Thursday 18th February: It's 'Deal' and 'No Deal' day in media vs big tech

February 18, 2021

Good Morning! Thursday's Media Roundup has been brought to you by Peter and the Angels of SO MUCH MEDIA NEWS 👼🏻

Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has agreed a three-year deal to feature its news content in Google’s News Showcase in return for cold, hard cash.

Off the back of this deal the Australian 'arbitration' idea looks like it was a hell of a bargaining chip and I feel like I've been proper gaslighted by Google, News Corp and the Australian government and, yet again, the little guys just got thrown under the bus.

I think I'll just give the final word (for today at least) to Jeff Jarvis who hates this deal, talks about it in terms of media blackmail and describes it as a 'win for the devil',

"Startups will suffer. News will suffer. Society will suffer. Well done, everyone."

Just as Rupert and Sundar were getting all cosy, Facebook pulled the plug on news in Australia, stopping anyone in the country from viewing or sharing news content on the platform pretty much immediately.

In a statement, the company's Australian MD said Australia’s proposed new Media Bargaining law fundamentally misunderstands the relationship between Facebook and publishers. He said the value exchange on the platform runs in favour of the publishers:

Publishers willingly choose to post news on Facebook, as it allows them to sell more subscriptions, grow their audiences and increase advertising revenue.

Emily Bell disagrees, saying that to see Facebook as a 'voluntary posting platform full of willing publishers' is a profound mischaracterization of the relationship.

Most publishers feel obliged to be on Facebook. They don’t like the asymmetry of the relationship, they dislike the requirement of going through an intermediary without access to even negligible data.

Get the popcorn 🍿🍿🍿

The Drum is reporting that the price of ad inventory will ”bounce back” in 2021. One study predicts 3% inflation in online prices, globally. Prices in the real world, however, are expected to fall by more than 5%. The UK advertising market, one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, is expected to recover despite current restrictions.

The News Media Association, representing the UK’s local and national news media, has announced Owen Meredith as its next Chief Executive. Owen, CEO of the PPA since May 2020, will join the NMA in June. We wish him every success in his new role and wait with bated breath to see who'll take over at the PPA. (When's Hannah back from mat leave?)

Well if you have to ask, you'll probably never understand. But even so, this is a great read. Imagine the history of America as told through a 73-year old neurologist's collection of 83,000 magazines. From engraver Paul Revere to Saturday Post writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, 'the American experiment is a print experiment at heart'.

This week's podcast:

This week Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Director at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, tells us where newspapers are going wrong in their subscription marketing, why there’s no easy solution to the need for internal change in newsrooms, and why Nordic countries outperform when it comes to the membership mentality.

Simon Owens has interviewed Esther about how we got started and how we grew the podcast into the amazing media juggernaut you see before you. She's talking growth, guests, business models... all the cool stuff you want to know about your favourite media focused podcast. Check it out and ask Esther a question.