News Corp is taking steps to protect publishers from the threat of digital platforms like Google and Facebook, creating its own news aggregation service.
To be named ‘Knewz.com’, the service is expected to come in the form of a website and smartphone app, sourcing stories from News Corp’s hundreds of global publications.
News Corp says it is hoping to give smaller publishers more of a voice through the service, something it believes Google and Facebook neglects.
Knewz will provide users with a “wide spectrum of news and views, from local, niche and national sources, without bent or bias”, a News Corp spokesperson said in an article originally published in The Wall Street Journal.
“We are exploring this with the goal of recognising and rewarding the provenance of journalism, and to drive traffic and data to publishers – including subscription sites – so their original work is respected,” the spokesperson said.
News Corp has been critical of Google and Facebook’s lack of transparency when it comes to promoting certain stories over others.
The impact of digital platforms on news publishers was also a major focus area of the recently completed Digital Platforms Inquiry.
“The reliance by news media businesses on traffic from Google and, to a lesser extent, on traffic from Facebook also means the digital platforms and their business models have a significant effect on news media businesses,” the report said.
The ACCC recommended designated digital platforms provide codes of conduct governing relationships between digital platforms and media businesses to the ACMA.
