Pablo Rodriguez, Minister of Canadian Heritage, has advice for other countries considering policies to save local journalism. “I would say just do it,” he said. “I think everyone understands the importance of local journalism, and I think people care.” more

A proposal to make online platforms like Meta and Google pay news outlets for linking to their content will be delayed until 2024, the bill’s author announced Friday.  more

"On the face of it, the issue is money. In what has been seen in Canada as a profit-driven industry, the purpose of the (Online News Act), in concept at least, is to somehow return ad revenue tech companies swiped from Canadian news businesses. But to many who study the purpose and function of news in Canada, that focus is too narrow." — Don Pittis, CBC News more

A bill before state lawmakers that supporters say could dramatically alter the economics of California journalism had its beginnings more than 8,000 miles away. more

OTTAWA, July 5 (Reuters) - The Canadian government will stop buying ads on Facebook and Instagram amid a dispute over a new law on paying online news publishers that the Meta-owned (META.O) platforms have opposed, Heritage Minister Pablo Rodriguez said on Wednesday. more

The following is a joint statement from the Danish Media Association, Digital Content Next, the Estonian Association of Newsmedia Enterprises, the European Newspaper Publishers’ Association, … more

Telecom and media firm Quebecor said on Wednesday it will pull its ads from Facebook and Instagram following Meta Platforms' decision to stop access to news on both social media platforms in Canada … more

In June, Canada passed a law that will require major tech platforms such as Google and Facebook to pay a small fee when they host news on their platforms, to compensate the journalistic outlets that … more

Meta made a similar announcement last week, saying that it will remove news from its social media platforms Facebook and Instagram before the law comes into force. It is also ending existing deals with local publishers. more

Facebook parent Meta is following through on threats to block news from its platforms in Canada, for now at least. The company threatened to block news if Canada passed a law requiring tech giants to fairly compensate news publishers for online content. It did this temporarily in Australia in 2021 when a similar law was being finalized. more

An Australian research team that wanted to understand how Google and Meta were able to have such different responses to the Australian code examined policy documents and interviewed news media executives about their experience of negotiating with the platforms. The author of this article says: "What we found wasn’t all good news for journalism." more

A new report from the University of North Carolina’s Center on Technology Policy — Rescuing Local News Through Tax Credits: A review of policy in the U.S. and Canada — looks at where the Canadians succeeded, where the policies fell short of their intention to boost quality journalism, and where the U.S. might improve upon the proposals. more

Both Meta and Google  had warned they would  withdraw access  to news articles on their platforms in Canada if the legislation is passed into law without amendments. more

"The tech industry’s shiny new thing, artificial intelligence, is suddenly an urgent priority in Congress. ... But before going too deep into tomorrow’s tech, perhaps they ought to handle unfinished business with today’s. Namely, addressing severe harm to the news industry that’s resulted from their laissez faire approach to Big Tech over the last two decades." — Brier Dudley, The Seattle Times more

Canada’s Senate on Thursday passed a bill that will require Google and Meta to pay media outlets for news content that they share or otherwise repurpose on their platforms. more

Gannett Co., Inc., today filed a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against Google for monopolization of advertising technology markets and deceptive commercial practices. The lawsuit seeks to restore competition in the digital advertising marketplace and end Google’s monopoly, which will encourage investment in newsrooms and news content throughout the country. more

European Union regulators filed new antitrust charges against Google, which could lead to fines and orders for the company to change its business practices. more

Google on Thursday said it will finally debut its News Showcase product in the U.S. this summer, years after initially launching it in other countries. more

Researchers or journalists who responsibly collect and analyze publicly available data from social media sites would receive legal protections if they adhere to privacy, security and public interest work requirements. more

Meta says that it is now prepared to block news in Canada in response to a bill in that country that is based on Australia’s bargaining code. more