News agencies: new rules on artificial intelligence and the allocation of subsidies

The Department for Information and Publishing of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers rewrites the requirements for registration in the list of News Agencies of National Relevance. The DPCM of August 4, 2026, published in the Official Gazette, General Series no. 219 of September 21, 2026, with reference 26A04859, modifies the decree of July 11, 2023, by novellation and introduces three novelties: a professional figure specialized in artificial intelligence, negotiated contracts without a call for tenders, and a 90/10 distribution of public resources.

The decree is signed by the Undersecretary of State with responsibility for information and publishing, Alberto Barachini, and was registered by the Court of Auditors on August 31, 2026, Control Office for the acts of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, the Ministry of Justice, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, no. 2487. Prior to adoption, the opinion of the Council of State no. 01348/2026 was acquired, issued by the advisory section for regulatory acts in the meeting of July 28, 2026.

The intervention implements paragraph 3 of art. 6 of the decree of July 11, 2023, which, at the end of the transitional phase, required an update of the requirements and parameters “that takes into account the trend of the economic and market conditions of the primary information sector.” The transitional list had been published by the decree of the head of the Department for Information and Publishing on November 10, 2023, and is valid for the 2024-2026 three-year period.

The specialized figure in artificial intelligence

Letter f) of paragraph 1 of art. 2 of the decree of July 11, 2023, is replaced: among the minimum requirements now appears “the existence within the Agency of a specialized professional figure who supports the editorial management in the application of artificial intelligence,” in accordance with art. 19 of the New Code of Ethics for Journalists.

Concurrently, letter g) of the same paragraph is repealed. The decree justifies this choice with the need to “guarantee the quality of information through the continuity of support for primary information,” in an information ecosystem marked by “profound structural transformations and the threat of disinformation.”

Negotiated contracts without a call for tenders

Art. 4 of the decree of July 11, 2023, is modified on three points:

• the resources allocated to Agencies of national relevance are defined each year by the Department for Information and Publishing for an amount not exceeding the average of the resources assigned in the previous three years and in any case within the limits of the relevant budget chapter of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers;
• the negotiated procedure is permitted “without the publication of a call for tenders”, according to the provisions of art. 76 of the legislative decree of 31 March 2023, n. 36;
• the share of the annual requirement allocated to compensation for possessing the parameters of art. 3 is set at 10 percent of the total.

The window for submitting an application for registration is set “from October 1st to 31st of each year”. The Department initiates negotiated procedures with agencies registered after 2024 only if financial availability or savings from cancellations exist and if public administrations have an actual need for further news agencies.

90/10 Allocation and Contract Duration

The new paragraph 3 of art. 5 establishes the resource distribution criterion:

• 90 percent is distributed among all agencies registered in the list, based on the average number of journalists employed over the last five years with full-time and permanent contracts;
• the remaining 10 percent is allocated to registered agencies possessing at least 3 out of 5 rewarding parameters, distributed using the same criterion.

For each three-year period, the contract has a duration of one year provided the requirements are maintained and “is renewed for another two years if said requirements persist”; the words “and novation” are deleted from the heading of art. 5. Furthermore, art. 6 of the decree of 11 July 2023 is repealed.

Cancellations and Financial Invariance

Agencies must communicate any change in requirements and parameters to the Department; the loss of minimum requirements results in removal from the list. Agencies that, during the term of the contract, fail to ensure the regular payment of salaries to journalists are likewise removed, with the termination of the contract stipulated by the Department for Information and Publishing.

Art. 7 introduces the financial invariance clause: the implementation of the decree “does not result in new or increased burdens on public finances”. The measure is transmitted to the supervisory bodies according to current legislation.

For publishers and news agencies, the game is played on two fronts: the organizational adjustment required by the obligation of internal expertise on artificial intelligence and the race for the rewarding parameters that determine 10 percent of the resources. For readers, the stakes are the stability of the primary information flow funded by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, now constrained to an expenditure not exceeding the average of the previous three-year period.

Source: Official Gazette of the Italian Republic, General Series no. 219 of September 21, 2026 — DPCM August 4, 2026, “Amendments to the Decree of the President of the Council of Ministers of July 11, 2023, regarding: Requirements and parameters for registration in the list of Agencies of national relevance” (26A04859).