A Meta executive has criticised the way media has handled money while a Google executive said no one understands how the media bargaining laws work.Credit:Getty
John Severinson,head of partner development at Meta,said the laws did not encourage collaboration between media and tech companies.
“The government should encourage the development of new business models. One of the learnings from Australia is that it doesn’t solve - or attempt to solve - the underlying issue in that the business model of journalism online is broken and needs to transition to a new reality,” Severinson said.
“We can see the agreements that we have closed with publishers in Australia following all the events over there,some of these publishers have used this money instead to pay down debt or give it to shareholders. It doesn’t incentivise collaboration,and we think smart regulation should do that.”
Loading
Severinson did not say which Australian media companies he was referring to. Several media businesses have rewarded shareholders and/or paid down debt since receiving payments from the US groups under the deal arrangements,but the specific uses for the money received from Google and Meta have not been publicly disclosed,and therefore,this masthead was unable to verify Severinson’s allegations.
Meanwhile,Tom Morrison-Bell,Google’s government affairs and public policy manager,said the Australian government recognised Google’s licensing deals for its News Showcase product were the best way forward as opposed the way deals could be struck under the code.
“Nobody has been designated under the code yet,that code has not come into force. Nobody knows how that law works,” Morrison-Bell said. “We worked constructively with the government to find a way forward.”