On October 17th, a Maryland circuit court judge struck down the state’s tax on digital advertising services. The ruling held that the tax violated the Internet Tax Freedom Act, the Constitution’s Commerce Clause, as well as the First Amendment. The Alliance applauds the court’s decision and maintains the stance that taxes on advertising are bad public policy, and harmful to the economy. The Alliance successfully fought for the exemption of newspapers and magazines under the legislation upon its original passage in 2020. The Alliance acknowledges the importance of advertising revenue for publishers as a means to providing quality news to their communities and will continue to oppose legislation that negatively impacts that ability.

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On September 13, Judge P. Kevin Castel released an opinion and order denying in part and granting in part Google’s motion to dismiss an antitrust lawsuit filed against it by 17 states and territories. The suit focuses on Google’s anticompetitive conduct in the digital advertising market. The decision denied the motion to dismiss with regards to the majority of the allegations, with Judge Castel only finding that the Attorneys General had failed to sufficiently plead the allegation that Google’s cooperation agreement with Meta was an unlawful restraint of trade. The states had, however, plausibly alleged that Google had used its market power to force publishers to license its publisher ad server, monopolized the market for publisher ad servers, ad exchanges, and ad-buying tools for small advertisers, and attempted to monopolize the market for ad buying tools for large advertisers, among other claims. With regards to some of the specific allegations, the court found plausible the allegations that Google’s use of dynamic allocation and enhanced dynamic allocation, dynamic revenue sharing, unified pricing policy, and redaction of auction data and limitations on publisher line items were all anticompetitive, while the State AGs had failed to sufficiently allege their challenges to exchange bidding or AMP. The court also found that the challenge against Google’s Privacy Sandbox is not ripe for adjudication. In evaluating motions to dismiss, courts accept non-conclusory allegations as true and determine whether they plausibly allege claims for relief. The case is one of multiple ongoing antitrust cases against Google and Facebook, many of which have been consolidated in the Southern District of New York. Read the full decision here.

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Guest: Gordon Borrell, Borrell Associates

“If we don’t understand that the people who really support the newspaper are the advertisers, and they need to be able to use the newspaper company to help them sell things, to help them grow their business, if we fumble that, we don’t have a newspaper.”

– Gordon Borrell, Borrell Associates

In an environment with ever-increasing advertising options, what do local advertisers want today? As everything becomes more digital, what changes are happening across media, and what are the opportunities for local news publishers to stand out? What do marketers uniquely value about local news media and how can publishers capitalize on that? 

News/Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern dives into these questions and more in this episode of News Take with Gordon Borrell, founder of advertising tracking firm, Borrell Associates. In this candid conversation, Borrell shares his insights on the evolving world of local advertising and what advertisers are looking for specifically from local news publishers, as well as how publishers can be more valuable by serving as advisors to advertisers on how to tell their story.

Listen or download the audio file to listen offline:

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Speaker bios

Gordon Borrell founded Borrell Associates in 2001 and has become the local media industry’s leading analyst. He is ranked in the top 2 percent among Gerson Lehrman Group’s 150,000 consultants worldwide and is quoted in Ad Age, MediaPost, Editor & Publisher, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Forbes and other publications. Prior to starting Borrell Associates, Gordon was vice president for new media for Landmark Communications, where he started his career 22 years earlier as a newspaper reporter. He is past chairman of the Local Media Association and of the Local Media Foundation. Gordon has five children and lives with his wife, a writer and book author, in Hampton Roads, Va.

Related viewing

Episode 39: Why Newspaper Advertisers Keep Buying

Watch the next episode: Update on News Deserts and Local News Trends

Watch the previous episode: Print, Logistics and Delivery in a Transitional Age

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Send your suggestions for future News Take guests to Alliance VP, Research & Insights Rebecca Frank at rebecca@newsmediaalliance.org.

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The post News Take Episode 109: The State of Advertising and Local News appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

On May 26, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Markets Authority announced they were launching an investigation into Google’s advertising technology practices to determine if the company was engaging in anticompetitive behavior. The investigation focuses on three parts of the ad tech chain: demand-side platforms, ad exchanges, and publisher ad servers. Google operates the largest service in each of the three parts of the ad tech stack. According to the CMA, the investigation will examine whether Google tried to limit the interoperability of its ad exchange with third-party publisher ad servers, imposed restrictive contractual requirements, or used its DSPs and publisher ad server to illegally favor its own ad exchange services. The investigation follows a previously announced investigation into Google and Meta’s “Jedi Blue” agreement, related to header bidding services, and the CMA’s market study into online platforms and digital advertising. Read more about the latest investigation here.

The post UK CMA Launches an Investigation into Google’s Ad Tech Services appeared first on News/Media Alliance.

The News Media Alliance applauds the introduction of the “Competition and Transparency Digital Advertising Act,” by Senators Mike Lee (R-Utah), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ted Cruz (R-TX), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).  While our priority is the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act, we support the goal of Senator Lee’s bill to break up the ad market, ensure more transparency, create fiduciary duties to publishers, and make more data available to publishers. We look forward to working with the lead sponsors to ensure competition and transparency in digital advertising.

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Fact Sheet originally published by MPA – The Association of Magazine Media

Download PDF of Fact Sheet

Taxes on the use of personal data unfairly target news media entities, are difficult and costly for businesses to administer, and disrupt services valued by consumers.

THE ISSUE

Some state legislatures are considering legislation that would impose a tax on the income derived from the use of personal data. News media entities, including magazine publishers, use advertising and other expected practices that utilize personal data to tailor and enhance the consumer experience, fund public interest investigations and reporting, keep subscriptions affordable, and sustain the cost of journalism and publishing in a changing media landscape.

Proponents of taxes on the use of personal data focus their arguments on the financial impact to large advertising platforms, but the costs of these taxes to businesses are compounded by unprecedented and confusing reporting requirements, unclear subject determinations and attribution ratios that have not been considered in other tax models.

A BETTER SOLUTION

Alternate revenue raisers that don’t threaten access to journalism. If lawmakers do move forward with a tax on the use of personal data, the legislation should:

Exempt news media. Maryland’s digital advertising tax includes an explicit exemption for “news media entities” and a prohibition on the pass-through of fees by advertising platforms.

Target undesirable data practices. The bill should exclude trusted first-party data practices in favor of focusing on non-transparent, unexpected, or potentially harmful data practices.

Clearly define applicability calculations. To minimize the economic harm on small and medium-sized businesses, lawmakers should: increase thresholds of consumers subject to the tax, exempt data collected for a business purpose – including journalism, exclude data provided directly by the consumer, and reject the use of IP address as a nexus determination.

THE TAKEAWAY

• The responsible use of personal data allows news media entities to provide valued services and content to readers, and it sustains public interest journalism.
• Taxes on the use of personal data threaten consumer access to critical news and media content.
• Lawmakers should reject personal data taxes or provide a news media entity exemption.

Magazine Media Delivers

Valued & trusted content 

• Content that is researched, curated and edited.
• Readers value our content, such as educational, culture, science, and information, in long-form articles and digital platforms.

Diverse & multigenerational connections

• Read by more than 90% of U.S. adults across all age groups and demographics, including 18-25.
• A 1.5 billion audience across all its platforms – digital, mobile, video and print.

Commitment & investment to our communities

• More than 240,000 U.S. jobs supported with an annual average wage of more than $98,000.
• Trusted, long-standing first party relationship based on respect and transparency for our readers.
• Partner in environmental stewardship, using biodegradable, recyclable and certified materials.

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Read testimony

The post MPA Testimony Opposing Connecticut Digital Advertising Tax Proposals appeared first on News/Media Alliance.