Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee voted to move the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act forward in a 14 to 7 vote. The bipartisan bill, which was introduced by Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Kennedy (R-LA) and 16 co-sponsors, will now go to the full Senate for consideration. The goal of the JCPA is to give news organizations fair compensation from big tech companies like Meta and Google who benefit from the news outlets’ work.

“We all know the vital role that local newspapers and broadcasters play in informing the public, ensuring accountability, and promoting civic engagement. Yet, we’ve seen a massive decline in local news over the past few decades driven, in part, by large online gatekeepers like Google and Facebook siphoning away more and more of the advertising revenue that news organizations have traditionally relied upon to fund their work,” said U.S. Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in a June 15, 2023 news release.

“The JCPA…will help reverse this trend by allowing news publishers…to band together and enter into structured negotiations with the biggest online platforms over access to news content. I am proud to support this legislation,” Sen. Durbin said.

Some of the provisions of the JCPA include the following:

• Give eligible digital news publishers and broadcasters the right to form joint entities designed to work collectively to negotiate with technology platforms regarding pricing, terms and conditions under which the platforms can access and use their digital content. Eligible news publishers are those with less than 1,500 exclusive full-time employees and news broadcasters that that “engage in standard newsgathering practices.”
• Require covered platforms to negotiate in good faith with eligible news organizations. Covered platforms include those that have 50 million US-based users or subscribers and that are owned or controlled by a person with either net annual sales or market capitalization over $550 billion, or at least 1 billion worldwide monthly active users.
• Prohibit discrimination by a joint negotiation entity or covered platform against an eligible digital news organization based on its size or its political views.
• Prohibit retaliation by covered platforms against eligible digital news organizations for participating in joint negotiations or arbitration.

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News/Media Alliance supports advancement of JCPA

Following the announcement, News/Media Alliance issued a news release applauding the Senate Judiciary Committee’s efforts in advancing the JCPA.

“For too long, Big Tech has profited from using news content on their platforms, without paying the creators of that content. The JCPA will give small and local publishers a seat at the table and channel critical revenue to them to help sustain the high-quality journalism Americans need and depend on,” said News/Media Alliance President & CEO Danielle Coffey in a statement. “We applaud Chairwoman Klobuchar and Senator Kennedy for their enduring commitment to preserving journalism and their ongoing support of the JCPA. We applaud the Senate Judiciary Committee’s passage of this monumental legislation for journalism publishers across our country.”

While the JCPA has broad support in Congress and across the media industry, not everyone is a fan, particularly big tech companies like Meta who have threatened to pull news content from Facebook if the bill passes. To help answer some of the concerns, News/Media Alliance put together a Myths & Facts page to debunk some of the myths that are circulating about the Journalism Competition & Preservation Act.

Similar bills in California and Canada

In addition to the JCPA, California is considering its a journalism preservation act to save local news organizaitons. Meta is fighting back against that bill as well, saying they’d pull their news out of California if the bill passes.

Canada has its own version of the journalism preservation act – the Online News Act. Meta is currently testing how they would block news content on their platforms if the bill passes.

“The Online News Act is based on a fundamentally flawed premise. Meta does not benefit unfairly from people sharing links to news content on our platform. The reverse is true. Publishers choose to share their content because it benefits them to do so, whereas it isn’t particularly valuable to us at all. As such, we’ve taken the difficult decision that if this flawed legislation is passed, we will have to end the availability of news content on Facebook and Instagram in Canada,” said Meta’s Nick Clegg, president of global affairs, in a May hearing before Canada’s Heritage Committee.

Insider Take

Some version of the bill has been circulating for the last several years, with the JCPA being the latest iteration. With bipartisan support, the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act seems to have the best chance of passing in the House and the Senate, but that doesn’t mean it will succeed. There are many factors at play here, and finding a solution everyone can live with will be difficult. While other “covered platforms” will fall under the JCPA, they are less vocal, so right now, Meta is taking one for the team. They are not going down without a fight.

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