US ‘pay for news’ heat on FB & Google
AUSTRALIA’S bold move to force tech giants to start paying for the news appears to be reigniting US efforts to hold Google and Facebook to account for the gloomy state of the local news industry.
Momentum is building for a new version of a bipartisan congressional bill first introduced in 2019 that would allow US news publishers to band together to negotiate for payments by tech giants that link to their news content.
A hearing for the Journalism Competition and Protection Act has been tentatively set for March 12 by the House Judiciary Committee, sources said.
As before, the bill would give news publishers a “safe harbor” to collectively negotiate for payment without running afoul of antitrust laws that normally prohibit group-pricing discussions among competitors. But the new version will invite local broadcast-TV news stations to join with newspapers on the talks, according to a source close to the situation.
Google and Facebook have long been criticized for linking to content created by third-party publishers, including news organizations, while keeping the lion’s share of the ad revenue generated by that content for themselves. This year, more than 50 percent of all digital-ad revenue in the US will flow to the two socialmedia giants, eMarketer projects.
Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), chairman of the House Antitrust Subcommittee, will co-sponsor the updated bill with Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.), the ranking minority member of the subcommittee, in a rare display of bipartisanship.
“Local journalism plays such an important role in keeping the American people informed, but many of our community newspapers have been crushed by the threat of Big Tech,” Buck said in a statement to Media Ink. “This bipartisan bill will send a lifeline to local news organizations struggling to survive because Google and Facebook have decimated the news industry.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) are expected to shepherd a similar bill through the Senate.
The bill, which never made it out of committee in the last session, appears to be drawing new life from Australia, which has mandated that social-media giants negotiate payment deals in order to link to content created by local news publishers.
If local news publishers and the tech giants fail to reach a collectivebargaining agreement, the new Australian law calls for both sides to submit to binding arbitration.
Facebook and Google have been trying to head off legislative efforts to govern how they compensate publishers. Google, for example, has been hatching deals with publishers on a piecemeal basis around the globe. It recently inked a three-year deal to pay for news generated by News Corp., which owns The Post and The Wall Street Journal.
But these efforts have done little to save the Fourth Estate. More than 300 newspapers have closed in the past two years, creating “news deserts” in many communities, according to a study by the University of North Carolina School of Journalism and Media. Since 2004, the US has lost nearly 1,800 papers including more than 60 dailies and 1,700 weeklies, the study said.
It’s why the News Media Alliance, a trade group that includes major newspapers including The Post, the Journal, The New York Times and The Washington Post among others, is supportive of including local broadcast TV in the bill, said alliance CEO David Chavern.
Condé Nast has tapped a British-born editor who speaks five languages as the global editor-in-chief of the magazine Wired.
Gideon Lichfield, who will be supervising four worldwide editions of the popular tech mag, replaces Nicholas Thompson, who departed at the end of December to become CEO of Atlantic Media.
Condé Nast said Lichfield will oversee the content in the countries where Wired owns and operates the title, including the United States, Britain, Japan and Italy. He starts on March 22.
There are also two editions licensed to local publishers in South Korea and the Middle East, although the one in South Korea is a digital-only brand. Lichfield speaks English, Spanish, French, Russian and Hebrew, so there appears to be potential for future brand expansion.
In a tweet Tuesday, Lichfield said he “can’t wait to get to know the team at @wired and work with them on what’s going to be a fascinating and exciting challenge.” Lichfield was previously editor-in-chief of the MIT Technology Review, where since 2017 he ran a print magazine, newsletters and live events since 2017. Prior to that, he was an editor at the founding of the financial news site Quartz, where he oversaw the Quartz Daily Brief. “Gideon’s experience gives him a unique perspective on the way tech affects every aspect of our lives and he will both inspire and challenge Wired’s audience in the best ways,” said Anna Wintour, global editorial director of Vogue and chief content officer of Condé Nast.