Facebook to pay for news, won’t say how much

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This article was published 26/05/2021 (1956 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

American technology giant Facebook Inc. will be doling out some funds to 14 Canadian news publishers to link to articles not already posted on its online platform.

But neither Facebook nor those media companies would reveal the value or structure of the commercial deals announced Tuesday, citing non-disclosure agreements and other such legally binding contracts.

Dubbed “News Innovation Test,” Facebook has signed up a cross-section of news publishers to take part under the initiative — including FP Newspapers (which owns the Winnipeg Free Press), the National Observer, Le Devoir, the Tyee and the company that owns Le Soleil.

Agreements have also been made with The Sprawl, The Coast, The Narwhal, Village Media, the SaltWire Network, Discourse Media, Narcity, BlogTO and Daily Hive.

Facebook would not say whether other companies were approached for the project. The tech conglomerate told the Free Press that the program will be multi-year in scope and does not include payments for news links already posted on its platform by publishers.

Facebook will pay publishers for the right to link to their news stories. The company intends to carry these links on specific news and information pages, including its COVID-19 and climate science hubs, or in other unspecified uses.

“We recognize that Facebook has a role to play in supporting journalism, and this test will allow us to partner even more closely with publishers to help them build sustainable business models,” said Kevin Chan, head of public policy for Facebook’s Canadian operations, in a statement Tuesday.

Chan declined interview requests, but said, “Only through communication and collaboration can we make progress, and we look forward to continuing our work to promote a healthy news industry in Canada.”

Tuesday’s announcement was met with mixed reaction.

Industry watchers say the deal brings cash to media companies hurting for advertising, but believe the agreement is Facebook’s way of getting ahead of potential regulation in Canada — without tackling criticism over issues such as privacy concerns and the prevalence of misinformation on its platform.

At the same time, while news outlets that partnered with Facebook were happy about their arrangements, they criticized the anti-competitive practices of the web giant — which, along with Google LLC, controls at least 80 per cent of all advertising revenues in Canada.

“Obviously, we’re very excited to participate in this next step in connecting social-media users to the publishers of reliable and trusted news. FP Newspapers get quite a bit of digital traffic from Facebook on our news sites and we expect this to grow significantly through this project,” said Bob Cox, publisher of the Winnipeg Free Press.

“But it can’t be overstated enough how compensation like this has been a long time coming.”

Blayne Haggart, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation, said the initiative continues to embed Facebook in the Canadian media ecosystem and build publishers’ dependency on a “single, foreign and capricious platform.”

“There are some fundamental problems with Facebook and this glosses over all of that and makes it much, much less likely Canadian officials will actually consider the possibility of regulating them,” Haggart said, mentioning issues such as surveillance practices, data collection strategies and a history of hosting hateful content.

“What’s good for Facebook becomes what’s good for Le Devoir, or Village Media or BlogTO or whoever, and that’s what creates a challenge.”

Jeremy Klaszus, founder and editor of Alberta-based news outlet The Sprawl, said he was more than excited when Facebook approached him about the project. “The main reason being that it’s funding which will go directly to our reporting,” he said.

Klaszus said his news website has not been as lucky at receiving federal grants or support such as the Local Journalism Initiative (which the Free Press received), which is why the partnership with Facebook sounded all the more appealing.

“I don’t think federal government programs were crafted with smaller outlets like ours in mind,” he said. “That’s why I have to commend Facebook for keeping up with independent organizations like us as part of this funding.”

Linda Solomon Wood, founder and editor-in-chief of digital website National Observer, said unlike most legacy media outlets, she’s not completely on the same page about Facebook or Google’s monopoly over monetization and advertisement revenue.

“My company came out of literally nothing in 2009, we started from zero. And back then, I’m not sure we would’ve ever gotten the kind of exposure we did, had it not been for the Facebooks of the world,” she said.

“So, I’m not exactly thinking the same way as Torstar, Postmedia or FP Newspapers and whatnot. But I do have to say, I’m glad that the federal government is pushing Facebook and other such tech giants to pay companies. And this is, of course, one step as part of that end goal for a fair and even playing field.”

 

temur.durrani@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @temurdur

With files from The Canadian Press