Pressure on tech titans to pay for content

News Corp executive chairman Michael Miller has urged Google and Facebook to strike a deal seeing giants pay for original journalism.

News Corp executive chairman Michael Miller says the current situation in which social media platforms profit from the original journalism of others could not continue. Picture: Brett Costello

News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller has urged Facebook and Google to come to the table in good faith and strike a deal in which the tech giants would pay for original journalism that tech platforms rely on for billions in clicks and revenue.

Writing in The Australian’s Media section today, Mr Miller said last year’s Australian Competition & Consumer Commission inquiry into the tech giants and their impact on media companies made it clear the current situation in which the platforms profit from the original journalism of others, could not continue.

“The current situation, sadly, is unsustainable — and the government and ACCC have recognised this fact,” Mr Miller writes.

“Without change, many media outlets won’t survive ­because, while their content has helped and is helping the platforms grow their businesses, the returns and compensation for the publishers are inadequate.”

Following the inquiry, the Morrison government adopted recommendations for a code of conduct to be drawn up between media companies and the platforms.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said the code of conduct would govern “how revenue is shared, how content is accessed and presented, as well as getting forewarning about changes to algorithms that go to how the content is ranked online”.

If the media companies and the platforms cannot reach an agreement, the Prime Minister pledged to introduce a mandatory code. Mr Miller said there was now a “serious opportunity to address many of the concerns raised by media companies” and strike a deal on revenue sharing.

“At the heart of publishers’ concerns is the need for media companies to be compensated ­appropriately by platforms such as Facebook for how they use the journalism created by publishers,” Mr Miller said.

“Digital disruption and the tech titans’ rise over the past two decades have dismantled the traditional journalism business model, cost thousands of jobs and closed many media outlets across the world.”

While Google has pledged to join talks on a code of conduct, Facebook is yet to confirm whether it will attend.

Facebook’s local director of policy, Mia Garlick, said the company had concerns with the underlying analysis for the recommended code. Ms Garlick said Facebook had proposed its own version, addressing policy concerns about the role algorithms play in the distribution of news.

“The goal here is to foster trust among Australians that news content is treated fairly and avoid distorting the industry by entrenching the market power of one news organisation over another,” she said.

“We will continue working with Australian publishers and the government on this framework, and will continue to ­develop products and invest in publisher partnerships and programs independent of the outcomes of this framework.”

News Corp global chief executive Robert Thomson last week said the company had begun to see “significant progress” in the “long battle” for equitable treatment from the dominant international tech platforms.

“Our deals with Apple and Facebook are beginning to yield financial dividends,” he said.

In particular, Mr Thomson said News had started recognising revenue from The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook content licensing, with an expectation it would meaningfully increase in the second half of the fiscal year.