MELBOURNE, Australia — The Australian government said Monday that Google and Facebook would have to pay media outlets for news content in the country, part of an emerging global effort to rescue local publishers by moving to compel tech giants to share their advertising revenue.
The decision to mandate compensation for news articles displayed on Facebook pages or in Google search results — important drivers of traffic for those platforms — comes as the coronavirus pandemic accelerates years of advertising losses at media outlets large and small.
In the United States, regional publishers have cut staffs that were already diminished, and newspapers as large as The Los Angeles Times have announced furloughs and pay cuts. In Australia, as in America, dozens of smaller publishers have suspended printing or shuttered completely in recent weeks.
“We can’t deny the importance of creating a level playing field, ensuring a fair go for companies and the appropriate compensation for content,” Josh Frydenberg, the country’s treasurer, told the Australian Broadcasting Corp., the public broadcaster, on Monday.
He said that the government had decided to issue binding rules after talks with Google and Facebook on a voluntary system stalled.
Representatives of Google and Facebook in Australia said they had been working hard to develop the voluntary code, which they said would have supported news organizations, especially during a pandemic. Although readership of local news outlets has surged, many companies have withdrawn advertising as lockdowns slowed the economy.
Will Easton, managing director of Facebook Australia and New Zealand, said in a statement that the company had invested millions of dollars to support local Australian publishing “through content arrangements, partnerships and training.”
Gustaf Brusewitz, a spokesman for Google in Australia, said in a statement that the company had “sought to work constructively with industry” and would continue to do so under the new mandatory rules, which are set to be unveiled in July.
“Since February, we have engaged with more than 25 Australian publishers to get their input on a voluntary code,” he said.
News content has been lucrative for the big online platforms. Google made $4.7 billion in 2018 from content produced by the news industry, according to a study released last year, but little of that flowed to media outlets. Google called the figure inaccurate and said searches on its service sent many users to news outlets’ websites.