More transparency is necessary on dealings between online giants and news media. Canada also needs a renewed business model for local news.
, which compels big tech to pay news organizations for using their content. This model was first enacted by Australia in 2021. It creates a system of binding arbitration to prod platforms and news organizations to come to agreements on fair compensation for content produced by journalists.
Critiques of the Online News Act have been quick to jump to the conclusion that it favours legacy media. It doesn’t. The bill spells out the broad criteria for qualification is the QCJO status. The threshold to qualify for QCJO is low: an organization must employ two journalists, have arm’s length editorial decision-making, and produce original news. Legacy media qualifies but so do upstarts such as The Narwhal, The Sprawl and The Logic.
That said, we’re not going to know if a fair dispersal of dollars occurs given the limits on transparency . We also might not even know who gets the dollars, let alone how much. The new bill does suggest a list of eligible news organizations will be published and those who decline will not be eligible for the bargaining process, but it’s not clear if we’ll know when a deal is struck and for how much.
We will also have to see whether platforms continue their current practice, when supporting news organizations, of insisting on non-disclosure agreements as part of the process. To protect news consumers, we need to increase transparency. This no doubt will be an issue of interest at the committee stage of the legislative process.Article content
The new bill is not perfect. It does apply some learning from Australia and it adds another instrument to the toolbox for news organizations that have been dealt blow after blow. Innovation is needed because we can’t patch up a leaky boat forever. There is a delicate balance to be struck. We don’t want news producers so insulated from the market as to escape the pressures to innovate. But there’s also a public good at stake here.
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