If you look at the top five stories for Google search in New Zealand in 2023, four were Cyclone Gabrielle, the national election, Census 2023 and Auckland Airport. The information on those topics will have largely been written by journalists employed by New Zealand media companies; Google has no journalists in New Zealand.
News is a core component of Google search, but there is nothing to compel Google, or any of the other big tech companies, to negotiate a fair payment for the use of that news.
Is New Zealand worth it to Google? Its business here reported revenue of $78 million in 2022, but it also paid its parent company in the US a service fee of $870m, which is excluded from that revenue figure. A small country of 5 million people delivers nearly $1 billion of value to Google.
The same applies to the world of social media, dominated by Facebook, where users are encouraged to share news that draws or keeps more people in the platform, enabling Meta to generate advertising revenue.
Fundamentally, these digital platforms have free and unfettered access to New Zealand’s quality journalism, and use that to benefit their own businesses.
This isn’t a case of sour grapes. There is a distortion of the digital market worldwide, where some of the largest companies in history are able to dominate search and social media and, as a consequence, use news content to their benefit without paying for it.
In New Zealand, just 10 cents in every dollar spent on digital advertising goes to this country’s news companies. It’s no wonder that the number of journalists available to keep us informed, and challenge those in power, has declined dramatically in the past two decades.
This type of legislation is not new. There are now live examples in Australia and Canada, and other countries are considering the same.
In Australia, it is estimated that Google and Meta are now paying more than A$200m a year to its media companies, equivalent to about 20 percent of the cost of journalists’ salaries.
This is just a fair go for those who invest in their local communities, employing local people and covering the towns they live in.
On Thursday, each speaker will only have 10 minutes with the select committee. The committee will then forward a report to the Minister for Communications, Melissa Lee, and it will be up to her whether the bill needs amendments before going back to Parliament, or it goes no further.
For the sake of journalism in New Zealand, we certainly hope it’s the former.
■ The News Publishers’ Association represents large and small publishers across New Zealand, including The Gisborne Herald.
