SYDNEY: The philanthropic organization of Australian mining billionaire Andrew Forrest will collectively negotiate with Google and Facebook to secure licensing deals to supply news content to the country’s 18 smaller news publishers.
Forest’s Minderu Foundation said on Monday it would submit an application with the country’s competition regulator, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), to allow publishers to bargain without violating competition laws.
Forrest, Australia’s richest man, is the chairman and largest shareholder of iron ore miner Fortescue Metals Group. According to the Australian Financial Review, his net worth is estimated to be around $27.2 billion ($19.7 billion).
Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google have been required to negotiate with Australian outlets since March for content that drives traffic and advertising to their websites. If they don’t, the government can take the conversation into its own hands.
The two companies have since inked licensing deals with most of Australia’s major media companies, but they have not tied up with many smaller firms. The federal government is due to begin a review of the law’s effectiveness in March.
Frontier Technology, an initiative by Minderu, said it would assist publishers.
Emma Macdonald, policy director for Frontier Technology, said in a statement: “Small Australian publishers who produce public interest journalism for their communities should be given the same opportunity to negotiate the use of their content for the public benefit as larger publishers.” needed.”
Google and Facebook did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
McDonald’s said the 18 smaller publishers include online publications that attract a multicultural audience and focus on issues at a local or regional level.
The move comes after the ACCC late last month allowed a body representing 261 radio stations to negotiate a content deal.
News organizations that have been losing advertising revenue to online aggregators have complained for years about large technology companies using content in search results or other features without payment.
($1 = 1.3826 Australian Dollar)
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