Proposal to help publishers negotiate with Big Tech advances in Senate

A prominent Republican and Democrat came together Thursday to strike a deal over a proposal aimed at helping local and smaller news outlets level the playing field with tech giants such as Google and Facebook, according to a report by The Hill.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) ushered in a vote that advanced the Journalism Competition and Protection Act. The proposal moved out of a Senate committee by a 15-7 vote. All seven who opposed were Republicans.

The Journalism Competition and Protection Act, or JCPA, was introduced in March 2021 and is designed to allow news publishers to collectively negotiate with digital platforms that profit off publishers’ content.

Trib Total Media CEO Jennifer Bertetto testified before the Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights in February.

“This is an important step as we continue to ensure that local journalism survives and thrives,” Bertetto said Friday. “I am thrilled that this bill is getting the support it deserves. For the first time there is real hope publishers like Trib Total Media could be paid fair compensation for our original work that tech giants use to enrich their bottom line.”

Nearly 90% of Americans gets news on a smartphone, computer or tablet, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted last year. That dwarfs the number of people consuming news via television, radio or print media.

Facebook and Google account for the majority of online referrals to news sources, and the companies control a majority of the online advertising market.

Bertetto testified that the Trib gets about $144,000 from Google each year, which is a small amount compared to the $7 million that the company needs to pay its journalists in a year.

While Google reported about $61 billion in advertising revenue over a three-month period earlier this year, U.S. newspapers have seen revenue drop from about $37 billion in 2008 to around $9 billion in 2020, Klobuchar said during February’s hearing.

“We need to step in to level the playing field,” she said at the time.

The JCPA would empower eligible digital journalism providers — news publishers with fewer than 1,500 exclusive full-time employees and non-network news broadcasters that engage in standard newsgathering practices — to collectively negotiate with a covered platform over the terms and conditions of that platform’s access to digital news content.

Two weeks ago, Cruz introduced an amendment that would keep antitrust restrictions in place for organizations if they are negotiating over content moderation.

“What is preeminent to me is whether this bill is going to increase or decrease censorship,” Cruz said, according to Politico.

The version that passed Thursday specified that negotiations should be solely about “pricing, terms and conditions,” according to The Hill, and not content distribution or ranking.

“The prohibition against censorship not only protects the content of the journalists whose outlets may be negotiating with Big Tech, but it critically protects the speech of journalists and smaller media outlets who don’t have a seat at the table,” Cruz said in a prepared statement. “This is a major win for free speech, and it strikes a blow against the virtual monopoly that Big Tech has to limit the information that Americans see online. The bottom line is Big Tech hated this bill from the start, and now they hate it even more.”

Said Klobuchar, according to The Hill: “Platforms like Facebook and Google are counting on Republicans and Democrats being unable to put aside their differences to agree on meaningful legislation in the tech sector. This is our moment to prove them wrong.”