Principles for Bargaining between News Organisations and Big Tech

The third full day at IAMCR 2023 starts with a panel on the political economy of Big Tech platform funding. We start with Natalie Fenton, whose focus is on the demise of local journalism in the UK, and the work of the Media Reform Coalition there. Local journalism in the UK has declined over time, with cutbacks and newsroom consolidation as part of the move to digital, while of course retaining news organisations’ profit margins.

But there has also been a public response to this that has agitated for better support for local journalism, and the UK government and parliamentary committees have also recognised the problem; there is a growing sense that without a public subsidy local journalism will not survive. The challenge is now to make sure that this subsidy is not captured only by the major news organisations, when there is actually an emerging independent, small, local journalism start-up scene as well, committed to a particular type of local journalism.

This group of organisations is increasingly organised, and there is also a growing understanding that the Big Tech giants are the most likely source of new funding for this sector; there is some interest in Australia’s flawed approach to extracting funds from these platform companies, but there are also some other subsidies available, yet most of the existing funding has flowed to the largest news organisations. The UK government has also proposed a Digital Markets Competition and Consumer bill, which goes beyond the focus on news that was present in Australian legislation; if this is passed, there is a question of how the funding this extracts from Big Tech is distributed, and how it can be directed predominantly to pro-democratic organisations.

There is also a need for international collaboration between scholars and policy experts who are accompanying these and similar efforts at legislating digital markets and rebalancing funding flows: this needs to have a strong focus on the public good and the interest of citizens; must support plurality in digital markets and include smaller independent publishers; must ensure diversity in these markets and seek to extend the range of voices present in these markets; must enable collective bargaining so that smaller organisations are not forced to fend for themselves; has to be transparent (unlike the Australian situation), with deals made public and audited; has to be accountable to the public; and has to be overseen and enforced by an independent body without influence from government, Big Tech, or other key stakeholders.