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Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

asiatimes.com

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Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#41

Post by adrianN »

thundergolfer wrote: post #6

> The initiative has been strongly pushed by Australia’s two biggest media companies, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp and Nine Entertainment. These two companies are scum, and the fact that this proposal was taken seriously by the Australian government is embarrassing. Murdoch's News Corp already interfered with the country's internet infrastructure plans in order to protect its profits from cable television; this is just…

It's not so surprising that Australia's government listens to what Murdoch wants. After all Murdoch played an important role in their election.

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#42

Post by agakshat »

forgingahead wrote: post #14

So the other shoe has finally dropped: If it hasn't been apparent to everyone yet, the vast majority of "anti-tech"/anti-FB articles has been the dying gasps of attempted relevance from an antiquated media ecosystem. Old media is upset and angry that they no longer have a monopoly on controlling the narrative. They're scared that their business model is no longer viable. They're worried about their loss of credibilit…

I agree that the old media is worried about losing control of the narrative. However, i think that sweeping all negative coverage of Facebook under this rug is not helpful either.

There is a real loss to the community if newspapers don’t have the money to pay journalists to do real, investigative journalism - and it’s tough to argue that Facebook has not accelerated the decline of newspapers.

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#43

Post by xyzzyz »

yung0 wrote: post #21
MattGaiser wrote: post #7

What is it that causes news companies to lose money because of Google and Facebook? I am still visiting their site to read the article. If you only read the headline, you aren't a serious consumer of news anyway.

On mobile, for example, some news sites are hosted via Google's AMP service. I think that's at least one of the avenues for this supposed 'misuse'.

In that case they can just, you know, stop using AMP.

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#44

Post by pmontra »

andrewshadura wrote: post #35
pmontra wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is similar to what Spain did in 2014 when passed a law to make Google pay for the news they published on Google News. Google closed the Spanish version of the site. There hasn't been a Google News for Spain since then. https://www.rt.com/news/201031-spain-google-tax-law/

Please, don't use RT to support your point, since it may create an impression they're a trustworthy source of information.

I reply because this illustrates a part of the problem, actually many of the problems with news and Google and FB.

I have no idea about who RT is. For me it's only a random site linked from a search engine. It could be a news giant or a one man company. I remember the original fact so I trust the article. If this was new to me I would have to cross check with other sources but I don't always have the time to do it.

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#45

Post by foepys »

rrdharan wrote: post #11

Won’t this just play out the same way it did in Germany and Spain?

For the uninitiated:

Germany passed legislation that requires websites to pay a fee even to show headlines. Google said they won't pay and will pull the plug on Google News in Germany if they need to pay a single cent. The media organizations then granted an exclusion to Google News, giving Google News a competitive advantage.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancillary_copyright_for_press_...

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#46

Post by spinach »

forgingahead wrote: post #14

So the other shoe has finally dropped: If it hasn't been apparent to everyone yet, the vast majority of "anti-tech"/anti-FB articles has been the dying gasps of attempted relevance from an antiquated media ecosystem. Old media is upset and angry that they no longer have a monopoly on controlling the narrative. They're scared that their business model is no longer viable. They're worried about their loss of credibilit…

What kind of new media can replace the value old media had? Good journalism and investigative journalism is needed for a healthy democracy and is also costly. It's almost a pillar that holds it up. What is this new media you speak of? Clickbait articles that consist of a bit of text with embedded tweets?

It was a Wall Street Journal (owned by Murdoch) investigative journalist that led to Theranos being exposed.

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#47

Post by fxtentacle »

asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #9

Australia’s competition regulator, the ACCC, has estimated that Google and Facebook together earn some A$6 billion (US$4 billion) a year from advertising in the country. Leading news publishers have demanded the two companies pay at least 10% of that money each year to local news organizations. News organizations want ten percent of FB and Goog's advertising revenue? I guess I do too but this concept is facially absu…

I don't find it too absurd if you consider that many older people go to Facebook to read the news. And by now, the young crowd is moving on, which means those older people are Facebooks main user base.

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#48

Post by goatinaboat »

forgingahead wrote: post #14

So the other shoe has finally dropped: If it hasn't been apparent to everyone yet, the vast majority of "anti-tech"/anti-FB articles has been the dying gasps of attempted relevance from an antiquated media ecosystem. Old media is upset and angry that they no longer have a monopoly on controlling the narrative. They're scared that their business model is no longer viable. They're worried about their loss of credibilit…

Old media is upset and angry that they no longer have a monopoly on controlling the narrative

But they do: Facebook doesn’t produce any original content. It has its own narrative that it want to push of course but it has to get the raw materials from somewhere.

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#49

Post by missedthecue »

fxtentacle wrote: post #47
asdfasgasdgasdg wrote: post #9

Australia’s competition regulator, the ACCC, has estimated that Google and Facebook together earn some A$6 billion (US$4 billion) a year from advertising in the country. Leading news publishers have demanded the two companies pay at least 10% of that money each year to local news organizations. News organizations want ten percent of FB and Goog's advertising revenue? I guess I do too but this concept is facially absu…

I don't find it too absurd if you consider that many older people go to Facebook to read the news. And by now, the young crowd is moving on, which means those older people are Facebooks main user base.

So a company getting outcompeted wants the government to force its competiton to give it free money.

And you don't think that's absurd?

Re: Facebook rejects calls to share advertising revenue with Australian media

#50

Post by creato »

im3w1l wrote: post #37
MattGaiser wrote: post #7

What is it that causes news companies to lose money because of Google and Facebook? I am still visiting their site to read the article. If you only read the headline, you aren't a serious consumer of news anyway.

It's a consequence of three things: 1. Facts can't be copyrighted. 2. Continuous publishing. 3. Google and Facebook cause a large preference for free content. If you do great journalistic work and try to charge for it, moments later (no longer a full day) someone else will change a few words around and offer it for free. And Google and Facebook will lead everyone to their story. Those who create value are unable to c…

> 3. Google and Facebook cause a large preference for free content.

And hackernews. I think the most frequent kind of post on this site is a complaint about a paywall. The second most frequent kind of post is a workaround or alternative source sidestepping a paywall.

edit: That's not to say the scale is anywhere near the same. HN is a not going to show up on any news site's radar. But the problem is the same.

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