10 Informed Spotlight


Tech giants call all the shots


published a government-commissioned review of the future of UK journalism, told NUJ Informed that UK news groups had “found it very difficult” to “make any money at all” from their physical products. “In six months they have had five years compression on returns.” Te upshot, she believes, is a big win for Silicon Valley. “As news becomes digital- only, the product relies for its distribution on the platforms, it can no longer rely on the corner shop or WH Smith’s. So, the power of the platforms over the news industry has grown considerably in the past six months.”


Tis stark conclusion was underscored


by a report in July from advertising body WARC showing that UK ad spend on national news brands in Q2 of 2020 was down 46 per cent year-on-year (including a 40.2 per cent fall online), and down by 52.4 per cent on regional news brands. Advertisers cut budgets and put news articles about the pandemic on their blocklists, costing publishers millions. A July report by the Competition and


Markets Authority found that Google and Facebook were taking 80 per cent of the UK’s digital advertising spend. It called for a new regulatory regime to ensure that big tech does not “engage in exploitative or exclusionary practices”. Back in April, when many publishers


It’s a ‘busy, complicated, disruptive time’, Ian Burrell looks at how the industry’s response to Covid-19 could change it for ever


Never before has the future of our news industry been so much in the hands of the Americans. Te impact of Covid-19 has put into


overdrive the switch from print to digital, enhancing the power over news of the US tech giants to an unprecedented degree. Mark Tompson, CEO of Te New York Times, has called it a “busy, complicated, disruptive time” with “a decade (of transformation) happening in literally a year or two”. Dame Frances Cairncross, who last year


reacted to the start of lockdown by implementing a wave of job redundancies and furlough schemes, the NUJ produced a News Recovery Plan. It is aimed at helping the sector to find a sustainable future with a purpose more rooted in public service. Michelle Stanistreet, general secretary,


says the fundamental issue here is a revised relationship between the platforms and the producers of news, and the NUJ plan proposes tripling the Digital Services Tax imposed on big tech, currently set at 2 per cent. “Our plan is saying ‘Enough is enough, it’s time for the tech giants to pay their way’,” she says. “Tey have had a free ride for long enough and now is the undeniable moment when that needs to be sorted


Mat Kenyon


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