Willie Jackson: Here's why Google and Facebook should pay for NZ media content they publish

Friday, 9 December 2022

The then-broadcasting minister said the law change would address a 'bargaining imbalance'. (Video first published in December 2022).

Media organisations will need to adhere to professional standards to benefit from a new media funding law, Broadcasting Minister Willie Jackson says.

Jackson announced last week that the Government would follow Australia and Canada in drafting a law that would require large online companies such as Google and Meta to negotiate deals that saw them pay media organisations for news stories shared on their platforms.

The United States legislature last week also began considering moves in the same direction.

Setting out the Government’s thinking in more detail, Jackson said its legislation would be a bit of a hybrid of Australia’s News Media Bargaining Code – which is believed to have helped media there secure about A$200 million (NZ$212m) a year from Google and Meta – and Canada’s proposed Online News Act.

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Governments around the world are increasingly looking at Google in particular as a funding source to keep commercial media businesses afloat.

The Broadcasting Standards Authority would probably be funded to the tune of about an extra $1m or $2m a year to oversee the new regime, including any mediation and arbitration, he said.

Canada’s Online News Act is currently drafted so as to allow media organisations with as few as two full time reporters to benefit from the leg-up in negotiations with big tech.

Jackson said officials would work closely with the media industry on the eligibility criteria here.

Meta global policy director Kevin Chan says it could prevent the sharing of news stories on Facebook in Canada.

“It is going to be pretty broad. Companies will need to meet ‘professional standards’, for example through membership of the Media Council, and produce news content aimed at New Zealand audiences.”

Explaining the rationale for the intervention, Jackson said media content was a big reason why people went online and “these companies don't want to come to the table to do a fair deal”.

The big online platforms made money through advertising and they didn't pay for using content, he said.

Journalism numbers had halved over the past 10 years and a law was pragmatic given it was “really hard to negotiate with these heavyweight groups when you don't have anything to bring to the table”, he said.

Canadian MP Peter Julian quizzes Google Canada's Colin McKay during a hearing on Canada's media-funding bill.

National Party broadcasting spokesperson Melissa Lee said she was in favour of pragmatic solutions.

But she said National would want to see the legislation before deciding whether to support it.

Lee said there was a “commercial situation” that needed to be negotiated and questioned whether the Government was jumping the gun by putting in a legislative backstop for those negotiations.

Jackson countered that there was “no doubt” it was only the threat of regulation that had prompted Google and Meta to reach any agreements with media organisations to date.

“They were hoping we wouldn't bring in regulation.”

Based on developments in Australia and Canada, officials had made a “ballpark” estimate that the media funding law could result in additional revenues for the media of between $30m and $50m a year, he said.

Whereas he said he woud be surprised if the value of the deals struck in advance of the law came close to $5m.

Lee indicated she was concerned the new funding stream for the media might not be ploughed back into journalism.

“The Australian version sounds like it's a new funding source for lining the pockets of the shareholders,” she said.

Jackson said it was difficult to direct companies in legislation on how to spend money, but the law could be worded to place a moral obligation on media businesses.

“I think you could write in an expectation.”

Google New Zealand country director Caroline Rainsford said it had so far negotiated licensing deals with eight media organisations, including NZME, RNZ and Newsroom.

Meta is understood to have reached commercial deals with three; NZME, Newsroom and the Spinoff, none of which cover access to content.

Its regional policy director Mia Garlick said the proposed law fundamentally misunderstood the relationship between Facebook and news publishers.

“It also fails to recognise our current commercial deals in New Zealand or the Government’s own independent advice that news legislation won’t solve the longstanding digital transformation challenges facing the news industry,” she said.

Meta has threatened to prevent people sharing news content on Facebook in Canada, as it previously did in Australia, and last week indicated it could consider following suit in the United States.

But the company would not say if it might consider the same step in New Zealand, saying it was not going to comment on “hypothetical situations”.

Jackson said it would not be surprising if Meta did make such noises, but if it did remove news from Facebook “other companies would come along”.