Despite assurances from Meta, the owner of Facebook, that the deals it’s struck with news outlets, in the shadow of the News Media Bargaining Code, are safe, you’d forgive Australian news editors if they're feeling insecure about the future. Meta has told American news outlets that news is no longer its priority, and it won’t be paying for content to run on Facebooks News Tab.
In the US, Meta is indicating a shift to ‘creative initiatives’, having negotiated a number of three-year deals with news media companies worth more than US$100m, not dissimilar to the agreements negotiated here in Australia with news producers to run content on the Facebook News Tab. The money flowing to news media is significant: Meta and Google paid out an estimated $200m to small, medium and large Australian media organisations to avoid being designated to negotiate. Whilst the US is considering similar legislation to the Code, none has yet been enacted which perhaps indicates Facebook is keen to get out of news before becoming compelled to pay for it by law.
It’s worth noting that of the two platforms the Code is aimed at, Facebook was more strident than Google in its criticism. There was Facebook’s 2021 decision to remove all news from the platform, if briefly. More recently, Meta’s head of partner development, John Severinson upped the ante, telling a UK House of Commons Inquiry into local media ‘I think one of the learnings from the Australian arrangement is that it does not solve or attempt to solve the underlying issue, in that the business models of journalism online are broken and need to transition to a new reality.’ Instead, said Severinson, the government should be encouraging the development of new business models, which is not altogether bad advice. Commercial deals with publishers should encourage collaboration and innovation between tech platforms and publishers, said Severinson, adding that the deals in Australia do not.
Meta’s US decision comes as the Australian code is being reviewed by the Treasury Department, a year after its introduction and coincides with Meta’s first ever quarterly revenue decline. What it means for Australian news outlets when their current deals expire, is anyone’s guess. Meta may well say all current deals are safe. But the future is another country, especially in the tech world.
Josh Machin is Meta’s Australian Head of Public Policy. He says what's happening in the US shouldn’t be viewed as a portent of what might happen in Australia.
Click to listen here . This article was featured in our Newsletter of 19 August – you can read it in full here.
Monica Attard, CMT Co-Director
