The UK government has just announced that “Plans to scrap VAT on e-publications have been fast-tracked, and will come into force tomorrow”. VAT is the UK’s main sales tax. This should mean cheaper lockdown e-reading and research — so long as publishers and Amazon don’t just keep prices the same and pocket the 20% as extra profit. The move covers “e-books, e-newspapers, e-magazines and academic e-journals”, but seemingly not audiobooks. The change will be permanent, and had been scheduled for December 2020.

The UK government will also spend £35 million in taking out ‘public education’ print ads in newspapers, over the next three months. This will be “split between local, regional and national print media”, with what appears to be a strong tilt toward what the government calls the “most-trusted” print newspapers. This may imply that the shoddy, slipshod and alarmist reporting we’ve seen could be about to have financial consequences for newspapers.