The final report published in July 2019 made several conclusions regarding the state of competition in the news and media landscape.
In April 2020 the Morrison Government directed the ACCC to develop a mandatory code to address bargaining power imbalances between digital platforms and media companies. The draft News Media Bargaining Code was published by the ACCC in July 2020, and interested parties were invited to make submissions regarding the proposed code.
Paul put in hundreds of hours of time into representing CPA in the ACCC inquiry and then on CPA’s submission on the proposed code. He worked nights and weekends to ensure CPA, and in-turn VCPA members, were well represented in the proposed code.
On 28 August 2020, the ACCC closed the consultation period on the proposal. The code was converted to a bill and sent to Parliament in December 2020.
The News Media Bargaining Code (or News Media and Digital Platforms Mandatory Bargaining Code) is now a law designed to have large technology platforms that operate in Australia pay local news publishers for the news content made available or linked on their platforms.
Once enshrined in law, Paul was one of the CPA appointed negotiators who dedicated his all to ensure willing CPA and VCPA members were compensated as well as possible for their content by the digital platforms – namely Facebook and Google.
“The time, effort and personal cost to this work cannot be underestimated,” Bruce said.
“Paul often travelled interstate to attend meetings and inquiries at his own expense, many times at very short notice.
“Without doubt the agreements reached by CPA with Facebook and Google have changed the face of the industry and have helped many publishers remain viable.
“This law and the resulting agreements have been hailed world first, with news associations in Canada and the US wanting Paul’s help to assist in the negotiations with their governments and the digital platforms.”
Paul also fronted many inquiries and heavily lobbied the Federal Government leading to the release of the Regional and Small Publishers Innovation Fund, the $50M PING Fund and most recently the $15m Regional and Local Newspaper Publishers Program.
Bruce said Paul’s lobbying work with the Federal Government to secure advertising during the Covid pandemic unquestionably saved some publishers from closure.
“Much of Paul’s work on behalf of the industry was being undertaken during Covid and at the same time he was rapidly expanding his own newspaper stable. But VCPA and CPA members’ interests and their future remained key to Paul’s motivation.
“Paul’s contribution to the industry is outstanding. His passion and drive are infectious and without Paul the industry would not be where it is today.”
Paul said he was touched by the joint honour and acknowledged the role of his parents Ian and Dorothy had in setting him on the path.
