Minister gives Google, Meta hurry up
Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson has signalled he is running out of patience over the time it is taking for internet giants Google and Meta to strike more deals to support the news media.
Jackson said he had a regulatory backstop in his ‘‘backpocket’’ and suggested a proposed Canadian law could provide a model for the Government if it decided to intervene.
He indicated he might not wait more than three months before deciding on further action, saying he would hope to see deals done before the end of the year.
Jackson said he met with representatives from Google about two weeks ago and expected to meet with Meta in the next two weeks.
Financial agreements for news media content were primarily a commercial matter and news content had a value that was best determined by the parties involved, he said.
‘‘However, it is becoming clear that the market isn’t working. There’s a role for government to support fair negotiations. A significant amount of time has passed and progress is needed,’’ he said.
Amodel that would see internet giants bear some responsibility for funding the media has been promoted in some quarters as a pragmatic way to help ensure journalism remains financially viable in the digital age, without it having to become reliant on government support.
In 2020, Google earmarked US$1 billion (NZ$1.62b) to spend on licensing content for its Google News Showcase service globally over three years, in a move that appeared designed to head off calls for it to do more to fund the creation of trusted online news content.
But countries, including Australia and France, have passed legislation aimed at keeping the pressure on the major internet firms to conclude deals acceptable to the media.
In June, NZME, publisher of The New Zealand Herald, struck what is assumed to be a multimillion-dollar deal to supply curated news to Google News Showcase, after going it alone in talks in March.
Some other news media, including Stuff and Allied Press, the owner of The Otago Daily Times, received preliminary permission from the Commerce Commission in August to negotiate with Google and Facebook-owner Meta as a block.
Jackson said he had asked officials for advice on ‘‘what sufficient looks like in terms of deals between platforms and news media organisations, whether that’s the number of deals struck, the amount of money brought into the sector, or the extent to which the breadth and diversity of the sector is supported’’.
Officials were actively monitoring developments overseas ‘‘particularly the development of legislation in Canada’’, he said. ‘‘It’s in our back pocket. I think the journalism sector has lost 50% of their people in the past few years. I want to see deals done and I want to know ‘are these fair deals?’ We have got to do something.’’
Jackson said he had a view on what was a fair dollar outcome, but that was not something he could share.
Canada’s proposed Online News Act would ‘‘ensure fair revenue sharing between digital platforms and news outlets’’, according to the Canadian government, and would provide for collective bargaining by news outlets.
The law would promote ‘‘voluntary commercial agreements’’ but would allow for mandatory arbitration between the parties if agreements couldn’t be reached.
Both Google and Meta have voiced concerns over the proposed legislation, which Google said in a May blog post would force it to subsidise outlets that did not adhere to any journalistic standards, potentially including ‘‘blogs and foreign state-owned media’’ that disseminated disinformation.
The act would require companies like Google to pay news businesses ‘‘simply so that we can help you find what you’re looking for’’, Google vice president Sabrina Geremia wrote in the post.
Meta did not respond to a request for an interview on Jackson’s remarks.
Google New Zealand country director Caroline Rainsford said in a written statement that Google was ‘‘committed to playing its part to ensure the long term vibrancy of public interest news and quality journalism in New Zealand’’.
‘‘Google New Zealand is continuing discussions with local news media businesses about Google News Showcase. We are pleased to have reached agreements with a number of news businesses and we have spoken with and made commercial offers to several others,’’ she said.
There was already a substantial ‘‘two-way value exchange’’ between Google and news businesses, Rainsford also said.