Job losses and potentially ‘dire’ impact on regional media from Meta’s news exit

Meta’s refusal to pay for Australian news content could have a dire impact on Australia’s largest regional publisher, Australian Community Media, says its executive chair, Antony Catalano.

The media boss said on Thursday “absolutely” there would be job losses across the company, which houses The Canberra Times and The Newcastle Herald among other mastheads, if no alternative funding was found – an outcome that should not come as a surprise.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in Washington in January.Credit: AP

“If people are surprised now, I don’t think they ought to be. They should have always expected this day to come because it’s just the nature of who we’re dealing with,” Catalano said.

“They didn’t want it, they didn’t want to go into it, they had to be brought to the table,” he said, referring to the 13 commercial deals the Facebook and Instagram owner made with media companies in 2021, worth an estimated $66 million a year.

Last week, Meta announced it would not renegotiate commercial deals with Australian publishers as part of the media bargaining code when the deals expire this year, bringing criticism from all sides of politics, media and regulators.

The news media bargaining code was created three years ago to address a perceived power imbalance between Australian news businesses and the US-based tech giants.

“If we don’t find an alternative, absolutely [there will be job losses]. It will have severe ramifications for the business,” said Catalano.

The support from Meta and Google had played a crucial role in maintaining quality journalism and protecting jobs, he said. Yet the disparity in intentions behind both companies had been clear from the outset, as evidenced by most Google deals running for five years, as opposed to most of Meta’s running for three.

“When you consider the way that they [Meta] went into it, and the animosity they created when they banned the content, I was always of the view they weren’t committed to it,” Catalano said.

“It would be foolhardy to run a business, and not have made contingency for this money to disappear.”

Jobs could be on the line at Antony Catalano’s Australian Community Media.Credit: Jesse Marlow

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is gathering information to advise the government whether it can designate Meta under the media bargaining code.

Under the legislation, the treasurer can designate digital platforms, including Facebook and Google, and require them to pay for their use of news content.

Assistant Treasurer Stephen Jones, who is leading the process, said last week he was open to “designating” Facebook.

Should the Meta revenue disappear, chief executive of Public Interest Journalism Initiative Anna Draffin said taxation reform could fill the gap to support the transformation of public interest journalism and the role of news in democracy.

She said tax reform could take shape in the form of a research and development-style rebate, as seen in Canada and in other sectors such as IT innovation, film and television.

“Such a rebate would complement the media bargaining code in driving reinvestment into public interest journalism.”

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