Christopher P. Ree: Hometown papers tackle big tech
Published Monday, August 29, 2022 at 12:00 am
The Internet that Silicon Valley promised us was supposed to be a haven for new ideas, a source of vigorous expression and the free flow of information.
Instead, the Internet we’ve found is dominated by a handful of Big Tech companies with unprecedented power over every aspect of our lives.
While Google and Facebook are raking in billions of dollars in ad revenue, the small, local and independent media companies that produce the content that fuels these platforms must struggle to eliminate waste.
Big Tech makes every effort to ensure that its users never leave the platform for other sites – depriving small and local publishers of the opportunity to monetize their content.
In my state of Colorado, 59 percent of residents get their news from Facebook and 44 percent of residents use Google as their primary news source.
As a result, small, local, and independent publishers are closing their doors, and companies that don’t conform to the ideology of the Silicon Valley elite that founded these tech giants are punished and censored. Local newspapers in the US are dying twice a week, with 360 closings since the end of 2019, according to recent reports.
Big Tech’s suppression of local news is important because Americans trust their local news — 73 percent of U.S. adults surveyed in the Poynter Media Trust Survey said they trust their local newspaper, compared to 55 percent for national network news stations. What’s more, local news helps keep our communities connected by documenting events that are closest to us, our friends and our families. It can present different ideas and opinions that are not explored by the mainstream corporate media.
News publishers employ 9,560 Colorado reporters and newsroom staff, according to data from the News/Media Alliance. Big Tech’s advertising technology tax takes 50-70 percent of every advertising dollar from news publishers while hiring zero reporters. Local papers can hire more reporters if Big Tech pays them for the quality journalism that fuels their platform and profits.
Fortunately, several bipartisan solutions being strengthened in Congress are designed to curb Big Tech’s overreach. The Journalism Competition and Protection Act (JCPA) is one of the most promising pieces of legislation.
The JCPA was designed to allow small, local and independent news publishers to better negotiate with Big Tech (particularly Google and Facebook) for the use of their content in response to Big Tech’s unprecedented assault on the free press and free speech.
More importantly, the JCPA prohibits opinion discrimination, meaning that Big Tech forums cannot exclude publications such as the Washington Challenger and other conservative editorial sites.
News publishers have been forced to cut one-to-one deals with Facebook and Google because of antitrust laws. The bill removes legal barriers to news organizations being able to secure collective and fair contracts.
Hundreds of small, local and independent news publishers from across the political spectrum support the JCPA. A recent poll by the News/Media Alliance found that 70 percent of Americans believe it is important for Congress to pass the JCPA, and more than two-thirds (67 percent) of Republican respondents agree that elected officials who oppose the JCPA should allow Big Tech. Instead of arming yourself with weapons to fight the local media, have all the power to negotiate.
The JCPA is an important first step in combating Big Tech’s anti-competitive practices, and it’s a bill that both Republicans and Democrats can get behind. Small, local publishers work hard to report the news and cover their communities, but Big Tech profits from their work. This is fundamentally unfair, and the JCPA will bring much-needed change.
Contact your member of Congress to support the JCPA and make sure Big Tech doesn’t cancel local news.
Christopher P. Ree is the former president of Newspapers of America, the leading national association of more than 1,600 online and print newspapers.
