Publishers call on government to help over Google and Facebook

Newspaper publishers have called on the UK government to curb the activities of search engines and social media websites.

Through their trade body, the News Media Association (NMA), they delivered a briefing to ministers about their concerns. They want the government to “ensure that online platforms operate within a framework that is fair, non-abusive and respectful of media plurality.” The briefing states that “the online news environment is characterised by aggregation of news stories by third party players who repackage, serve, link to and monetise that content.” It says that “Google dominates these activities in search and Facebook dominates in social” and believes “there are potential benefits for news publishers in working with them, not least in terms of reaching new audiences.” But publishers are worried that “the situation is far from win-win and significant value is being captured by companies who do not invest in original journalism at the expense of those who do.”