Twiggy Forrest’s Minderoo helps local publishers strike Google deal


Twiggy Forrest’s Minderoo helps local publishers strike Google deal - May 30, 2022

 

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By Zoe Samios

Publications such as The Greek Herald, The Australian Jewish News, Australian Chinese Daily and Time Out will receive funding from search giant Google after negotiating a commercial deal with Andrew Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation.

Minderoo, with approval from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, was negotiating on behalf of 24 Australian independent publishers to obtain funding for use of their news content in search. The amount of money was not disclosed, but the not-for-profit said it will be used for a range of “content” and “digital transformation” initiatives.

Emma McDonald, senior policy advisor at Minderoo’s frontier technology initiative, said the deals would protect local journalism. “This deal has been negotiated in good faith over the past six months, culminating in a landmark agreement for independent journalism,” McDonald said.

“These publishers are working hard to produce important public interest journalism, including in rural and outer urban areas, and with multicultural and LGBTQI+ communities.”

Publications to receive the funding in addition to Time Out and The Greek Herald including the Naracoorte Community News, Star Observer, Primer Magazine, Australian Property Journal and City Hub.

The new deal brings Google’s total local commercial deals to more than 60, which it says accounts for more than 180 local media outlets. Google’s deals were struck after the introduction of landmark news media bargaining laws which, if implemented, would force Google and Facebook to pay eligible large and small news publishers to display articles in the search engine and “newsfeed”. The new laws don’t actually apply to either Google or Meta because they are not “designated”. Treasury is currently assessing the effectiveness of these laws and working out whether more needs to be done to ensure news outlets are remunerated for their journalism.

Google – which has struck deals with Nine Entertainment Co (owner of this masthead), News Corp Australia, publisher of The Australian, The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph as well as smaller outlets – has not faced the same scrutiny as Meta.

Former ACCC boss Rod Sims, who oversaw the creation of the bargaining laws, said last week Facebook (a subsidiary of Meta) should be designated for failing to strike deals with outlets such as The Conversation and multicultural broadcaster SBS.

Facebook has not struck a long-term commercial deal with the publishers represented by Minderoo or negotiated with the organisation, but five publications did receive grants from the Australian News Fund.

Sims said this deal was significant for local communities and reflected well on Google.

“It seems to me now that Google has done a deal with just about 100 per cent of the people who qualify,” he said. “That stands in stark contrast to Facebook, who stopped doing deals a long time ago and inexplicably didn’t do a deal with SBS or The Conversation. The contrast is extremely stark.”

"When it comes to the issue of whether Facebook should be designated, that contrast has just got a lot larger, which would be a worry for Facebook. One player has played by the rules and the other clearly has not."

The Minderoo Foundation is one of several organisations negotiating with the tech giants on behalf of outlets. Country Press Australia, representing 70 local newspapers, collectively bargained to receive a deal from Google.

New Zealand’s News Publishers’ Association, which represents the interests of 28 local news outlets, hired former Nine executives Chris Janz and David Eisman in a bid to receive an annual fee of at least NZ$40 million ($36.3 million) from the two tech giants.

Google’s gross revenue in Australia grew 38 per cent to $7.2 billion in 2021, a major increase and a fresh high. However, net revenue, which excludes certain costs of sales, was $1.7 billion. As a result, Google made a pre-tax profit of $404 million in 2021 and paid tax of $85 million.

(The Sydney Morning Herald)