Editorial: Tech companies have a responsibility to protect news which guards the public from misinformation

For hundreds of years, news operations were funded via a largely unchanged revenue model.

Consumers paid a small portion of the costs involved in journalism (or in the case of free-to-air broadcast media, nothing at all). The rest was paid by advertisers, who, in return for their investment, put their messages in front of those large audiences.

It’s a model that worked for everyone, but best of all for the consumers received — at low or no cost — the news they needed to be informed and active citizens.

The rise of the internet disrupted that once-reliable business model as advertising revenue flowed elsewhere — largely into the pockets of tech behemoths who siphoned off those earnings.

It’s not an industry secret that journalism jobs have been lost as profits plunged. Newsrooms today look markedly different to 20 years ago. Tough decisions have been made as news businesses searched for new ways to make journalism pay.

The biggest victims have been regional news outlets. Hundreds of local and community newspapers have ceased to print in the past decade. Regional television bureaus have shuttered all around the country. In these news deserts, stories go untold and community identity and democracy suffers.

The irony is that audiences are hungrier for news than ever before.

Where once the audience of news organisations was limited by circulation area or broadcast signal strength, the internet means it is now boundless. Audiences from all over the world recognise that Australian news organisations produce valuable news content every day.

The only people not getting the message are the tech giants who are profiting from Australian journalism while giving little back.

In 2021, the former Coalition government devised the News Media Bargaining Code. Effectively, it was a big stick to force tech companies to negotiate with news organisations and pay for the journalism they used.

For a while, it worked. Meta (owner of Facebook and Instagram) and Google both reached agreements with news providers. That money went directly into newsrooms, paying journalists’ salaries and allowing them to serve their communities by bringing them the facts and insight they need to make sense of the world.

Then Mark Zuckerberg chucked the toys out of the cot. Meta announced it wouldn’t renew its commercial deals with Australian publishers and would get around the code by removing Facebook’s news tab (which few users used to access news content in the first place).

So the Albanese Government has found a bigger stick.

The News Bargaining Incentive will encourage recalcitrant tech companies to reach deals with local news publishers or face tax penalties.

It’s a good move that recognises both the value of quality, local news as well as the social responsibility that tech companies have to guard against the misinformation and disinformation that is spread on their platforms.

Journalism is an expensive business. Good journalism especially so.

We, and our colleagues across the media, will continue to fulfil our mission to bring it to you.

Responsibility for the editorial comment is taken by WAN Editor-in-Chief Christopher Dore