The News Media Alliance commends the release today of the Australian Parliament’s Economics Legislation Committee Report on the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) News Media Bargaining Code.
Microsoft President Brad Smith today outlined Microsoft’s support for the proposed bargaining code in Australia that would, among other things, require dominant tech platforms to negotiate with and compensate news publishers for use of their content.
Today, the News Media Alliance submitted a Declaration with the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas to strongly advocate to keep the ad tech antitrust lawsuit against Google – filed by the State of Texas and nine other states in December – in Texas instead of moving it to California, per Google’s request.
Today the News Media Alliance sent a letter to the U.S. Economic Council Director, Brian Deese, and the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR)-Designate, Hon. Katherine Tai, to express serious concerns about a recent attempt by the USTR – in the very last days of the Trump Administration – to pressure the Australian government to suspend the country’s planned online platform bargaining code for news.
The News Media Alliance applauds Senator Thom Tillis (R-NC) for the release of the discussion draft of his proposed Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) reform bill, which includes proposals that would help news publishers protect their online content and facilitate payment from the tech platforms.
The News Media Alliance applauds Congress for approving another round of stimulus legislation, and for including an affiliation waiver that will allow previously ineligible news publishers to apply for the Small Business Administration (SBA) PPP loans as individual, independent entities.
We applaud all 10 states that have stepped forward to take action to address Google’s flatly anticompetitive ad technology business.
Yesterday the U.S. House of Representatives passed a resolution, introduced by Rep. Val Demings (D-FL), calling for increased diversity in American media. The News Media Alliance applauds Rep. Demings and her fellow sponsors and co-sponsors, and joins them in their commitment to improving diversity in the media.
The News Media Alliance commends Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Maria Cantwell (D-WA) for the release of her report, “Local Journalism: The Threat to America’s Most Trusted News Source,” outlining how changes in the information marketplace and the dominance of online platforms pose an existential threat to local news publishers
In response to the lawsuit filed today by the Department of Justice (DOJ) accusing Google of antitrust violations related to its search and advertising services, Alliance President and CEO, David Chavern, stated, “It is good that the DOJ is starting the process, but ‘search distribution’ issues are a small subset of the many issues presented by Google dominance. News publishers are particularly harmed by Google’s control of ad tech – and that doesn’t appear to be covered at all by the DOJ’s action today.
