As Australian and French regulators plan to make tech companies pay publishers for news content, leaders from Ireland to Malaysia say they are paying attention
we simply are running out of innovation to cover your salary and benefits” https://twitter.com/... Dave / @davewiner : Disappointed that Ben Smith, the new media columnist at the NYT, is carrying the message of the news industry, as opposed to the full picture, including journalism's failure to embrace the “Sources Go Direct” model, fully accepted by tech. https://www.nytimes.com/... Ben Bland / @benjaminbland : Good @benyt piece on Australia's global leadership in pushing Facebook & Google to pay for news. Media execs are “licking their chops” at possible $$$. But shift toward national internet regulation has worrying implications for media freedom, esp in Asia https://www.nytimes.com/... Murtaza M. Hussain / @mazmhussain : “The digital platforms need media generally, but not any particular media company, so there is an acute bargaining imbalance in favor of the platforms. This creates a significant market failure which harms journalism and so, society."https://www.nytimes.com/ ... @seyitaylor : The only thing I'd like to say to this is that no newspaper is entitled to my attention. And the revenue associated with holding it. https://twitter.com/... Nina Bernstein / @ninabernstein1 : “We found the argument by Google that they would never pay any form of payment for any content inconsistent with the law.” @benyt https://www.nytimes.com/... Marietje Schaake / @marietjeschaake : Platforms have begun to realize that while news isn't as popular as baby pictures or celebrities, it's the industry politicians care about most. The politicians who matter, at least, who are less and less to be found here in the United States 🔥@benyt ↘️ https://www.nytimes.com/... Megan K. Stack / @megankstack : Love to see it: “The report left little doubt about the cause of local journalism's demise — the near monopolistic power of Google and Facebook. And it set off a chain of events that could shift the balance of power between big tech and the news.” https://www.nytimes.com/... @jason_kint : This is on point from lede to kicker. And it doesn't even touch on new data regs rolling out 7/1 and antitrust investigations in nearly every state. Pro tip: take a stroll through the risks table of either company. The dominoes are indeed falling and it's critical they do. https://twitter.com/... Edward Wong / @ewong : Google and Facebook have a near monopoly on advertising. That has bled news organizations for years. Now officials in Australia and France intend to address that imbalance — and the rest of the world is watching. By @benyt. https://www.nytimes.com/... Sar Haribhakti / @sarthakgh : Can always count on @jeffjarvis to drop uncomfortable truths when it is very popular in the media world to have no self awareness and always find boogeyman for troubles virtually every industry goes through if they don't innovate Maybe try keeping me logged in as a subscriber?! https://twitter.com/... Ben Smith / @benyt : Counterpoint to my column, with a note about disclosure from me in replies https://twitter.com/... Kirstine Stewart / @kirstinestewart : The problem? “that Google and Facebook can carry content created by news organizations without directly paying the organizations for creating it”. Same goes for @twitter etc. Let's see how this dance ends. https://www.nytimes.com/... IFJ / @ifjglobal : Regulators have a role to play in forcing Big Tech pay media for indexing news content. #Australia and #France are making progress. We cannot let those platforms feature and profit off the content journalists create without paying for it.@EFJEUROPE https://www.nytimes.com/... Vijay Shekhar Sharma / @vijayshekhar : It could very well be called, white collar piracy. When you enable your user to do it and get away with it. And reap commercial benefits of the act. https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Australia and France are moving to require Facebook and Google to pay publishers for news content, and regulators from Ireland to Malaysia are signaling they would follow. The backdrop is a decade of eroding distribution economics: as early as 2017, Facebook was testing changes that pushed non-promoted posts from media Pages into a secondary feed, cutting engagement for some outlets.
What came after this report sharpened both sides' positions. Google signed a multi-year global partnership paying News Corp significant sums, showing the licensing route is viable when negotiated directly — while Facebook's brief Australian news blackout demonstrated it will walk away rather than cede control. Critics argued forced payments risk buying uncritical tech coverage instead of fixing ad-market fundamentals.
First-order effects
- Publishers in follower jurisdictions like Ireland and Malaysia gain a template: if Australia and France extract payments, their own regulators can cite those precedents when pressuring Facebook and Google locally.
- Google and Facebook must choose market by market between paying licensing fees and withholding news — a trade-off Facebook already tested by banning news in Australia.
Second-order effects
- Direct deals like News Corp's with Google concentrate licensing revenue among large publishers with negotiating capacity, squeezing smaller outlets that lack the scale to cut their own agreements.
- Platforms respond by devaluing news strategically: Meta's later reallocation of resources away from Facebook's News tab and Bulletin shows news becoming a dispensable product line rather than a core surface worth defending.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, news regulation diffuses nationally one jurisdiction at a time while platforms consolidate bargaining power through selective direct deals — leaving the value split between publishers dependent on each country's regulatory muscle.
- The deeper structural question raised by critics is whether mandated payments address the root cause — collapsed advertising markets — or merely subsidize incumbents while platforms quietly exit news distribution altogether.
The trend: National regulators are converting platform dependence on news into a licensing lever, even as the largest platforms demonstrate they can absorb losing news entirely.