Decision to put advertising on Bureau of Meteorology website
Henare Degan made this Freedom of Information request to Bureau of Meteorology
This request has been closed to new correspondence from the public body. Contact us if you think it ought be re-opened.
Dear Bureau of Meteorology,
I'd like to request a copy of the most recent document you hold that includes a reasoning or justification for the decision by the Bureau of Meteorology to start putting advertising on your website.
Please consider this an administrative access request. If for some reason the request cannot be dealt with in this way, please treat this as a formal application under the Freedom of Information Act.
Cheers,
Henare
Good morning Henare
Please find attached a letter and extracts, in response to your query. I have copied the links included in the letter below.
Kind regards,
Erin
Erin MacLatchy | FOI & Privacy Officer
Tel: +61 3 9616 8428
• The Munro Review: http://www.environment.gov.au/system/fil...
• The Government Response to the Munro Review, which includes the decision to advertise: http://www.bom.gov.au/governmentresponse...
• The Bureau’s online advertising policy: http://www.bom.gov.au/advertising/policy...
Hi Erin,
Thanks for your prompt and helpful response. That helped me find what I was after - Option 22 in the Munro Review details the reasoning.
Cheers,
Henare Degan
Thanks for letting me know, Henare.
Kind regards,
Erin
Erin MacLatchy | FOI & Privacy Officer
Tel: +61 3 9616 8428
Henare Degan left an annotation ()
In looking into this more I found this article interesting, "Senate backs ads for Bureau of Meteorology site" http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/...
The bill page for the, "Meteorology Amendment (Online Advertising) Bill 2014", also has useful links including the bill's digest: http://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Busi...
The most relevant thing to my question is from the Munro Report though:
Option 22: Explore options to obtain revenue from advertising on the Bureau’s website
The opportunity to obtain revenue from advertising on the Bureau’s website was considered by previous reviews in 1997 and 2008. This option was rejected in the past in the absence of whole-of-government guidelines. However, there have been rapid changes in the online environment generally and it may be that at this juncture advertising is more acceptable than when the matter was last considered.
Since 2008 annual hits to the Bureau’s website have increased from 9 billion hits to approximately 33 billion, making it one of the most frequently visited websites in Australia. Over the same period there has been a rapid evolution of online business models including both free and subscription news services. Arguably there is greater public acceptance of advertising as part of the online ‘contract’ and comparable meteorological agencies internationally do carry advertising on their websites – including the UK MetOffice, Canadian Weather Office and New Zealand Metservice.
Given the budgetary challenges faced by the Bureau in meeting growing demand for all its services, this Review considers it would be worth revisiting the question. Desirably, this examination would be in the context of whole-of-government policy settings for website advertising. However, the characteristics of the Bureau’s online presence suggest that it is likely to be the pace-setter in developing such policies.