Alliance President and CEO Danielle Coffey stated, “The New York Times’s complaint demonstrates the value of quality journalism to AI developers. These companies repurpose and monetize news content, competing with the very industry they are benefiting from. Quality journalism and GenAI can complement each other if approached collaboratively, but using journalism without permission or payment is unlawful, and certainly not fair use.”

In a White Paper released in October, an analysis commissioned by the Alliance found that there is heavy reliance on journalistic and creative content by AI training models along with verbatim text from articles found in AI outputs.  The findings support a legal claim, parallel to the same findings asserted in The New York Times’s complaint.

Coffey continued, “The value of quality journalism has been debated for years.  We are at a point where the question is not whether quality journalism should be compensated, rather a question of how much.  In the case of AI, copyright protected content used without authorization should be a priority in releasing these technologies to the public so that responsible innovation can live alongside responsible reporting.”

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The News/Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,200 news, magazine, and digital media organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print and digital publishers of original journalism. Headquartered just outside Washington, D.C., the association focuses on ensuring the future of journalism through communication, research, advocacy, and innovation. Information about the News/Media Alliance can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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On April 1, Corint Media announced it was suing Microsoft for payments under the rights created by Article 15 of the European Union’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market. The Directive, adopted in 2019, requires EU member states to provide in their national legislation for a so-called publishers’ right, which allows news publishers to better protect their content online against uncompensated misuse by large online platforms by requesting adequate compensation for the use of their content. Corint Media is a German collective management organization (CMO) representing over 500 beneficiaries. According to news reports, Corint had requested €20 million from Microsoft for the use of its beneficiaries’ content, while Microsoft offered €700,000. Corint Media previously rejected an offer by Google to pay €3.2 million under the German law implementing the Directive, requesting €420 million instead. Google is currently being investigated by the German competition watchdog for suspected market-abusive behavior. Read more about the case against Microsoft here.

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Remarks to include discussion of dominant tech platforms’ impact on the sustainability of quality journalism and the need for legislation that ensures fair compensation

Arlington, VA – The News Media Alliance will testify today at 10:00 a.m. ET at a House Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law Subcommittee hearing, “Reviving Competition, Part 2: Saving the Free and Diverse Press,” on the need for the dominant tech platforms, such as Facebook and Google, to compensate news publishers fairly for use of their content. The Alliance submitted written testimony yesterday, ahead of the hearing. A statement for the record by Maribel Perez Wadsworth, President of News for Gannett Media and Publisher of USA TODAY, can also be found here.

Alliance President & CEO, David Chavern, will testify at the hearing, as well as Brad Smith, President of Microsoft; Emily Barr, CEO of Graham Media; Jonathan Schleuss, President of the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America; Glenn Greenwald, Journalist and Constitutional Lawyer; and Clay Travis, Founder of Outkick Media.

On Wednesday, House Antitrust Chairman David Cicilline (D-RI) and Ranking Member Ken Buck (R-CO) reintroduced the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act in the House, which would provide a limited antitrust safe harbor for news publishers to collectively negotiate with the platforms for fair compensation for the use of their content. An identical bill was also introduced Wednesday in the Senate by Antitrust Subcommittee Chair Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Senator John N. Kennedy (R-LA).

Members of Congress are also considering more comprehensive solutions to strengthen the bill. These options could include a mechanism to ensure equitable terms are offered to all news publishers, small and large, and an oversight mechanism to ensure the platforms participate in good faith.

News Media Alliance President & CEO David Chavern stated, “We are encouraged by the recent developments in Australia and Europe and that new compensation systems for publishers are gaining support here in the U.S. Quality journalism is key to sustaining civic society, and we must ensure that the digital ecosystem returns value back to the people who create that journalism. The cost of inaction is clearer than ever, as we’ve seen that in the absence of news, misinformation and hate speech run rampant and unchecked. We need trusted sources of journalism – particularly local and community publishers – now more than ever, but without at least an antitrust safe harbor, news publishers will have no capacity to collectively fight for their futures.”

Current laws prohibit news publishers from taking collective action by negotiating with the large online platforms for fair compensation for all news publishers – large and small – across the board. This legislation would provide news publishers with a limited opportunity to negotiate together and to withhold content from the online platforms during the negotiations, while presenting a sensible, market-based solution to a major threat to the future of high-quality journalism.

The Alliance applauds Reps. Cicilline and Buck and Sens. Klobuchar and Kennedy for their leadership in support of local news and looks forward to working with them on ways to further strengthen the bill to ensure equitable terms and fair compensation for the valuable content being produced by all news publishers, including small and local.

The world is moving toward a new and more equitable compensation system for publishers and that basic idea now has wide support across the political spectrum and is the cornerstone of all comprehensive solutions. News publishers’ ability to build a sustainable digital future for journalism will depend, in large part, on their ability to get fair compensation from Facebook and Google. Quality journalism supports democracy and it is more important than ever to ask our elected representatives to support legislation that brings value back to those who create journalism.

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Media contact:
Lindsey Loving
Director, Communications
lindsey@newsmediaalliance.org
571.366.1009

The News Media Alliance is a nonprofit organization representing more than 2,000 news organizations and their multiplatform businesses in the United States and globally. Alliance members include print, digital and mobile publishers of original news content. Headquartered near Washington, D.C., in Arlington, Va., the association focuses on ensuring the future of news media through communication, research, advocacy and innovation. Information about the News Media Alliance (formerly NAA) can be found at www.newsmediaalliance.org.

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Smith also stated that Microsoft would abide by the legislation for its search engine, Bing, if and when it is told it must do so.

News Media Alliance President and CEO, David Chavern, stated, “We were very pleased to see Brad Smith’s remarks about the bargaining code in Australia, which we see as a turning point in global efforts to create a sustainable model for professional news. I have long said that the tech platforms can and should be part of the solution, rather than an obstacle, to ensuring the preservation of high-quality journalism. And in turn, quality news can offer a solution to the out-of-control spread of mis- and disinformation we are currently witnessing across the big tech platforms. Through working together and appropriately directing revenue to the original creators of content, we can ensure that the internet is a place where truth reigns and fake news and hate are driven out.”

Chavern penned an op-ed in The Australian, published today, describing Australia’s decision as “one that could change the course of civic societies around the globe” and calling the bargaining code “brave, thoughtful and right.”

The Alliance looks forward to the Australia bargaining code being signed into law, and to other countries – including the U.S. – adopting similar legislation, such as the U.S. bill introduced in the House and Senate, the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act, which would grant news publishers the ability to negotiate collectively with the tech platforms for fair compensation for use of their content.

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