More Countries Want Google And Meta To Pay For The News
But there’s another key reason to be cautious about mandatory bargaining legislation. Even if it did offer a modest benefit to local news producers, it would come with a significant political opportunity cost. In short, it would inhibit any move toward a more substantial regulatory framework – such as a digital services tax. The dominance of the platforms in monetising online traffic isn’t really based on their “poaching” of news; it’s their ability to harvest user data and their control of the algorithms governing online content discovery. Crucially, such considerations fall outside mandatory bargaining frameworks. But these bilateral arrangements would seem to have superseded the Commerce Commission’s recent decision to authorise the News Publishers’ Association application to permit collective bargaining between local news media and the platforms. “Today’s agreement with News Corp covers a wide range of our products such as News Showcase, YouTube, Web Stories, Audio and our ad technology,” Don Harrison, president of global partnerships at Google, said in a statement.
Google in June 2020 announced that it will begin paying news publishers that are located in Brazil, Germany, and Australia. Some of the partners for Google’s new program include luminaries as Schwartz Media , Solstice Media, The Conversation, and Der Spiegel . For Google’s initiative to support journalists, https://tibethouseswitzerland.org/Euroinvest-Opens-Up-the-Russian.php see Google News Lab. To try and rebalance the playing field, many countries have passed or toyed with legislation similar to Spain’s in recent years, including Germany and Belgium. In 2019, these efforts were folded into an EU-wide reform of online copyright law known as the Copyright Directive.
Channel Ars Technica
As reported in last week (Will Australia Have to Live Without Google Search?), Google Australia’s Managing Director Mel Silva testified in a Senate hearing that there was no way Google could continue in Australia should the law pass. The situation of declining revenue has been simmering for a long time.
He also likes to take views from the bigger picture in technology from how people are attracted to it to how it’s utilized across every other industry. If a digital levy was introduced on top of mandatory bargaining legislation, however, the platforms would claim – with some justification – they are being taxed twice. The government’s move follows Australia’s 2021 News Media Mandatory Bargaining Code and Canada’s proposed Online News Act.
Why Has Alphabet Hit The Panic Button? Only Google Can Answer That Question
“News Showcase now has partnerships with over 500 publications around the world, demonstrating the value this product can bring to our news partners and readers everywhere. We hope to announce even more partnerships soon.” She noted that the widespread support for the Code came partly from public sentiment that it was time to regulate big tech and partly because the polarization in the US showed what could happen if quality journalism wasn’t given support. The need for reliable information during the Covid pandemic further underscored the importance of strong news media. “The Code brought far more money to new outlets than expected,” said Harry Dugmore, senior lecturer in the communications department at Australia’s University of the Sunshine Coast. ” Each outlet has its own agreement, so expiration will happen at different times, but the first contracts may expire in two or three years. Observers note that the staggered expiration dates give the platforms an edge in bargaining and that sector-wide contracts would give the media outlets an advantage.
- Although larger news organisations might carry some weight in negotiations, smaller operators (if they’re covered at all) will likely be forced to accept whatever crumbs fall from the rich platforms’ table.
- But since there is no public accounting of who’s getting what, news organizations can’t be sure how much they should ask for or expect.
- In 2021, Australia brought in a law that compels Google and Facebook to negotiate deals with the country’s news publishers.
- Misha Ketchell, editor at The Conversation Media Group, says he’s happy with the deal he struck with Google.
- Josh Frydenberg, who as federal treasurer would have enormous discretion over the new legislation, has media ties of his own.
- Minderoo Foundation’s Frontier Technology initiative spent six months helping another group of 24 outlets — including multi-cultural, LGBTQI+, outer urban, regional and arts organizations — negotiate an agreement with Google.
The reader’s first click to the content is free, and the number after that would be set by the content provider. Google on December 1, 2009 changed their policy to allow a limit of five articles per day, in order to protect publishers from abuse. This policy was again changed on September 29, 2015 where this limit was changed to three articles per day. In October 2017, this program was replaced with a “flexible sampling” model in which each publisher chooses how many, if any, free articles were allowed. Really, though, the return of Google News to Spain is just a single skirmish in a long running battle between Europe’s media industry and Big Tech. The former complains that the internet has undermined its business model, and that profits from this new economy have been hoovered up by Google and its kin. The latter reply, “oh well, yeah, I guess so, sorry about that,” and throw some of their megabucks at various “sustainable journalism” initiatives.