A mandatory competition code to make digital platforms such as Facebook and Google pay for the content they publish from Australian news media businesses is appropriate and timely for the future of public interest reporting, says Public Interest Journalism Initiative (PIJI) Chairman and former Chairman of the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) Professor Allan Fels AO.

According to the ACCC’s own estimates, for every $100 spent within Australia’s now-dominant digital advertising space, $47 goes to Google and $21 to Facebook, leaving the remainder to be spent across all other Australian websites.

“If executed correctly, this has the potential to level the playing field for news organisations and others who are producing content,” says Professor Fels.

“We feel strongly that content creators must be compensated for their work as a basic principle of the value of public interest reporting that is integral to any transparent, working democracy.

“The commercial instability observed across the industry in the past ten years has accelerated sharply with large scale closures and job losses in response to the COVID-19 emergency and this is now a matter of national urgency.

“It is encouraging to see the Federal Government recognising the need for long term reform in the media industry and hastening the timeframe for structural change.”

A draft paper on the code will be released for consultation before the end of July and PIJI looks forward to providing feedback to this process.

The government’s move to ensure revenue is split more evenly between digital platforms and news content creators follows similar action in Spain and France.

PIJI also continues to undertake research to inform other areas of policy reform to ensure a robust, diverse and sustainable news industry in Australia at all levels.