Digital news publishers must get a fair share of revenue from big techs: Apurva Chandra
At e4m-DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference, the MIB secy said new publishers getting fair share of revenue is important for the growth of news industry
Supporting the digital news publishers of the country, Apurva Chandra, Secretary, Union Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, on Friday said that digital news platforms, who are the original creators of the news content, must get a fair share of revenue from the big tech companies who are the news aggregators.
Sharing his thoughts through a note at the first e4m-DNPA Future of Digital Media Conference held in Delhi, Chandra said, “Digital news platforms have in place a system of checks and balances to ensure correct and factual news is put out which is a good example of our self-regulation policy. However, there have been issues regarding the financial health of not just the digital news industry but the parent print news industry after the Covid pandemic.”
“For the growth of the news industry, it is important that digital news publishers who are the creators of original content get a fair share of revenue from the big tech platforms which act as aggregators of content created by others,” Chandra underscored.
He further stated, “If the traditional news industry continues to be negatively impacted, the future of journalism, the fourth pillar of democracy, is also hit. Thus, this is a question of journalism and credible content as well.”
He also noted that countries like Australia, Canada, France and the European Union have taken the lead through their legislature and are strengthening their competition commissions to ensure a fair split of revenue among the creators of the news content and the aggregators.
Chandra noted, “I hope that the deliberation in this conference will lead to meaningful suggestions in the Indian context. I also like to do what is in the best interest of all and act on the suggestions accordingly.”
Lauding the decades-long public service of news publishers’ body and its gesture to honour several digital initiates of the government, Chandra praised it for taking the initiative to hold DNPA dialogues on the pressing issue. He said that the government looks forward to their recommendations.
It is noteworthy that digital news publishers of India have been demanding a fair share of advertising revenue from the big tech firms like Google for a long time.
Digital news publishers association (DNPA), an umbrella body of 17 leading news publishers who also have digital editions, has even taken Google to the Competition Commission of India last year in this regard prompting the antitrust body to launch a probe. Google has always defended itself by saying that it already shares a significant amount of its revenue with digital publishers.
