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This week, Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-NY) introduced the Community News and Small Business Support Act (H.R.4756) to the U.S. House of Representatives with co-sponsor Suzan DelBene (D-WA). At its core, the bill lays out a five-year plan to provide payroll tax credits to local/community news outlets, expressly to hire and retain local news reporters across the country. Small businesses (with fewer than 50 employees) that advertise in local newspapers, digital news sites, on local radio or with local TV stations are also eligible for tax credits.

A great new bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives to strengthen local news — important not just for its substance but its champion. The Community News and Small Business Support Act (HR 4756) attempts to address a horrifying phenomenon: local news is disappearing from thousands of communities across the country. Two newspapers are closing each week, on average. There’s been a 57% drop in newsroom employees since 2004. Thousands of towns have no local news source or “ghost newspapers” barely covering the area.
In this episode of "E&P Reports," we look at the last few weeks in the life of Canadian news publishing through the eyes of Paul Deegan, president and CEO of the country’s largest industry trade organization, News Media Canada. Deegan unpacks the similarities and differences between Canada and the U.S. in national advocacy of Big Tech compensation legislation. He also discusses the battles that are now going on between Google /Facebook and the Canadian government as the digital platforms threaten to remove news content within the country, and Ottawa fights back by pulling ad dollars from the platforms.
Google announced via its blog on Thursday that it will be “removing links to Canadian news from Search, News, and Discover products and will no longer be able to operate Google News Showcase in Canada.” Kent Walker, President of Global Affairs, Google & Alphabet, made this announcement.
Danielle Coffey’s first few weeks leading the News/Media Alliance (NMA) were anything but "business as usual." In her first 25 days as CEO, she and her team are addressing some of the most critical issues and advocacy facing news media's future, including Gannett’s recent antitrust filing against Google; Canada's final passage of the their Journalism Compensation Bill and how this may impact the U.S. Congress passing similar legislation.
Latest Industry News

El Diario is among 150+ local newspapers advocating to save local news in New York.

Meta says it will take a number of days for news tab to be fully removed in Australia and the United States.
European Union regulators opened investigations into Apple, Google and Meta on Monday, the first cases under a sweeping new law designed to stop Big Tech companies from cornering digital markets.
A U.S. District Court judge in New York has ruled in favor of Nexstar, dismissing DirecTV’s assertions that the broadcast TV station owner engaged in actions in violation of U.S. antitrust laws.
America’s story isn’t getting told because more than half of U.S. counties lost all or nearly all of their reliable, local news sources over the last two decades.
Chances are “pretty good” that Google's precedent-setting decision in December to compensate Canadian news sites $100 million for the use of their content could translate into billions of dollars in payouts to local news sites in the U.S. So says Conan Gallaty, chairman and CEO of the Tampa Bay Times and Times Publishing Co, who predicts that U.S. news organizations could receive an $11 billion windfall a year if the bill passes.
Alphabet's Google was hit with a 2.1-billion-euro ($2.3 billion) lawsuit by 32 media groups including Axel Springer and Schibsted on Wednesday, alleging that they had suffered losses due to the company's practices in digital advertising.
Regional press decline can be stopped if it gets level playing field with Big Tech.
The ailing local news industry in Illinois would receive compensation from Big Tech companies and benefit from state tax incentives and a new journalism scholarship program under sweeping legislation introduced in the General Assembly this month.
Related Resources & Documents

Information on the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act (JCPA), which would allow news publishers to collectively negotiate with the tech platforms for fair compensation for use of their content.

The Community News & Small Business Support Act delivers on this promise with content-neutral tax credits, sunsetting in five years, for (1) hometown news organizations to employ community-based local journalists and (2) small businesses for marketing themselves with their local media organizations. National news outlets are not eligible for these tax credits. Find out more about the Community News & Small Business Act here.

Rebuild Local News helped develop and strongly supports the Community News and Small Business Support Act (H.R. 4765), introduced by Reps. Claudia Tenney, a Republican from New York, and Suzan DelBene, a Democrat from Washington. Here are numerous resource links and information about this important legislation.

From investigative reports to breaking news and weather coverage, broadcasters invest significant resources to keep Americans informed. Local radio and TV stations provide a lifeline for our communities, but the dominance of Big Tech platforms is threatening the future of local journalism. The NAB is providing news and resources to help you support this important advocacy.

The actual text of S. 1094, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act of 2023 filed by Sen. Klobuchar, Amy [D-MN] on March 30, 2023. On June 15th, 2023 her Committee on the Judiciary, ordered that S. 1094 was to be "reported without amendment favorably."

In January of 2023 the U.S. Department of Justice issued this online press release, with links to related resources about their antitrust suit against Google for monopolizing multiple digital advertising technology products in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act.

As of April 2023, nine additional states joined the U.S. justice department’s suit against google for monopolizing digital advertising technologies, in violation of Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act. The Antitrust Division and the state Attorneys General filed this amended complaint in the Eastern District of Virginia.

Canada's largest industry association: News Media Canada, posts ongoing content related to the recent passage of Senate Bill C-18, a law requiring Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms.

Gannett Inc, the largest newspaper publisher by total circulation in the country has sued Google over allegations that the company is violating antitrust law in controlling tools used to buy and sell ads. This is a copy of the actual complaint filed.

In 2021 antitrust litigation against Google was filed in the state of Texas by over 200 U.S. newspaper publishing companies. One of the major law firms involved in the case produced this extensive FAQ document about the lawsuit.

More Big Tech Compensation/ Antitrust Industry News

Guest Essay | News publishers are fighting Big Tech over peanuts. They could be owed billions.

A bitter battle is taking place between Big Tech and the free press over how to share in the income that news content generates for technology giants. The future of our news ecosystem, a linchpin of democracy, depends on the outcome.

Google’s $100 million to Canada’s news industry is a small price to pay to avoid regulation

The deal between Google and the federal government to resolve their dispute over paying for news online will come as a relief for the media industry in Canada.

Forget the link tax. Focus on one key metric to 'save local news'

The key question underlying all legislation designed to rebuild local news: How does this actually help pay more local journalists to report on and for their communities?

Free Press roundup: Powerful reports on local journalism crisis

Sometimes weeks go by with scant attention to America’s local journalism crisis and what’s lost as newspapers disappear. Then there are times when the situation receives extraordinary coverage, like it has in late November.

Google owes news outlets at least $10 billion yearly, study estimates

A revelatory new study estimates that Google and Facebook owe U.S. news outlets at least $12 billion a year for the value news content adds to their platforms.

In Canada’s battle with Big Tech, smaller publishers are caught in the crossfire

Independent outlets explain how traffic and engagement have plummeted overnight after Meta blocked news from its platforms.

Google counters Gannett, calls on court to dismiss antitrust case

There has been another filing in the case of Gannett vs. Google. It may yet be some time before the court rules on Google’s motion to dismiss the Gannett antitrust complaint filed in June, let alone to rule on the case in general, if it comes to that. 

What the US has argued in the Google antitrust trial

As the government wraps up its case in the landmark monopoly trial, it has built a picture of how Google became dominant in online search — and the harms that it says resulted.

The Google antitrust trial has been frustratingly locked down — the NYT just filed a motion to open it up

US v. Google is one of the most important antitrust trials in decades, but Judge Amit Mehta has kept most of it out of the public view. That needs to change, argues a new motion from The New York Times.

Canada news industry body backs Google's concerns about online news law

A Canadian news industry body on Thursday lent support to some of Google's concerns about a new law that aims to make large internet companies share advertising revenue with news publishers in the country.

If Google suddenly had real competition in search, how would news publishers’ world change?

The tech giant’s ongoing antitrust trial raises the possibility of the federal government, Apple, or both giving Google its first meaningful search competition in decades.

Microsoft CEO testifies that Google’s power in search is ubiquitous

Satya Nadella, the chief executive of Microsoft, is the government’s biggest-name witness in its landmark antitrust case against Google.

Canada's Online News Act explained

Bill C-18, the Online News Act, received Royal Assent on June 22. Here’s a Q&A to help explain what C-18 is, where things stand, and what the next steps are.

Feds target Google ‘power of defaults’ in second day of antitrust trial

An expert for the prosecution testified that as creatures of habit, humans would rather stick with a default setting then do even the simplest steps to change something.

As the DOJ’s Google antitrust trial begins with opening arguments, here’s what you need to know

Here’s a primer on the case with more background, what to expect and the potential impact.

Google’s search dominance is being challenged in the biggest antitrust trial in decades

Google has exploited its dominance of the internet search market to lock out competitors and smother innovation, the Department of Justice charged Tuesday at the opening of the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century.

Google’s search engine dominance is at the center of the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in decades

The U.S. government is taking aim at what has been an indomitable empire: Google’s ubiquitous search engine that has become the internet’s main gateway.

Google reaches tentative settlement with all 50 states over alleged app store monopoly

All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have reached an agreement in principle with Google to settle a lawsuit filed in 2021 over the tech giant’s alleged monopolistic control of app distribution for the software that runs most of the world’s cellphones.

In its first monopoly trial of modern internet era, U.S. sets sights on Google

The 10-week trial, set to begin Tuesday, amps up efforts to rein in Big Tech by targeting the core search business that turned Google into a $1.7 trillion behemoth.

Meta to wind down Facebook News tab and stop funding Community News Project

The change will affect publishers in UK, France and Germany.

Opinion: Heading to D.C. to help save local journalism

"Later this month, I’m heading up to Washington, D. C. to lobby Congress to help save local journalism in our country." — Wyatt Emmerich, publisher, Jackson Northside Sun

The value of news content to Google is way more than you think

A new study finds that the value of news is far higher than policymakers or publishers think it is, at least on Google Search, which accounts for the majority of Google’s $280 billion annual revenue.
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