If they want to support local journalism, Google and Facebook must fund AAP
The tussle between the digital platforms and local media owners has been messy, without a clear resolution. But, as Ben Shepherd argues, perhaps the sensible next step involves Facebook and Google funding AAP. It will cost a fraction of what the big publishers are demanding, and indicate genuine support of local journalism.
In the bluster around the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s (ACCC) recommended and impending legislation that Facebook and Google pay selected local news organisations to deliver them traffic, it has been somewhat lost that probably the most important journalism institution in Australia is in the ICU [intensive care unit], in what appears to be a terminal state.
AAP is the service that the entire nation has relied on for the better part of the last century – covering the sort of news that the ACCC code is all about protecting. Court reporting, crime, local news, business, health, culture, public policy, finance, international news, government … from the capital cities to the smallest regional centres. Pretty much every local publication relies heavily on AAP, and has for decades. When news breaks, it’s generally taken from AAP wires.
