{"id":58799,"date":"2023-07-13T11:23:26","date_gmt":"2023-07-13T18:23:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=58799"},"modified":"2023-07-13T11:23:26","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T18:23:26","slug":"ca-bill-that-would-force-big-tech-to-pay-for-journalism-shelved-for-now","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=58799","title":{"rendered":"CA Bill That Would Force Big Tech to Pay for Journalism Shelved, For Now"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Ethnic Media Services<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Image via Raw Pixel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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By Julian Do and Sandy Close<\/strong><\/p>\n

State lawmakers announced last week that a bill aimed at supporting California\u2019s struggling media sector by forcing tech companies to pay for the news content they carry is being shelved until next year.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0California Journalism Preservation Act<\/a>\u00a0(AB 886) would require online platforms to pay news organizations a \u201cjournalism usage fee\u201d comprised of a yet-to-be-determined percentage of their ad revenue, with the funds to be shared among media outlets large and small.<\/p>\n

Australia passed just such a law in 2021, allowing the Australian government to force digital platforms into arbitration with news organizations to negotiate fees for using their content. The law has been credited with generating nearly $200 million in revenue for news agencies and the creation of hundreds of jobs in the sector.<\/p>\n

Passage of AB 886 in California \u2014 the world\u2019s 5th largest economy and home to many high-tech corporations \u2014 would be a game changer and could help propel similar efforts across the country and internationally. The bill\u2019s failure, conversely, would be a huge setback for the media industry which in two decades has seen no viable commercial solution to the challenges it confronts.<\/p>\n

EMS, as a non-profit organization representing a coalition of ethnic media outlets, supports AB 886, sponsored by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, D-Oakland, for its intent to rectify the inherent imbalance in the current commercial relationship between news organizations and online platforms.<\/p>\n

Its passage would provide a sustainable pathway for the media industry, with key features designed to ensure ethnic media outlets benefit from the new system.<\/p>\n

No free rides<\/h2>\n

Since the emergence of online search engines like Google and Yahoo and social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, media outlets have followed big tech\u2019s key selling point: by offering their content for free online and by leveraging tech\u2019s digital ad systems, these outlets could expand audiences exponentially.<\/p>\n

That increased traffic, the argument went, would generate revenues many times more than what they were earning from the traditional media business model based on print newspaper ads and subscriptions.<\/p>\n

More than two decades later, this approach has not only\u00a0laid waste to thousands of media outlets<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0some of which had been in existence for\u00a0more than a century<\/a>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0but has also threatened the foundations of the wider media ecosystem itself.<\/p>\n

In contrast, the oligopolist operators of search engines and online platforms, where most media outlets\u2019 content is distributed, now control more than 90% of total digital ad revenue.<\/p>\n

Against this background, AB 886 has these three main features:<\/p>\n