Minderoo, news groups seek bargaining powers

Minderoo has stepped in to assist 18 small news publishers reach collective bargaining agreements with Google and Facebook, following a spate of agreements struck by major news publications with the global tech giants earlier this year.

In February, Facebook briefly banned the publication of links to news websites for Australian users after the federal government proposed laws forcing online media platforms to pay for news content published on their sites.

Major news publishers, such as Nine Entertainment, News Corp, and Seven West Media, subsequently struck deals with Facebook and Google to license content across their platforms.

An array of smaller publications, including Western Australia-based outlets Out in Perth and Yanchep News Online, have now teamed up with Minderoo Foundation to seek collective bargaining powers to reach similar commercial agreements.

The foundation has said it would lodge a collective bargaining class exemption with the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission on behalf of these news organisations, with Frontier Technology, a Minderoo initiative, assisting with engagement thereafter.

Emma McDonald, the initiative’s director of policy, said safeguarding public interest journalism was essential to a high-functioning, liberal democracy.

“Journalism holds the powerful to account; it plays a role in supporting social and policy changes, it keeps a journal of record by reporting on courts and governments, and it serves a public interest function by providing a form for debate and ideas,” she said.

“Small Australian publishers who produced public interest journalism for their communities should be given the same opportunity as large publishers to negotiate for use of their content for the public benefit.”