Canada’s law to help news outlets is harming them instead
Funding journalism with cash from big tech has become a fiasco
Three years ago journalists took unusual interest in an amendment to Australian competition law. The “news media bargaining code”, passed in 2021, obliged Google and Facebook to pay news outlets when search results or social-media feeds linked to their articles. Some wondered why the tech firms owed publishers money just for linking to their sites. But such doubts were quickly forgotten when the code wrung more than $100m out of the two tech giants in its first year. Other places rushed to copy it: Brazil, Britain, Canada, South Africa and California have explored similar measures.
Explore more
This article appeared in the Leaders section of the print edition under the headline “No news is bad news”
Leaders May 18th 2024
- Is America dictator-proof?
- Canada’s law to help news outlets is harming them instead
- America’s 100% tariffs on Chinese EVs: bad policy, worse leadership
- Xi Jinping is subtler than Vladimir Putin—yet equally disruptive
- Big tech’s capex splurge may be irrationally exuberant
- Volodymyr Zelensky’s presidential term expires on May 20th
From the May 18th 2024 edition
Discover stories from this section and more in the list of contents
Explore the editionMore from Leaders
How to respond to the riots on Britain’s streets
The violence demands robust policing, but it also requires cool heads
Is the big state back in Britain?
The risk is not too much interventionism, but too little audacity
How to make tourism work for locals and visitors alike
Holidays don’t have to be hell
Genomic medicines can cost $3m a dose. How to make them affordable
The treatments are marvels of innovation. Their pricing must be inventive, too
Chinese companies are winning the global south
Their expansion abroad holds important lessons for Western incumbents
The Middle East must step back from the brink
That still means starting with a ceasefire in Gaza