Eighteen of Australia’s small news publishers who produce public-interest journalism, are banding together, to negotiate collectively to secure commercial agreements with Google and Facebook for supply of news content on their platforms.
Called the Public Interest Publishers Alliance, these important Australian publishers, from around Australia, attract multicultural audiences, focus on issues at a local and regional level, and cover news that affects LGBTQI communities.
List of participating publications include:
· Naracoorte News
· The Greek Herald
· The Australian Jewish News
· Australian Rural & Regional News
· Star Observer
· City Hub Sydney
· Australian Chinese Daily
· Out in Perth
· Australian Property Journal
· Yanchep News Online
· Q News
· Time Out
· Pro Bono Australia
· Hills to Hawkesbury Community News
· COSMOS Magazine
· Primer Magazine
· AcquisData
· Renew Economy
Only small to medium publishers who produce public-interest journalism and turn over less than $10 million per year are included in the collective bargaining action. The collective is made possible under new rules introduced by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) in June allowing small, medium businesses to form a collective bargaining group without going through a costly and onerous application process.
Over the past eight months Google and Facebook have reached voluntary commercial agreements with multinational and national media organisations but have not engaged meaningfully with many smaller Australian news publishers, who also play a critical role in the creation and distribution of news content for the benefit of the Australian public.
The collective is working with Frontier Technology, an initiative of Minderoo Foundation, who will lodge the Collective Bargaining Class Exemption with the ACCC, which will allow eligible small news publishers to collectively bargain without breaching competition laws.
