By Robert Chanick
Chicago Tribune
The newspaper industry, which is grappling with a deep decline in advertising revenue in the digital age, is backing proposed legislation that would force Big Tech to pay publishers for aggregating their news stories online.
The Journalism Competition and Protection Act seeks to level the playing field by allowing local newspapers, broadcasters and other online publishers to collectively negotiate annual content fees with Google and Meta/Facebook, which dominate the digital advertising market.
The full text of the Senate bill, released Monday, cites the power imbalance created by local “news” as Big Tech loses thousands of publications and tens of thousands of journalists at the expense of a shrinking newspaper industry. Deserts” across America
The proposed legislation would capture digital revenue and encourage local news publishers to hire more journalists.
“There’s a lot of revenue that platforms get from our content that doesn’t go to news publishers,” said Danielle Coffey, general counsel of the News Media Alliance, a Washington, D.C.-based newspaper trade organization. “Going forward, we will be able to force payment from the platform, which will be game-changing for our entire industry.”
A Meta spokeswoman declined to comment, while a Google spokeswoman did not respond to requests for comment on the proposed rule.
The bipartisan bill covers thousands of local and state newspapers, including those in a new group in Southern California. It does not include national publications that have successfully navigated the digital transition through increased subscription revenue, such as The New York Times, Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal.
The bill also includes local TV and radio stations that publish original digital news content and meet other eligibility criteria.
“Our bipartisan legislation would allow journalists to engage in good faith negotiations for fair compensation from the big tech companies that use their news content,” D-Minn, one of the bill’s lead cosponsors, said in a news release.
