In an era of misinformation, disinformation, generative artificial intelligence and deep fakes, real journalism, produced by real journalists who research, write and fact check real stories that real people can rely upon is more important than ever before.
Like most democracies, New Zealand is grappling with how to ensure journalism remains commercially viable and fiercely independent. Your Commonwealth cousin Canada may offer an example of a possible path forward.
Like all publishers around the world, Canadian publishers have been challenged for more than a decade. In 2012, Canadian newspaper advertising revenue stood at $C3.55 billion ($NZ4.35b). Today, it is less than $C1b.
Yet, four out of five Canadians still read newspapers, regardless of format, at least once a week — essentially unchanged since 2012. With some recent smart policies, there is now hope that the precipitous decline will be arrested, and they may offer possible paths forward for other countries like New Zealand.
First, Canada, followed the example of Australia by introducing the Online News Act. The Act was modelled on Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code, which was devised by Rod Sims, the brilliant former chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Simply put, it requires the largest platforms, Google and Meta, to compensate news businesses.
Social media platforms are akin to a single pipe where news — the clean water — is comingled with misinformation and disinformation — the sewage.
Meta opted not to pay and no longer carry news in Canada, which degrades its platform for advertisers and users alike. Google, to its credit, adopted a more socially-responsible approach and agreed to pay news businesses $C100m annually — indexed to inflation.
While New Zealand’s Fair Digital News Bargaining Bill, which is similar enough to the Australian and Canadian legislation, now appears stalled, Media and Communications Minister Paul Goldsmith would be well advised to stand firm and push forward with a regulatory framework that is fair, balanced and predictable — something that both Google and publishers can live with.
Second, Canada has a refundable labour tax credit for newsroom employment. The 35% credit, up to a maximum salary of $C85,000, has made a meaningful difference. Of all possible public subsidies for journalism, we believe this is the most effective in that it rewards newsroom investment.
Third, Ontario, our largest province, recently announced it will direct 25% of its government and crown corporation advertising spending to newspapers.
Ontario is not the first jurisdiction to adopt an "earmark" approach when it comes to government advertising. New York’s Local Law 83 mandates compliance towards spending 50% of advertising on ethnic and community media.
Fourth, the Competition Bureau of Canada, under the strong leadership of commissioner Matthew Boswell, investigated Google for anti-competitive conduct in the online advertising market. It found that "by implementing this anticompetitive conduct, Google has entrenched its dominance, prevented rivals from competing on merits, prevented innovation, insulated itself from competition, inflated the cost of advertising, and reduced publishers’ revenues".
"This conduct has had serious consequences for Canadian publishers, advertisers, rivals and consumers, resulting in a substantial prevention and lessening of competition."
The bureau is now seeking an order that requires Google to sell two of its advertising technology tools: its publisher ad server, DFP, and its ad exchange, AdX; directs Google to pay an administrative monetary penalty equal to three times the value of the benefit derived from Google’s anti-competitive practices, or if that amount cannot be reasonably determined, 3% of Google’s worldwide gross revenues; and prohibits Google from continuing to engage in anticompetitive conduct and practices.
Fifth, a group of Canadian news businesses is taking legal action against OpenAI. These news businesses argue, "OpenAI regularly breaches copyright and online terms of use by scraping large swaths of content from Canadian media to help develop its products, such as ChatGPT. OpenAI is capitalising and profiting from the use of this content, without getting permission or compensating content owners."
While there is no one silver bullet to solve the economic crisis in journalism, there are public policy policies and enforcement actions that can help stem the tide and provide a practical framework for a more sustainable future.
Publishers — and democracies for that matter — should stand together, rather than allowing themselves to be divided and conquered by dominant big tech behemoths.
— Paul Deegan is president and CEO of News Media Canada, which represents more than 500 news titles.
