‘The ultimate goal is to generate revenue or subsidies for news outlets’
Dr Courtney C. Radsch from UCLA Institute of Technology, Law & Policy spoke at e4m-DNPA Dialogue about the types of approaches & issues that policymakers must consider to improve media sustainability
The second edition of the e4m-DNPA Dialogue was conducted on the topic ‘Decoding the Public-Platform Relationship.’ Dr Courtney C. Radsch, a PHD fellow at UCLA Institute of Technology, Law and Policy and the US representative of Article 19, spoke about the different types of approaches and issues that policymakers should be considering to improve media viability and sustainability.
Radsch has recently authored a report called ‘Big Tech pay for the news they use’. She also did a global review of all of the legislation and regulation being proposed in the media or even discussed around the world. “The ultimate goal is to generate revenue or subsidies for news outlets,” she said.
Radsch proposed some key considerations for policymakers:
- How to establish evidence of a link between traffic/revenue
- Self-regulatory structures versus government distribution
- Broader infrastructure that exists in the digital economy.
As per Radsch, there are five areas for policymakers to consider - Taxation, Competition Policy, Intellectual Property, Subsidies and Transparency.
“With respect to the AdTech Ecosystem, the Meta-Google duopoly is controlling the digital advertising market and infrastructure, and garnering a significant portion of advertising revenue. There is a labyrinth of management and exchanges that are involved in the AdTech ecosystem which means the publishers get a reduced portion of the money from advertisers. There is a lack of data and traceability to even know where a lot of money is going. One study found that the UK regulator estimated that more than 35% of advertising value went into media rather than publishers,” she said.
Radsch said that one of the approaches can be levelling the playing field i.e increasing news media bargaining power. There is another approach which is aimed at reducing information asymmetry or dominance in particular aspects of the marketplace. These can focus on algorithmic transparency and increasing transparency into the digital advertising market. She discussed the US approaches which are JCPA and the Local Journalism Sustainability Act. These acts tell the policymakers to look into the regional requirements of news agencies.
Courtney further spoke the transparency in addressing information asymmetries. It means improving accountability and reducing revenue seepage. Greater transparency leads to greater help from different communities.
