Facebook Freeloads Off Newspapers. This Plan Might Stop It

Imagine an app that does amazing things in your zip code when you download it. People with this app make more money. It makes your air better. Your town's elections are more pleasant due to it. It lowers your tax.

The app is called journalism. It is a prophylactic on government waste, a prophylactic on corruption, and a prophylactic on democratic communities.

The app is no longer relevant in American life.

In the past fifteen years, the news business has collapsed at a rate that is almost unparalleled in American society. Newspapers' advertising revenue fell from about $50 billion in 2005 to less than $9 billion in 2011. The number of newspaper reporters fell by more than half as the US population grew. Local and regional news publishers are at the center of this bloodbath. The US is on the verge of losing a third of its newspapers by the year 2025. Time is running out for many people.

An interesting policy experiment began recently that could help stop the bleeding. The Journalism Competition and Protection Act (JCPA) was introduced in the House and Senate in 2019. Sharing revenue in exchange for the right to host news content is one of the goals of the final goal. Tech reformers, antitrust advocates, media analysts, and even some Big Tech giants support the proposal. Hundreds of small news publishers support it because it would allow them to level the playing field.

There is a bipartisan slate of cosponsors in both chambers of Congress. Last week, the legislation surprised observers by clearing a key hurdle in the Senate, moving it closer to what congressional aides hope is a window for passage during the final weeks of the year.

Tech libertarians are one of the bipartisan critics of JCPA. The companies that JCPA most directly targets are the ones that are against paying for news. The proposal shows a version of the collective bargaining experiment that has been playing out in Australia. The hard-ball attempt to make Australians think twice before making Facebook pay up was made by the social network.