The LuLac Edition #4,102, July 3rd, 2019

WRITE ON WEDNESDAY

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This week’s Write on Wednesday focuses on the new Media and how to harness it in the age of Instant communication for both accuracy and clarity.

LOCAL NEWS NEEDS LEVERAGE

As Congress begins to consider how to deal with the massive commercial power and social influence of a few massive social media platforms, it also should consider the irony noted by several of its members.
The massive online companies have grown with scant federal anti-trust attention. But the small local news companies that generate much of the content to which the big players direct their users, are barred by federal rules from banding together to negotiate for compensation with the likes of Facebook and Google.
Those big companies make themselves available to users for free, but sell advertising for content that they do not generate. Rep. Mark DeSaulnier, a California Democrat, has introduced a bill that would waive antitrust restrictions on local media companies for four years, to allow them jointly to negotiate with the social media giants for fair compensation. That is not much. Independent news organizations often don’t work well together, even on joint news projects. And even collectively, the industry is smaller than any one of the social media giants.
But the idea at least would focus some attention on the absurdity of a situation in which the distributor of someone else’s product profits handsomely as the producer languishes. This is a modest proposal that at least would open an avenue for local news organizations to profit, or at least be paid something, for their work. Congress should pass it.